The server fails to start after enabling the debug service
 Technote (troubleshooting)
 
Problem(Abstract)
The IBM® WebSphere® Application Server does not start when the debug service is enabled and dfc.jar file is visible in the WebSphere Application Server classloader environment.
 
Cause
The dfc.jar file contains classes utilized by the com.ibm.bsf.BSFManager class. This JAR is sometimes made visible to the server classloader within the WebSphere Application Server environment (this is also known as the ExtClassLoader, which has the JVM classloader as it's parent). When this happens in such a way that it overrides those classes supplied by WebSphere Application Server, the server fails to launch, and emits the following message and exception stack trace:


[4/25/05 10:09:58:833 EDT] 322cadef WsServer      E WSVR0003E: Server server2 failed to start
java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: com.ibm.bsf.BSFManager: method initBSFDebugManager()V not found
at com.ibm.debug.DebugAppServerComponentImpl.start(DebugAppServerComponentImpl.java:117)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ContainerImpl.startComponents(ContainerImpl.java:543)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ContainerImpl.start(ContainerImpl.java:418)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationServerImpl.start(ApplicationServerImpl.java:128)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ContainerImpl.startComponents(ContainerImpl.java:543)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ContainerImpl.start(ContainerImpl.java:418)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ServerImpl.start(ServerImpl.java:183)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.WsServer.start(WsServer.java:128)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.WsServer.main(WsServer.java:225)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.WSLauncher.main(WSLauncher.java:94)

 
Resolving the problem
Dependent classes of the com.ibm.bsf.BSFManager class have been identified in the dfc.jar file, and WebSphere Application Server users have placed dfc.jar in the WAS_HOME/java/jre/lib/ext directory. This causes the classes in dfc.jar to override those in WebSphere Application Server. The WebSphere Application Server standard installation does not place the dfc.jar file in the WAS_HOME/java/jre/lib/ext directory.

A dfc.jar is part of the “Documentum Foundation Classes” which is third party jar; we do not advice users to put this jar in /java/jre/lib/ext directory. If you want to implement the third party jar, best practice would be to create a shared library and associate the jar.

To correct this problem, remove dfc.jar from the WAS_HOME/java/jre/lib/ext directory. If you do not require debugging assistance for this package, then an alternative solution is to create a server-associated shared library set to PARENT_LAST, which will cause all applications in the server to use the supplied version while still allowing WebSphere Application Server to use its own version.

When debug is enabled, the bsf manager tries to load some class and if dfc.jar is placed in the directory, it fails to load classes from the debug jar causing conflicts and WebSphere Application Server fails to start. Removing dcf.jar resolves the conflict.
 
 
Cross Reference information
Segment Product Component Platform Version Edition
Application Servers Runtimes for Java Technology Java SDK
 
Historical Number
12441
L6Q
000
 
 


Document Information


Product categories: Software > Application Servers > Distributed Application & Web Servers > WebSphere Application Server > Classloader
Operating system(s): AIX
Software version: 5.1.1.4
Software edition:
Reference #: 1204834
IBM Group: Software Group
Modified date: Jul 22, 2008