SAP Note
821267 - FAQ: XI 3.0 / PI 7.0 / PI 7.1 / PI 7.3 File Adapter
Component: BC-XI-CON-FIL (Basis Components > NetWeaver Process Integration (PI) > Connectivity > File Adapter),
Version: 89, Released On: 14.09.2020
Symptom
You are experiencing problems with the SAP XI 3.0 / PI 7.0 /PI 7.1 File Adapter and/or need
further detailed information about its operation and configuration.
Other Terms
Exchange Infrastructure, XI30, XI70, Adapter Framework, Frequently Asked Questions, HOWTO
Reason and Prerequisites
This note serves as FAQ document for the SAP XI 3.0 / PI 7.0 /PI 7.1 File Adapter and contains
answers to the most commonly asked questions about the adapter's operation and configuration. It
will be updated with new information from time to time as the need arises.
Solution
Table of Contents
1. Information to Include in OSS Message
2. Read-Only File Processing
3. File Locking / Incomplete Processing
4. FTP Sender File Processing in Cluster Environment
5. File Receiver: Overwrite Protection
6. Acknowledgements
7. File Construction Mode "Add Time Stamp" and "Add Counter" in Cluster Environment
8. FTP Adapter Timeout Configuration
9. Module Development: Accessing the Source File Name from a Module
10. <RecordSetName>.fieldContentFormatting=nothing and SXMB_MONI
11. File Sender: Processing Multiple Source Directories
12. File Sender: Quality of Service EOIO (Exactly Once In Order)
13. File Receiver: FTP Problems for Large Files with Microsoft IIS
14. Memory Requirements
15. Operating System Command
16. File Encoding
17. Empty File Encoding Parameter
18. File Sender: Scheduling
19. Secure FTP (FTPS)
20. File Sender: Special Characters in File Names
21. File Sender: Performance Issues After Configuring A Large Amount Of Channels
22. File Sender: File Modification Check For Transport Protocol "FTP"
23. FTP: Active Data Connection Support
24. FTPS: Server certificate rejected by ChainVerifier
25. FTP Proxy Support
26. FTP Connection Problems
27. FTP Directory Listing Semantics
28. sftp Support
29. File Content Conversion fieldFixedType Parameter Not Working
30. Missing Features After Upgrade
31. Empty File Processing
32. File Construction Mode "Add Counter": Counter Reset
33. FTPS: "AUTH TLS" Command Unrecognized
34. FTP: Directory Specification / CWD Command
35. File Sender Error Handling
36. FTP: Adapter Polls More Frequently Than Configured
37. FTP: sun.io.MalformedInputException
38. Windows (SMB) Shares
39. FTP Sender: 550 File Not Found
40. Known Problems and Incompatibilities for FTP servers
41. Test FTP Server Connection
42. Channel prioritization using OS command
43. J2EE engine hangs with File/FTP sender channels
44. File Receiver with append mode on multiple cluster nodes
45. Receiver File Adapter stuck while using temporary file.
46. How to manually delete hanging Enqueue-Locks
47. Effect of setting Maximum Concurrency and poolWaitingTime
48. File System(NFS) File Sender Processing in Cluster Environment
49. FCC parameter 'endSeparator' does not work for non printable characters
50. File Splitting/Chunk mode handling for large file transfer
51. Text and binary file types
52. File Modification Check feature
53. Cannot use Username / Password for FTP Proxy Configuration
54. File permission and access issues
55. Maximum Polling Interval
Questions and Answers
1. Information to Include in OSS Message
Q: I need to open an OSS message regarding the File Adapter with SAP. Which information should
I put into the message?
A: Refer to note 854536.
2. Read-Only File Processing
Q: I have configured a File Adapter sender channel to process a source file to which it only
has read-only access (e.g., because it has been written by a different OS user). The file is
not processed, but the channel is nevertheless listed as working in the Adapter Monitoring.
Have I encountered a bug?
A: This behavior is by design: The File Adapter sender channel does not process read-only
files by default. As this is intended, you will never see an error message indicating this
condition in the Adapter Monitoring or log. To enable processing of read-only files, set the
"Files Locked (Read-Only)" flag for the respective sender channel.
3. File Locking / Incomplete Processing
Q: I sometimes observe that files are processed only partially, i.e., only a fragment from the
file's start is converted into an XI message. Nevertheless, the file is usually archived
completely. Does the File Sender Adapter honor if another process has locked a file for
exclusive use?
A: Unfortunately, the J2EE 1.3 technology the File Adapter is built upon does not support file
locking. This limitation affects the File Adapter's operation. Depending on whether the JRE
implementation for the operating system under which the adapter runs uses mandatory file
locking or advisory file locking, opening a file that is currently being written to by another
process will fail or not.
If opening the file fails, no problem exists and the adapter will try to open the file each
poll interval until it succeeds.
However, if opening the file is not prevented by the operating system, the adapter starts to
process the file although it is still being modified. Since XI 3.0 SP11 / PI 7.0 there is a
parameter named "Msecs to Wait Before Modification Check" in the advanced settings of the File
Sender channel configuration to work around this issue. This setting causes the File Adapter
to wait a certain time after reading, but before sending a file to the Adapter Engine. If the
file has been modified (which is basically determined by comparing the size of the read data
with the current file size of the input file) after the configured interval has elapsed, the
adapter aborts the processing of the file and tries to process the file again after the retry
interval has elapsed.
