2 Specific Issues

Description

If the console window is still open, the expected message indicates that the default domain was started successfully.

If the console window is already closed, check for messages in the log file. This is the default location:

domain-dir/logs/server.log

If startup was successful, the expected message is similar to that on the console, and appears at the end of the log file.

For more information about starting a domain, see "Starting and Stopping a Domain" in Oracle GlassFish Server Administration Guide. To easily determine if a domain is running, use the asadmin list-domains command.

Description

The server might be running at a different port number than expected, either because it was intentionally installed there, or because another server was already running on the default port when the server was installed.

Description

If the server cannot be accessed from the web, but it is running locally, then the server is actually running.

Solution

Verify that the server is running locally.

Description

The server should be accessible directly from the host on which it is running (localhost); for example, using the default port 8080:

http://localhost:8080/

Solution

A server instance running on localhost might not be accessible if the server host machine is connected to the web through a proxy. To solve this problem, do one of the following:

• Set the browser to bypass the proxy server when accessing localhost. Refer to the browser's help system for information about how to do this.

• Use the fully-qualified host name or IP address of your system; for example:

  http://myhost.mydomain.com:8080/
  

• Create an entry in the system's hosts file (for example, pointing 127.0.0.1 to localhost; 127.0.0.1 is not proxied).

Description

The server must be running before the Administration Console can be accessed.

Solution

Review the information in Did the Server Start? to determine if the server is running.

Description

The default port number for the Administration Console is 4848. However, it could be running on a different port number than expected, either because it was intentionally installed there, or because that port was in use when the server was started.

Solution

Refer to Was the Server Started at the Expected Port? for guidelines on verifying the port on which the Administration Console is running. Be sure to enter the correct port number and HTTP protocol when invoking the Administration Console.

Description

If GlassFish Server is not running, applications are not accessible.

Solution

Review the information in Did the Server Start? to determine if the server is running. The server must be running before a server application can be accessed.

Description

An application must be successfully deployed before it can be accessed.

Solution

Verify that the application was successfully deployed. There are several ways to do this:

• Check the server's log file for related entries:

  domain-dir/server.log
  

• Use the asadmin list-applications command to determine which applications are deployed.

• View the Applications page in the Administration Console, accessed by clicking the Applications node.

For more information about deploying applications, see "Deploying Applications" in Oracle GlassFish Server Application Deployment Guide. Also see the Administration Console online help.

To Obtain a Server Thread Dump

Type the following command:

asadmin generate-jvm-report --type=thread

See Also

generate-jvm-report(1)

Description

On Windows systems, after running an application, subsequent attempts to undeploy it or redeploy it throw exceptions about the server being unable to delete a file or rename a directory.

On Windows systems, an application may use getClass().getResource or getResourceAsStream methods to locate a resource inside the application, particularly in jar files that are in the application or accessible to it. If the streams remain open, subsequent attempts to redeploy or undeploy the application can fail. In addition, the Java runtime by default caches streams to jar files for performance reasons.

Solution

Be sure to close streams opened by your applications. Also, if an application needs to be redeployed or undeployed repeatedly, and also needs to obtain a resource from a jar file using getResource or getResourceAsStream, consider using getClass().getResource, which returns a URL object, then invoke the url.setUseCaches method to turn off caching for that jar file, and use url.getInputStream() to obtain the stream.

Although turning off caching for access to the jar file can slow performance, this approach does allow the application to be undeployed or redeployed. Note also that if the getClass().getResourceAsStream method is used instead, then the jar file in which the resource is located is cached (this is the default Java runtime setting) and remains open until the server is stopped.

Description

Application servers such as GlassFish Server allow you to redeploy an application without restarting the server. Simply make the change in your source code, compile the source, and redeploy the application.

Each application is loaded using its own classloader. When you undeploy an application, its classloader is discarded with all the classes it loaded and is garbage collected sooner or later. However, if there's a reference from outside an application to an object in the application loaded by the application's classloader, that object can't be garbage collected. The reference holds the object in memory.

