3625400 - SAP HANA Database Fails to Start Due to Low global_allocation_limit Configuration

SAP HANA database fails to start with the following error:

FAIL: process hdbdaemon HDB Daemon not running

On investigation, the following is observed in trace files and crash dumps:

• Memory allocation failures with error type GLOBAL_ALLOCATION_LIMIT

• Exception logs showing bad_alloc, allocation failed

• SIGABRT signal caught in crashdump files (e.g., nameserver crash)

• The global_allocation_limit parameter (GAL) is configured to a very low value (e.g., 3 GB) at the host level

• System memory is sufficient (e.g., ~390 GB available), but HANA startup fails due to allocation blocks imposed by this configuration

HANA startup failure, global_allocation_limit, GAL, FAIL: hdbdaemon, SIGABRT, bad_alloc, nameserver crash, memory allocation, startup crash, OOM , KBA , HAN-DB-ENG , SAP HANA DB Engines , Problem