If this option is not available for the settings you would like to use, the following
algorithm (to be implemented in your application) may be used to ensure that the File Adapter
only processes completely written files:
Create the file using an extension, which does not get processed by the File Adapter,
e.g., ".tmp"
Write the file content
Rename the file to its final name, so the File Adapter will notice its existence and pick
it up
4. FTP Sender File Processing in Cluster Environment
Q: When running the File Adapter in an environment with more than a single J2EE server
instance, the same file is fetched by multiple cluster nodes at once. How do I solve this
problem?
A: Initially, make sure that you do NOT use the processing mode "Test" for your File Sender
channel. This mode is intended to be used only for testing purposes and is not guaranteed to
work in a cluster environment.
Additionally, activate the "Advanced Mode" for the respective sender channel. No further
configuration changes are necessary. Alternatively, upgrade to XI 3.0 SP11 Patch Level 2 or XI
3.0 SP12. Later XI 3.0 versions / PI 7.0 are not affected.
5. File Receiver: Overwrite Protection
Q: When running a File Adapter Receiver <= XI 3.0 SP9 with a File Construction Mode "Create",
target files are overwritten although the "Overwrite Existing Files" setting is not active in
the Receiver channel. How do I solve this problem?
A: This problem has been corrected with XI 3.0 SP10. PI 7.0 is not affected.
6. Acknowledgements
Q: Does the File Adapter support acknowledgements?
A: You need to distinguish system acknowledgements (indicating that a message has been
received by the target system) and application acknowledgements (indicating that the message
has been successfully processed by the application on the receiver side).
The receiver of an XI message will only send an acknowledgement back to the sender if
the sender has requested one. However, the File Adapter has no functionality that relies on the
receipt of an acknowledgement, so it never requests one.
On the other hand, if a File Adapter Receiver receives a request to send an
acknowledgement, it will do so for a system acknowledgement request. Application acknowledgements
are not supported at all as the File Receiver has no way to determine if the written file has been
correctly processed by the back-end application, which is what a positive application
acknowledgement would imply.
7. File Construction Mode "Add Time Stamp" and "Add Counter" in Cluster Environment
Q: We have set up a File Adapter Receiver on an XI installation with multiple server nodes.
The receiver channel is configured to use the File Construction Mode "Add Time Stamp" or "Add
Counter". We have noticed, that sporadically two messages are written to the same file name.
How can we work around this issue?
A: If you are using the transport protocol "File System (NFS)", apply note 869234. An existing
target file will not be overwritten by a message processed on another cluster node.
For the transport protocol "File Transfer Protocol (FTP)" the time stamp and counter is not
guaranteed to be unique across cluster nodes, so two messages delivered to the same receiver
channel at the same time on different cluster nodes might cause the target to be overwritten
by the second message.
If you need to create truly unique files by the receiver, use the File Construction Mode "Add
Message ID".
8. FTP Adapter Timeout Configuration
Q: We are using the FTP Adapter to send or receive messages from/to an FTP server, which is
sporadically experiencing connectivity problems. This causes the FTP Adapter to hang. Is there
any way to configure a timeout?
A: Refer to note 849089.
9. Module Development: Accessing the Source File Name from a Module
Q: When processing a message originating from a File Adapter Sender channel, how do I access
the original name of the file read by the File Sender channel from within a module?
A: See note 819761 for a HOWTO.
10. <RecordSetName>.fieldContentFormatting=nothing and SXMB_MONI
Q: We have configured a File Sender Adapter with File Content Conversion not to remove the
whitespace around fixed-width fields from the input file by setting the parameter
<RecordSetName>.fieldContentFormatting to "nothing". Nevertheless, the whitespace seems to be
trimmed as we can see in SXMB_MONI. Have we encountered a bug?
A: SXI_MONITOR displays an interpreted version of the XML payload, which unfortunately hides
the whitespace. Nevertheless, this whitespace is still present in the generated XML file as
you will see if you send the message to a File Adapter Receiver that writes the payload to a
file.
11. File Sender: Processing Multiple Source Directories
Q: Can the File Sender Adapter be configured to poll multiple source directories from a single
channel?
A: This functionality is available starting with XI 3.0 Support Package 14 as well as PI 7.0.
12. File Sender: Quality of Service EOIO (Exactly Once In Order)
Q: How does a File Adapter sender channel handle the quality of service EOIO? Are files that
match the File Name Scheme in the sender's channel configuration processed in arbitrary order?
A: The File Adapter allows you to configure the Processing Sequence of files for the Transport
Protocol "File System (NFS)", which also determines the order for EOIO processing. Files can
either be processed in ascending alphabetical order (Processing Sequence "By Name") or by
their last modification time stamp (Processing Sequence "By Date"), where the oldest file is
processed first. For the Transport Protocol "File Transfer Protocol (FTP)" files are always
processed in ascending alphabetical order.
13. File Receiver: FTP Problems for Large Files with Microsoft IIS
Q: I have configured a File Adapter receiver channel to upload to a Microsoft Internet
Information Server FTP server using the "Put File" mode "Use Temporary File".
When sending a large file to the receiver, I get the following error:
"com.sap.aii.adapter.file.ftpFTPEx: <filename>: The process cannot access the file because it
is being used by another process."
How do I solve this problem?
A: The cause of this problem is a known bug in the Microsoft IIS FTP server implementation you
are using. For details, refer to:
IIS 4.0: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;238644
There is no fix available from Microsoft. As a workaround, set the configuration parameter
"Put File" to "Directly".
IIS 5.0: The problem is currently not documented by Microsoft. As a workaround, set the
configuration parameter "Put File" to "Directly".
IIS 6.0: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;828086
Apply the hotfix provided by Microsoft.