The memory in the Virtual Machine is divided into a number of regions. One of these regions is PermGen. It's an area of memory used to (among other things) load class files. The size of this memory region is fixed; it does not change when the VM is running. You can specify the size of this region with a command line switch: -XX:MaxPermSize. Setting the -Xmx parameter does not help: this parameter only specifies the total heap size and does not affect the size of the PermGen region.

If you keep loading new classes that can't be garbage collected because of references to them from outside the application, the VM runs out of space in the PermGen region, even if there's plenty of memory available. This is called a classloader leak. The resulting exception is java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space.

The java.lang.String.intern() method also allocates memory in the PermGen region. If your application uses this method with strings and holds references to these strings, thereby making garbage collection impossible, your application may cause the same PermGen space exception.

Solution

Classloader leaks are difficult to diagnose. Most profilers list leaked objects but don't highlight the ones causing classloader leaks. Most profilers also stop tracing as soon as they reach a class object or classloader.

One diagnostic approach involves undeploying the application and triggering a memory dump using the JDK 6.0 jmap tool. Then you can use the JDK 6.0 jhat tool to analyze the dump. The simplest analysis is to list all instances of java.lang.Class and look for class objects that have many instances. This is a sign that the class has been loaded multiple times without being garbage collected.

If you're willing to modify the jhat code, you can perform more refined queries. For example:

• Trace references to a classloader from all the instances of the classes it loaded.

• Generate a list of all classloader instances that have loaded an identical set of classes.

• Find classloader instances whose only strong-reference chains from the root set go through instances of classes loaded by those classloaders. These are called orphaned classloaders.

To override the original jhat code, put the JAR file of the modified jhat code in the lib/ext directory of the JDK.

Description

When issued with no arguments, the command asadmin start-domain fails.

This error occurs when there is more than one domain in the domains directory, none of them is named domain1, and no domain is specified with the start-domain command.

Solution

Specify the domain when issuing the start-domain command:

asadmin start-domain domain-name

For example:

asadmin start-domain mycustomdomain

Description

You cannot stop the domain using the asadmin stop-domain command.

Solution

Look for error messages that display in the console when you issue the command.

Search the server.log file for error messages related to your inability to stop the domain.

Description

Installation hangs more than five minutes during Update Tool configuration.

Solution

Cancel the installation and run the installation program again, but this time deselect the Install Update Tool check box. Update Tool can be installed later from as-install/bin/. For more information about Update Tool, see "Update Tool" in Oracle GlassFish Server Administration Guide. For general information about GlassFish Serverinstallation, see the Oracle GlassFish Server Installation Guide.

Description

Not all GlassFish Server directories are automatically removed by the uninstallation program. Some directories and files remain after uninstalling.

Solution

Examine the remaining directories and remove any files or directories that you do not want, including hidden directories prefixed with a dot. It is safe to remove uninstallation and installation log files after you have examined them.

For information related to uninstallation, see "Uninstalling GlassFish Server 3.1" in Oracle GlassFish Server Installation Guide.

Description

The following error occurs from an application client, or appears in the server.log file:

java.security.AccessControlException: access denied
(java.util.PropertyPermission name write...)

There is a permissions issue in the policy files. Either the client.policy file for the application client or the server.policy file for server side components does not have permission to set the property.

Solution

Add the permission in client.policy (for the application client), or in server.policy (for web modules) for the application that needs to set the property. By default, applications only have read permission for properties.

For example, to grant read/write permission for all files in the codebase directory, add or append the following to client.policy or server.policy:

grant codeBase "file:/.../build/sparc_SunOS/sec/-" {
   permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read,write";
 };

Description

This failure can occur when the keystore and truststore properties are not set properly.

Solution

Set the following properties on the JVM:

javax.net.ssl.keyStore=
<keystore-file-path>;javax.net.ssl.trustStore=<truststore-file-path>

To use the application client, set the environment variable VMARGS to the following value:

-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=${admin.domain.dir}/${admin.domain}/config/keystore.jks
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=${admin.domain.dir}/${admin.domain}/config/cacerts.jks