SAP on SLES shows Error: NIECONN_REFUSED in the logs

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12

Situation

In the logs there are entries like

018-06-28T03:45:42.719624+02:00 unsinkable_02 lrmd[40931]: notice: rsc_SAPHana_HAL_HDB00_monitor_61000:211324:stderr [ Error: NIECONN_REFUSED (Connection refused), NiRawConnect failed in plugin_fopen() ]

and the SAP Instance cannot be operated by the Cluster for example.

This can affect normal SAP Instances like ASCS/ERS as well as HANA.

Resolution

Most likely reason for this is that the sapstart service is not running, it can be checked via

   unsinkable_02:~ # /bin/systemctl --no-pager --all list-units | grep sapinit

     sapinit.service        loaded    active   running   LSB: Start the sapstartsrv

or

     sapinit.service        loaded    active   exited LSB: Start the sapstartsrv

and in case this returns something like

   sapinit.service     loaded    inactive dead      LSB: Start the sapstartsrv

   sapinit.service          loaded    failed   failed    LSB: Start the sapstartsrv

this can be fixed with

   unsinkable_02:~ # /bin/systemctl restart sapinit.service

On SLE 15 SAP instances can be systemd-enabled and in that case will not be started by sapinit, but by their own systemd service files. In this case restart the services for the instances instead of sapinit.

Cause

The process sapstartsrv which is used for operating the SAP Instances was either killed, stopped or otherwise not available

Additional Information

This is also mentioned in the Best Practice Guide "Enqueue Replication - SAP NetWeaver High Availability on SUSE Linux Enterprise (12)"

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