14. Memory Requirements
Q: Which memory requirements does the File Adapter have? Is there a restriction on the maximum
file size it can process?
A: The maximum file size that can be processed by the File Adapter depends on a number of
factors:
The most important one is the size of the Java heap, which is shared among all messages
processed at a certain point in time. In order to be able to process larger messages
without an out of memory error (OOM), it is recommended to increase the size of the
available Java heap and/or to reduce the concurrency in the system so that fewer messages
are processed in parallel.
Another factor negatively influencing the maximum message size in releases up to and
including XI 3.0 SP 13 is an enabled charcter set (encoding) conversion if the message
type is set to "Text".
Using the transport protocol "File Transfer Protocol (FTP)" also uses more memory for
processing than the transport protocol "File System (NFS)" (up to and including XI 3.0 SP
13).
If the Message Protocol "File Content Conversion" is used in a File Sender channel,
consider that not only the size of the input file affects the File Adapter's memory usage,
but even more the size of the XML resulting from the conversion, which is usually a few
factors larger than the original plain text file.
To reduce the memory consumption in this scenario, consider configuring the setting
"Maximum Recordsets per Message" for the sender channel. This will cause the input file to
be split into multiple smaller mesages.
15. Operating System Command
Q: I am having difficulties getting an external operating system command to work. What can I
do to diagnose the problem?
A: Refer to note 841704.
16. File Encoding
Q: How do I correctly configure the File Encoding used by the File Adapter?
A: Generally, the message payload of an XI message is treated as UTF-8 when it needs to be
converted from or into a different encoding. So, what you specify in the File Sender channel
is the source encoding for an encoding conversion to UTF-8. On the other hand, in the Receiver
channel, you specify the target encoding for a conversion from UTF-8. If you configure a
channel's File Type setting as "Binary", no conversion will be applied.
Depending on your scenario, only some encoding settings actually make sense and lead to the
expected results:
XML Files
An XML file's encoding is set in the XML header, which is later interpreted when parsing
the XML, e.g. in the mapping, so there is no necessity to perform an encoding conversion
in the File Adapter. As a rule of thumb, always configure the File Type parameter of a
sender or receiver channel as "Binary" when reading or writing XML data.
Important: Even if you configure a File Encoding in the File Adapter channel, the File
Adapter will not re-write the XML header to reflect the changed encoding, so you will
probably see an XML parsing error later during the processing of the message if you
specify an encoding.
Flat Files with File Content Conversion
For a File Sender channel, configure the encoding of the source file. The file will be
interpreted according to the configured encoding and converted to XML with an UTF-8
encoding.
For a File Receiver channel, configure the encoding to match the encoding you would like
to be written to the target flat file.
Flat Files without File Content Conversion
Whether to configure an encoding in this case depends on if you want to pass through the
file "as is", e.g. within a File Sender to File Receiver scenario, or if you want to
convert the file's encoding on its way through the Integration Server. For "as is"
processing, configure both the sender and the receiver using the File Type setting
"Binary".
To apply an encoding conversion, configure the respective source and target encoding in
both the sender and receiver channel.
Important: Configuring an encoding in the receiver channel will only lead to the expected
results if the payload sent to the receiver channel is in UTF-8 format (e.g., by having
specified an encoding conversion in the Sender channel).
17. Empty File Encoding Parameter
Q: Which encoding is used if I configure the File Type as "Text", but leave the File Encoding
parameter empty?
A: In this case, the system encoding will be used, e.g. "Cp1252" on most western Windows
installations.
18. File Sender: Scheduling
Q: How do I configure a File Adapter sender channel to poll a directory at a specific time of
day?
A: This is available from SP 20 in Communication channel monitoring with the feature by name
'Availability Time Planning'.
19. Secure FTP (FTPS)
Q: I would like to use Secure FTP (FTPS) with the File Adapter. Does my FTP server support
this out of the box? Which configuration changes do I need to apply to my FTP server?
A: The FTP Adapter application follows the RFC specification 4217 for FTPS protocol that uses
explicit FTPS. The specification can be found on the Internet under
www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4217.txt.
If you would like to connect to some FTP server through FTPS Adapter, then the FTP
server to which you are trying to connect must follow the RFC specification 4217.
Every FTP server do not support FTPS and many that do require a configuration change to
activate the FTPS protocol extension. Contact your FTP server software vendor for detailed
information.
20. File Sender: Special Characters in File Names
Q: I am trying to get the File Adapter to poll a file, which contains special characters
(e.g., accented characters or umlauts) in its file name. However, irrespectively of the
wildcard mask I specify in the File Adapter sender channel configuration, the file does not
get picked up. Which configuration setting do I need to change to get my scenario working?
A: Under certain operating system platforms, such as Solaris, the APIs used by the Java
Runtime (JRE) are not Unicode-aware. Consequently, the JRE needs to be configured to correctly
interpret the character set it receives from the operating system.
This is configured through the "file.encoding" system property as well as the "LANG"
environment variable.
Make sure you set "file.encoding" to a character set (such as ISO-8859-1) that supports the
special characters you would like to process. This system property can be configured by
appending "-Dfile.encoding=<encoding>" to the Java VM parameters section of the SAP J2EE
Config Tool.
Additionally, you need to set the "LANG" environment variable to a locale that supports more
than 7 bits, such as "de.ISO8859-1". The encoding you specify in the LANG environment variable
needs to match the encoding set via "file.encoding".
