MustGather: Sessions and Session Management problems in versions 5.0 and 5.1
 Technote (troubleshooting)
 
Problem(Abstract)
Collecting data for problems with the IBM® WebSphere® Application Server Sessions and Session Management component. Gathering this MustGather information before calling IBM support will help you understand the problem and save time analyzing the data.
 
Resolving the problem

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If you already contacted support, continue to the component specific MustGather information. Otherwise, click: MustGather: Read first for all WebSphere Application Server products.

Sessions and Session Management specific MustGather information:
The first step in solving a problem with your HTTPSessions in Application Server versions 5.0 and 5.1 is to reproduce the problem with session tracing enabled. Adding debug code to the application simplifies the task of identifying the problem.

If you can add debug code to your application prior to reproducing the problem, the following items are useful:
  1. SessionID that encounters the problem.
  2. Does getSession return null?
  3. Does getValue(getAttribute)return null? If so, what were you executing  getValue(getAttribute)on?
  4. If you catch an exception that is pertinent to the problem:
    1. Call PrintStackTrace after catching the exception (this goes to stderr without a timestamp).
    2. Call System.out.println to print out the message of the exception. This indicates that you are printing out the stack trace.

Note: If you cannot add debug code to your application prior to reproducing, please identify the sessionID that encounters the problem.

Setting up the trace
In the WebSphere Application Server administrative console
  1. Expand the Troubleshooting section.

  2. Click Logs and Trace.

  3. Click the link for your server.

  4. Click Diagnostic Trace.

  5. In Trace Specification, enter the following string (type without spaces) depending on the method that you persist session data:
    1. If you do not use any persistence method or you use database persistence

      com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.httpsession.*=all=enabled:
      com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.*=all=enabled

    2. If you use memory-to-memory persistence:

      com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.httpsession.*=all=enabled:
      com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.*=all=enabled:
      com.ibm.ws.drs.*=all=enabled

  6. For Trace Ouput select File, Maximum File Size as 100MB, Maximun number of Historical Files as 10, and specify a File Name. You may have to select different values for Maximum File Size and Historical Files as per the frequency of the problem or as suggested by support team.

  7. Click apply and save your configuration.

  8. Stop the Application Server.

  9. Enable a plug-in trace by changing the LogLevel variable from Error to Trace in the plugin-cfg.xml file. This file is located in the directory, install_root\config\cells. The output file name is also specified in this file. By default, the plug-in trace file is http_plugin.log.

  10. Stop the Web server.

  11. Clear all stderr and stdout logs for the Application Server.

  12. On the Web server machine, enable a plug-in trace by changing the LogLevel variable from Error to Trace in the plugin-cfg.xml file. This file is located in the directory, install_root\config\cells. The output file name is also specified in this file. By default, the plug-in trace file is http_plugin.log.

  13. Start the Application Server.

  14. Start the Web server.

  15. Reproduce your problem. Capture the cookie information from browser by typing the below information in browser address:
    javascript:document.cookie
  16. Submit the following diagnostic information to IBM Support:
    1. Trace file specified in "Trace Specification" step.
    2. The stderr and stdout logs.
    3. The server.xml file located in the directory,
      install_root\config\cells\cell_name\nodes\node_name\servers\server_name
    4. The http_plugin.log file.
    5. The sessionID that encounters the problem.
    6. The historyReport.html file generated by running the tool genHistoryReport.bat or genHistoryReport.sh located in the install_root\bin directory. The historyreport.html will be generated in the working directory from where the genHistoryReport tool is being run.

For a listing of all technotes, downloads, and educational materials specific to the Session and Sessions Management component, search the WebSphere Application Server support site.
 
Related information
Configuring browsers to warn before accepting cookie
Submitting information to IBM Support
Steps for getting support
MustGather: Readme first
Troubleshooting guide
 
 
Cross Reference information
Segment Product Component Platform Version Edition
Application Servers Runtimes for Java Technology Java SDK
 
 


Document Information


Product categories: Software > Application Servers > Distributed Application & Web Servers > WebSphere Application Server > Sessions and Session Management
Operating system(s): Windows
Software version: 5.1
Software edition:
Reference #: 1083912
IBM Group: Software Group
Modified date: May 9, 2007