DocumentationExperience Cloud KCS

AEM as a Cloud Service deployment fails at ‘Update Indexes’ with exit code 137

Last update: September 9, 2026

This article explains how to identify and resolve deployment failures in Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS) when the deployment fails during the Update Indexes step and the transform container exits with code 137. To resolve the issue, review the deployment logs, confirm the error condition, and rerun the deployment to complete the process successfully.

Description description

Environment

Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS) (all versions)

Issue/Symptoms

  • Deployment fails during the Update Indexes step in the target environment.
  • Deployment logs show that the transform container terminates with exit code 137.
  • The upload container does not start, and the deployment is aborted.
  • The same code branch may deploy successfully in other environments.

Root Cause

The platform forcibly terminates the transform container because of memory pressure, resulting in an infrastructure-level failure that is unrelated to application code or build artifacts.

Resolution resolution

Follow the steps below to resolve the issue:

  1. Review the deployment logs in Cloud Manager for the affected environment.
  2. Confirm that the failure occurs during the Update Indexes step and that the transform container exits with code 137 (SIGKILL).
  3. Recognize that this error typically results from infrastructure-related memory pressure and is not related to application code or build artifacts.
  4. Rerun the deployment. In many cases, the issue is temporary and resolves after pod rotation or resource reallocation.
  5. If the deployment succeeds after rerunning, no further action is required.
  6. If the issue persists after multiple deployment attempts, contact Adobe Support and provide the relevant error codes and deployment logs for further investigation.
  7. Verify the resolution by confirming that the deployment completes successfully and that the Update Indexes step is marked as completed.
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