You can persistently configure the environment variable by setting it in the profile
$HOME/.sapenv_$HOSTNAME.csh of the <sid>adm user: setenv LANG de.ISO8859-1. For additional
details on 'How to Work with Character Encodings in PI' the following guide can also be
followed:
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/library/uuid/502991a245d9-2910-d99f-8aba5d79fb42
21. File Sender: Performance Issues After Configuring A Large Amount Of Channels
Q: After configuring a large amount of File Adapter sender channels, the J2EE Engine becomes
very slow and some services start to block. How can I solve this issue?
A: Up to and including XI 3.0 SP13 each File Adapter sender channel permanently consumes a
J2EE application thread. To solve this issue, increase the number of configured J2EE
application threads using the SAP J2EE Engine Config Tool ("cluster-data" -> "Global server
configuration" -> "managers" -> "ApplicationThreadManager" -> "MaxThreadCount").
Starting with XI 3.0 SP14 / PI 7.0 application threads are allocated on demand by the File
Adapter and returned to the thread pool after it has finished the polling sequence, so thread
shortage situations will typically occur much more rarely than with earlier SPs.
22. File Sender: File Modification Check For Transport Protocol "FTP"
Q: Is the file modification check (advanced mode option "Msecs to Wait Before Modification
Check") in a File Adapter sender channel supported for the transport protocol "File Transfer
Protocol (FTP)"?
A: Yes, File modification for FTP is supported from 7.31 SP 18 onwards. This feature has
already been made available in NFS mode from XI 3.0 SP11/ PI 7.0.
Some FTP servers do not report the file size. The File Modification Check feature cannot be
used in scenarios involving such FTP servers. It also cannot be used along with chunk mode or
when File Content Conversion is used.
Please refer Note 2188990 - File Modification Check in FTP mode for File Adapter for more
information on the patch and release details.
23. FTP: Active Data Connection Support
Q: Does the File Adapter support active data connections when connecting to an FTP server?
A: Up to and including XI 3.0 SP14, the File Adapter exclusively uses passive data
connections. Starting with XI 3.0 SP15 / PI 7.0, active connections are available.
24. FTPS: Server certificate rejected by ChainVerifier
Q: After configuring a File Adapter FTPS communication channel, I see the following error
message in the Adapter Monitor: iaik.security.ssl.SSLException: Server certificate rejected by
ChainVerifier. What do I need to configure to get my scenario working?
A: The File Adapter checks whether a trusted certificate chain exists for the X.509
certificate of the FTP server it is connecting to. A certificate chain is considered trusted
if the chain is valid and at least one of its certificates is directly trusted. If the
certificate chain is untrusted, the above exception is thrown. To configure a single
certificate or a certification authority's CA certificate as directly trusted, add the
respective X.509 certificate to the "Trusted CAs" view of the "Key Storage" service in the SAP
J2EE Visual Administrator. In most cases, this will be the CA certificate that was used to
sign the server certificate.Please refer to note no. 1764304 for more details on the above
error.
25. FTP Proxy Support
Q: Does the File Adapter provide a means to configure an FTP proxy server used to establish
any FTP connections?
A: FTP proxy is supported from 7.31 release onwards. This feature is supported only for FTP
protocol but not for FTPS protocol. The standard command patterns for using FTP proxy are
USER@HOST and USER@HOST:PORT. You can choose ‘Other’ to specify user defined FTP proxy type.
Also, the user defined FTP proxy type should only have combination of keywords namely; USER,
HOST and PORT (Optional).
26. FTP Connection Problems
Q: I have configured a File Adapter channel to connect to an FTP server, but receive one of
the following error messages in the adapter monitor:
Error connecting to ftp server '<hostname>': SocketException: Connection reset
Error connecting to ftp server '<hostname>': SocketException: Connection refused
Error connecting to ftp server '<hostname>': ConnectException: Connection timed out
A: This problem is either caused by incorrect firewall / packet filter settings or an
incorrect configuration of the FTP server. Also make sure that you have correctly specified
the host name / IP address and port of the FTP server.
Changing the connection type from 'active' to 'passive' (or vice versa) might additionally
help to work around the incorrect firewall configuration.
27. FTP Directory Listing Semantics
Q: Which semantics does the File Sender Adapter apply to determine which files to retrieve
from an FTP server?
A: Up to and including XI 3.0 SP13 the File Adapter will issue an NLST command (see RFC 959)
with the configured source file name scheme as first parameter to the FTP server. It will try
to retrieve any of the files returned by the FTP server in response to this command.
Starting with XI 3.0 SP14 / PI 7.0, the File Adapter will issue a LIST command with the
configured source file name scheme as first parameter to the FTP server. If it is able to
parse the returned result (which is the case for UNIX- and Windows-style directory listings),
it will retrieve any of the returned files. If it cannot parse the result, it will fall back
to the pre-SP14 implementation and use the NLST command as described above.
28. sftp Support
Q: Does the File Adapter support the sftp (File Transfer over SSH) protocol?
A: We have SFTP adapter that supports File transfer over SSH protocol released only for
7.11/7.30/7.31 releases. The SFTP adapter is part of the SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration,
secure connectivity add-on 1.0.
29. File Content Conversion fieldFixedType Parameter Not Working
Q: After configuring a File Adapter channel with File Content Conversion and the
fieldFixedType=byte parameter set, I noticed that this setting does not seem to have any
effect.
A: The parameter's name should correctly read "fieldFixedLengthType". The documentation will
be updated accordingly with XI 3.0 SP17 / PI 7.0.
30. Missing Features After Upgrade
Q: After applying a support package, I am unable to find a new feature advertised in the
release notes in the channel configuration.
A: You most likely did not import the updated SAP_BASIS content for the support package.
