IBM Support

Increasing memory usage causes DB2 backups to fail

Troubleshooting


Problem

The memory consumption during the backup of DB2 databases increases until the backup is stopped by the operating system.

Cause

This memory leak appears to be due to a defect in the GSKit packaged with DB2 which is called by the Tivoli Storage Manager client API which in turn is called by the DB2 backup process.
A related case is described in Content Collector for SAP Applications APAR HE12209 ("Increasing memory consumption by the TSM agent").
The GSKit which is packaged with the Tivoli Storage Manager client software does not play a role in this case.

Diagnosing The Problem

The 'ps -elf' output shows that the db2vend process uses an ever increasing amount of memory during database backup processes.
After restarting DB2 the memory utilization returns to the expected low level.

A Tivoli Storage Manager API service trace will show that the API loads the GSKit provided by DB2,
Below is an example of the trace output where DB2 is installed in '/opt/IBM/db2/V9.7':

12/28/15   15:51:58.034 [27983956] [1] : icclib.cpp          ( 560): globalInit(): ICC has been successfully loaded
12/28/15   15:51:58.034 [27983956] [1] : icclib.cpp          ( 564): ICC path : '/opt/IBM/db2/V9.7/lib64/C'
12/28/15   15:51:58.034 [27983956] [1] : icclib.cpp          ( 565): ICC version : 8.2.2.

Resolving The Problem

The fix for the memory leak is included in GSKit versions 8.0.50.35 and higher.
For the DB2 version 9.7 the fix pack 11 includes the first fixed GSKit version (8.0.50.41).
Contact DB2 support to identify the fix pack needed for your DB2 version.

Related Information

[{"Product":{"code":"SSGSG7","label":"Tivoli Storage Manager"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Component":"Client","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"}],"Version":"6.3;6.4;7.1","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
17 June 2018

UID

swg21979004