31. Empty File Processing
Q: How does the File Adapter handle empty files and messages with a zero-sized payload?
A: Up to and including XI 3.0 SP18 / PI 7.0 SP9 empty files in the sender adapter will not
trigger the creation of a message. If an empty message is sent to a receiver channel, no
output file will be created.
Starting with XI 3.0 SP19 / PI 7.0 SP10 the channel's behavior can be configured in
Integration Builder.
Q: I configure the receiver channel with File content conversion mode and I set the 'Empty
Message Handling' option to ignore. Input payload to the receiver channel is generated out of
mapping and it does not have any record sets. However, this payload has a root element. Why
does file receiver create empty output file with zero byte size in the target
directory?
Example of such a payload generated from mapping is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF8"?>
<ns1:test xmlns:ns1="http://abcd.com/ab"></ns1:test>
A: If the message payload is empty (i.e., zero bytes in size), then File adapter's empty
message handling feature does NOT write files into the target directory. On the other hand, if
the payload is a valid XML document (as shown in example) that is generated from mapping with
just a root element in it, the File Adapter does not treat it as an empty message and
accordingly it writes to the target directory.
To achieve
your objective of not writing files (that have just a single root element) into the target
directory, following could be done:
Either modify your mapping so that empty message payload without a root element is generated.
This could be done only by creating a Java mapping and implement the logic to convert from
root element to an empty text. This can not be done using Message Mapping tool.
- or, use a module based approach, e.g.,
using the StrictXml2PlainBean, where such a valid XML payload is converted to an empty payload
before the file receiver channel is invoked.
32. File Construction Mode "Add Counter": Counter Reset
Q: After configuring a File Adapter receiver channel with the File Construction Mode set to
"Add Counter", I noticed that the counter gets reset each time I restart the J2EE engine.
A: This behavior is by design. The current counter value is not persisted, but only kept in
memory. It is intended to generate distinct file names, but not strictly increasing numbers.
After a J2EE restart, the File Adapter will start writing messages beginning with the smallest
free counter number (skipping existing larger numbers).
33. FTPS: "AUTH TLS" Command Unrecognized
Q: After configuring a File Adapter channel with the Transport Protocol "FTP" and connection
security set to "FTPS", I receive the following error in the adapter monitoring: Syntax error,
command unrecognized: 'AUTH TLS'
What is causing this?
A: Your FTP server implementation does not implement FTPS as specified in RFC 4217. For
details, contact your FTP server vendor.
34. FTP: Directory Specification / CWD Command
Q: Is there any way to configure a File Adapter channel with the Transport Protocol "FTP"
without an explicit source / target directory, so that no CWD command will be issued?
A: The directory specification is mandatory. According RFC 1123 an FTP server is required to
support the CWD command.
35. File Sender Error Handling
Q: I have configured a File Sender channel with File Content Conversion or a custom-developed
module, which may throw an exception. When the File Adapter encounters an invalid file, which
triggers a conversion error or an exception in a module, the adapter will enter a retry
interval and upon each following processing attempt try to process the faulty file. This
basically prevents the File Adapter from picking up files that are located after the fauilty
file according to the configured sort order. How can I change this behavior?
A: When the File Adapter encounters an invalid file i.e. when it receives a permanent error
from the configured modules, it archives the file in directory for archiving files with error.
For this, the parameter 'Archive faulty source files' should be configured in the file Adapter
sender channel. There were some issues with this option which has been solved with latest
patches as mentioned in the SAP Note 1707766 and 1747163.
36. FTP: Adapter Polls More Frequently Than Configured
Q: I have configured a File Adapter Sender channel with the transport protocol "FTP". When no
file is present in the configured input directory, the adapter connects to the FTP server at
least once a second or even more frequently. What is causing this?
A: Most likely, this behavior is caused by an implementation error in the FTP server, which
you are connecting to:
The FTP protocol specification (RFC 959) requires that when issuing a NLST command to retrieve
a file list for a given wildcard pattern a list of valid file names gets returned. Error
messages must be transmitted via the control channel. From the specification:
"NAME LIST (NLST)
This command causes a directory listing to be sent from server to user site. The pathname
should specify a directory or other system-specific file group descriptor; a null argument
implies the current directory. The server will return a stream of names of files and no other
information. The data will be transferred in ASCII or EBCDIC type over the data connection as
valid pathname strings separated by <CRLF> or <NL>. (Again the user must ensure that the TYPE
is correct.) This command is intended to return information that can be used by a program to
further process the files automatically. For example, in the implementation of a "multiple
get" function."
However, your FTP server returns a human-readable error message in the data connection instead
of a file list when no files match the wildcard pattern (the channel's file name mask)
provided to the NLST command, which is - in compliance with RFC 959 - interpreted as a file
name by the File Adapter.
An example FTP session:
[...]
ftp> ls file*.txt
200 PORT command successful.
150 ASCII data connection for /bin/ls
file*.txt: No such file or directory
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
[...]
The line causing the problems reads:
file*.txt: No such file or directory
As this line is interpreted as a file name by the File Adapter (as per RFC 959), the File
Adapter will try to retrieve this file, which will - of course - fail. However, as the FTP
server has returned at least one (although invalid) file name, the File Adapter will
immediately poll again for new files. This is by design and cannot be configured.
The root cause of the problem is the incorrect reply of your FTP server, so you will have to
contact your FTP server vendor for a correction, which provides a RFC 959 compliant
implementation of the FTP protocol.
37. FTP: sun.io.MalformedInputException
Q: I am trying to connect the File Adapter to an FTP server, which uses non-ASCII replys over
the control connection, e.g. the server replys contain German umlauts or accented characters.
However, the File Adapter just displays an error referring to sun.io.MalformedInputException
when trying to establish the connection. How can I solve this?
A: Configure the "file.encoding" system property to match the encoding returned by the FTP
server. For details, refer to the answer to Q20.
38. Windows (SMB) Shares
Q: Using a File Adapter channel I would like to retrieve files from and/or write files to a
Windows (SMB) share. Which considerations do I need to take into account?
A: When the Adapter Engine hosting the File Adapter service is running under Microsoft
Windows, make sure that the share is accessible for the user "SAPService<SID>" under which the
File Adapter is operating. If the share is mapped to a drive letter, make sure that this
mapping exists for the "SAPService<SID>" user. UNC paths are typically supported under
Microsoft Windows. When the Adapter Engine hosting the File Adapter service is running under
UNIX, make sure that the SMB share is mounted into the local file system hierarchy and
accessible to the "<sid>adm" user. Note that UNC paths are typically not supported under UNIX.
For details, contact your operating system vendor.
39. FTP Sender: 550 File Not Found
Q: I have configured an FTP sender channel, which however fails to retrieve files during each
polling interval. Instead, it gives an error message similar to: "550 File Not Found" (the
actual wording depends of the FTP server software, which is not provided by SAP). How can I
fix this?
A: Configure an absolute source directory (usually starting with a slash) instead of a
relative one.
40. Known Problems and Incompatibilities for FTP Servers
Q: What are the known problems and incompatibilites for third party FTP server implementations
?
A: Please refer to note 1052867.
41. Test FTP Server Connection.
Q: How to Test FTP Server Connection.?
A: Please refer to note 1085539.
42. Channel prioritization using OS command
Q: I wish to configure two sender File channels sothat second sender channel processes only
after first sender channel has finished sending message to XI using an external OS command
.
I wish to select quality of service as Exactly Once In order(EOIO) for both channels and wish
to configure the same queue name for both channels. This way, I want to see that all the
messages from second channel are processed only after first channel. Is this supported ?.
A: This is not supported as each channel execution is independent of other channel. Though
this may seem to work for most cases we do not guarentee that "at all times" message order is
guarenteed. One of the reasons is, though messages from two channels go into the same queue,
they may not arrive at the queue in the order that we expect.
43. J2EE engine hangs with File/FTP sender channels.
Q: J2EE engine hangs with the File/FTP sender channels. How to resolve this ?
A: The reason for this is, some times due to network level issues, a message is waiting
forever for a response from a FTP server which is down for some time. Adapter does not know
this and try to poll FTP server again with second message. This goes on and on and eventually
we would have J2EE engine hanging. To solve this, following things need to be applied:
1) Set FTP timeout to appropraite value if channel is FTP sender channel.
2) In advanced mode table options, add a new parameter 'clusterSyncMode' and its value
set to 'lock'. This parameter is without single quotes and case-sensitive. Please read SAP note
801926 to know more about this option.
3) Last but not least, make sure that you are in latest patches of SP19/SP20/SP21/SP22
for SAPXIAFC component of XI 3.0 release and SP10/SP11/SP12/SP13/SP14 for SAPXIAFC component of XI
7.0 release. Any patch which is released after 11th of Febraury 2008 for the above releases is
fine.
44. File Receiver with "append" mode on multiple cluster nodes.
Our landscape has file receiver channels configured to use "append" operation. J2EE engine is
running on multiple clustered nodes with mulitple central instances and multiple dialog
instances. Central instance is running on one physical host and dialog instance is running on
another physical host. All cluster nodes need to access the same file to write data in append
mode. Do we support this case ?
A: Detailed answer is given in SAP note 1162687.
45. Receiver File Adapter stuck while using temporary file.
Q :The thread of receiver file adapter remains in runnable while Communication channel has the
following configuration File Construction Mode=Create, Overwrite Existing File=false, Write
Mode= Use Temporary File.
A :The Receiver file adapter thread is stuck in the runnable state when the temporary file is
used and over writing of existing file is set to false. Since the temporary file was not being
deleted and the overwriting of existing file i.e. target file was set to false, the thread
would never end. This problem has been fixed by deleting the temporary file after being named
to the target file.
The error is corrected with SAPXIAF06P patch#8 (Support Package -level #06).
46. How to manually delete hanging Enqueue-Locks when the system comes back from OOM error?
Q :During the OOM error the J2ee engine goes down while the lock in the enqueue server still
persists.When the channel comes back during restart as the effect of OOM error it will not
able to get the cluster wide enqueue lock as the previous lock remains there in the enqueue
server.How do I resolve this?
A :An OOM error is a system error which causes the application to crash before it can release
the lock automatically.Hence the lock has to be deleted manually after the system is restarted
completely. The existing (hanging) enqueue server locks for the corresponding FILE
channels(with FILE level Lock Arguments) can be deleted manually by following procedure:
1. Stop the corresponding FILE channel.
2. Open Visual Administrator.
3. Route to correspondig server.
4. Expand services and go to Locking adapter.
5. In the locking adapter service go to Display locks tab and click on refesh button
then you will able to see the list of all the available locks.
6. Select the existing (hanging) enqueue lock with FILE Argument from the list.
7. Click on "Delete Selected Locks" button.
47. Effect of setting Maximum Concurrency and poolWaitingTime
Q: What is the meaning of different values of Maximum Concurrency? How should be
poolWaitingTime set for different values of Maximum Concurrency?
A: Maximum Concurrency Parameter is used to acquire parallel FTP connections for the same
receiver File/FTP channel.
Maximum Concurrency = 1
This is the default value of Maximum Concurrency. This means a single receiver
File/FTP channel can acquire only one FTP connection. This case does not offer any parallel
processing of messaging by single channel.
Maximum Concurrency > 1
This ensures that resource pool size (FTP conneciton size) is limited to specified
value per single File/FTP receiver channel. For instance, setting this parameter to 2 will ensure
that a single receiver File/FTP channel can acquire 2 FTP connections in parallel(if needed).
poolWaitingTime
This timeout value will define the maximum waiting time to get the connection from
resource pool. If connection is not available within this time, we return the message to Messaging
System and the message is in retry mode.
The configuration of this timeout requires the use of an advanced mode configuration
parameter.
To configure a timeout for the File/FTP receiver channels, please enable the
"Advanced Mode" for the respective File/FTP communication channel in the Integration Directory and
add an entry "poolWaitingTime" and set to a time in Milli Secs (without any quotation marks) to
the "Additional Parameters" section. This parameter is case-sensitive.
The default value of this parameter is 5000 Milli Secs.
The default value ensures a channel will wait 5000 Milli Secs before aquiring
connection.
1. Maximum Concurrency = 1
When Maximum concurrency is set to 1 poolWaitingTime can be set to some positive
value(i.e., > 0). The value of the parameter will be taken from the channel configuration while
execution. If the value is not set then, no action would be taken on the message processing and
the behaviour will be same as before i.e., message will wait in the resource pool till it gets the
resource. For more details please refer the SAP note no.1473299.
2. Maximum Concurrency > 1
Before setting this, please apply note 1136790. For Maximum Concurrency > 1, this
note should be applied and then only proceed with the following.
When Maximum Concurrency > 1 poolWaitingTime must be set to an optimal value. This
should be more or less equal to time required to aquire a connection on a remote FTP/DB. If this
is not known, set this to 1 min(60000 Milli Secs). This will ensure that, if channel cannot get
the FTP connection with in the time specified then after 3 retries the thread will be released for
other channels and message back-log can be reduced.
48. File System(NFS) File Sender Processing in Cluster Environment
Q: When running the File Adapter in an environment with more than a single J2EE server
instance or node, the same file is processed several times. Note number 801926 for the
parameter 'clusterSyncMode' was already applied and this does not solve the issue. How do I
solve this problem?
A: In order to guarantee a file is processed only once the file adapter took as key the
absolute file path, the file size and the last modified date.
If in your environment you have links with name < link_name> created in directories not
central for the cluster and use this <link_name> as source directory in channel configuration you
get for files absolute path different values.
Example 1: If you created links with name <link_name> under
/usr/sap/<SAPSID>/DVEBMGS<XX>/j2ee/cluster/server<N>/ you get for files absolute path the
following values:
1. /usr/sap/<SID>/DVEBMGS<XX>/j2ee/cluster/server0/<fileName>
2. /usr/sap/<SID>/DVEBMGS<XX>/j2ee/cluster/server1/<fileName>
...
n. /usr/sap/<SID>/DVEBMGS<XX>/j2ee/cluster/server<N>/<fileName>
The same applies for j2ee only installation where the path would be
/usr/sap/<SID>/JC<XX>/j2ee/cluster/server<N>/<fileName>
Example 2: If you created links with name <link_name> under /usr/sap/<SAPSID>/D<XX>/ and
/usr/sap/<SAPSID>/JC<XX>/ you get for files absolute path the following values:
1. /usr/sap/<SID>/D<XX>/<fileName>
2. /usr/sap/<SID>/JC<XX>/<fileName>
While generate the key the absolute path for one and the same file is different and the
file adapter processes it several times.
In order to solve this:
1. Create the link on one single point relative to /usr/sap/<SID> directory.
2. Change the channels source directory to be relative to the directory specified in 1.
As an alternative you can configure the file sender communication channel to resolve
files by their canonical names. To do that you should set the 'useCanonicalPath' additional
parameter for the file sender communication channel. For more information how to use this
additional parameter and in which releases it is available please refer to SAP Note 1470921.
49. FCC parameter 'endSeparator' does not work for non printable characters
Q: When File Content Conversion is used in Sender File Adapter and '\n' or '\r' is used as
'endSeparator', the setting does not work as expected.
A: To define an additional string as a separator after the last column in a row,
'NameA.endSeparator' will be specified in the FCC table. The system skips this string when it
processes the last column otherwise the system would treat it as part of the last column.
For the parameter 'endSeparator', the non-printable ASCII characters can also be
specified. However, the non-printable characters like '\n' or '\r' cannot be configured as
'endSeparator' because they are used for separating the lines(records). Hence they will not be
recognized as 'endSeparator' and will not produce the expected output.
50. File Splitting/Chunk mode handling for large file transfer
Q: When large (binary) files need to be transferred by using File /FTP adapter, there can be a
chance for Out of Memory error which might result in a server restart. What do I need to
configure to transfer large files using file adapter?
A:File splitting or chunk mode handling feature has been introduced in File adapter from 730
release onwards. File/FTP adapter supports the transfer of large files by splitting them into
smaller chunks, based on the configured size. Each chunk will be processed as an individual XI
Message in sender adapter and all the chunks are combined based on the sequence in receiver
adapter. Since all the chunks have to be combined in the actual order, the EOIO quality of
service has to be used to enable this feature. Please note that the split in the chunk mode
handling feature does not consider the payload and it is just a binary split. So the following
limitations would apply when the above feature is being used for file transfer:
It can be used only for File Sender to File Receiver.
Mapping cannot be used in the scenario
Content Based Routing cannot be used
Content Conversion cannot be used in the scenario.
Custom Modules cannot be used in the scenario
File modification check cannot be used in this scenario.
Please refer to note no. 1783846 for the recent fixes and details about this feature.
51. Text and binary file types
Q: After configuring a File Adapter sender communication channel, I see the following error
message in the Adapter Monitor: jxl.read.biff.BiffException: Unable to recognize OLE stream.
What do I need to configure to get my scenario working?
A:In order to overcome the above issue, the following configuration has to be made in file
channel: Under the processing tab, change the value of 'File type' field from 'Text' to
'Binary'.All files can be categorized into one of two file formats - binary or text. The two
file types encode data differently. While text files contain only textual data, binary files
may contain both textual and custom binary data.
52. File Modification Check feature
Q: Can the File Sender Adapter be configured to process multiple files simultaneously/at a
time when the modification check feature is used?
A:File adapter cannot process more than one file at a time when the modification check feature
is used. This behaiour is observed because File adapter cannot handle requests in parallel for
sender side processing. Moreover, for the sender side, the adapter framework scheduler assigns
only one server node to a polling communication channel which polls the files at a specified
interval. Therefore,the files will be checked for any modifications as per the value of the
modification check interval configured in the File sender channel for each file one by one and
not simultaneously.
53. Cannot use Username / Password for FTP Proxy Configuration
Q: Can we configure FTP proxy with UserID and Password?
A: In current implementation of File adapter (FTP), it is not possible to use UserID and
Password for FTP proxy configuration. Instead you can use SFTP adapter to achieve this.
54. File Access/Permission issues
Q: Files are not getting picked up by Sender channel unless the OS level permission is set to
“777”? The current user is given all the required permissions, but still the file is not
getting picked up. Is “777” permission setting mandatory?
A: No, 777 setting is not mandatory. The files are picked up if the PI user has the required
permissions. To validate the same,
1. log on to the system (OS) as the PI user who will access the file.
2. Navigate to the Source Directory which is specified in the Sender Communication channel.
3. Create a new file with some dummy data, logged in as the PI user.
Once this step is completed, re-run the scenario and verify is the newly created dummy file
was picked up. If this file is picked up, then it means that the issue is not at PI side, but
rather with the OS level configuration related to access/permissions which has to be resolved
from Basis/OS admin side.
55. Maximum Polling Interval
Q: Is there any limit to configure polling interval in sender File Adapter channel?
A: Yes. Maximum polling interval that can be configured is 2147483 seconds.
Attributes
Key
Value
Other Components
Basis Components > NetWeaver Process Integration (PI) > Connectivity (BC-XI-CON)
Software Components
Software Component
From
To
SAP-XIAFC
3.0
3.0
SAP-XIAFC
7.00
7.00
SAP-XIAFC
7.10
7.10
And subsequent
This document refers to
SAP Note/KBA
Component
Title
869234
BC-XI-CON-FIL
XI 3.0 File Adapter: File naming collisions in cluster
849089
BC-XI-CON-FIL
File Adapter: FTP Timeout Handling
841704
BC-XI-CON-JDB
XI File & JDBC Adapter: Operating system command
821268
BC-XI-CON
Adapter Framework: Overview of available FAQ notes
1797861
BC-XI-CON-FIL
References for File Adapter FAQ note
1470921
BC-XI-CON-FIL
Multiple file processing due to different absolute paths
1085539
BC-XI-CON-JDB
XI JDBC/FTP connection Test and XML Validation Application
1052867
BC-XI-CON-FIL
XI / PI File Adapter: Known Problems / Incompatibilities
This document is referenced by
SAP Note/KBA Component
Title
2945731
The expected payload does not generated after the file content conversion by sender File channel
2511755
BC-XI-CON-FIL
File channel failed with error "226 Unexpected reply codeTransfer complete"
2408678
BC-XI-CON-FIL
XI File Adapter: FTPS fails with "java.io.EOFException: Connection closed by remote host"
2595880
BC-XI-CON-FIL
PI File adapter with SQUID proxy
2523149
BC-XI-CON-FIL
File/FTP Sender Adapter is not picking some large files for processing
1623356
BC-XI-CON-MSG
"To be delivered" messages in Adapter Engine
2505522
BC-XI-CON-FIL
Sender File channel lists but does not process files
2488624
BC-XI-CON-FIL
PI File adapter: A file cannot be larger than the value set by ulimit
2450045
BC-XI-CON-FIL
PI File Channels Stop Polling regularly
1085539
BC-XI-CON-AFW-SEC XI JDBC/FTP connection Test and XML Validation Application
1473299
BC-XI-CON-FIL
Setting Maximum Concurrency and poolWaitingTime in File/Jdbc
1797861
BC-XI-CON-FIL
References for File Adapter FAQ note
1470921
BC-XI-CON-FIL
Multiple file processing due to different absolute paths
849089
BC-XI-CON-FIL
File Adapter: FTP Timeout Handling
869234
BC-XI-CON-FIL
XI 3.0 File Adapter: File naming collisions in cluster
1442585
FIN-FSCM-BNK-SWF
File encoding in SAP Integration Package for SWIFT
841704
BC-XI-CON-JDB
XI File & JDBC Adapter: Operating system command
1052867
BC-XI-CON-FIL
XI / PI File Adapter: Known Problems / Incompatibilities
821268
BC-XI-CON
Adapter Framework: Overview of available FAQ notes