Steps to resolve Error 500 in Administration Console
 Technote (troubleshooting)
 
Problem(Abstract)
When trying to access the Administration Console, the browser displays "Error 500: An error occurred while processing request."
 
Cause
This error can occur in a couple of different ways:
  • After entering your username and trying to log in, the Error 500 message displays along with part of the Administration Console.
  • You can log into the Administration Console fine, but after making certain selections on the
    left hand navigational menu in the Administration Console, the right hand side displays the Error 500 message.

Both of these scenarios have been resolved on numerous occasions by one of the following:
 
Resolving the problem
First, be sure that the machine's hostname does not contain an underscore. PQ75492 addresses this issue as underscores in hostnames are not allowed. If it does not, then try the following:
  1. Logout of the Administration Console (if possible).
  2. Stop the server.
  3. Delete all contents in the <install_root>/wstemp/ folder.
  4. Restart the server.
  5. Login to the Administration Console and see if the error persists.

If cleaning up the wstemp folder does not work, follow these steps:
  1. Open up your web browser and delete all cookies, history, temporary internet files, and so on. In Internet Explorer, select Tools > Internet Options from the menu.
  2. Close and then reopen the browser.
  3. Access the Administration Console.
  4. Log in and see if the error persists.
  5. Navigate to <WAS_HOME>/config/.repository. There should only be one file in this directory, metadata.xml. If there are other files besides metadata.xml, problems can arise as WebSphere tries to parse each one.

    Note
    : In Version 6.0, the files sib-metadata.xml and sibws-metadata.xml should also be present in this directory.

If clearing your browser's history files does not work, try reinstalling the Administration Console application if you are running Version 5.0 or 5.1 (this is not possible in 6.0). To do so, see the following technote on how to reinstall the Administration Console: Reinstalling the adminconsole or filetransfer application

If that fails as well, open a Problem Management Record (PMR) with IBM Support.

 
Related information
PQ75492 - Underscore in hostname is not allowed
Requirements for SSO Domain Name in WebSphere
WebSphere Administration Console throws error 500
 
 
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 > Administrative Console (all non-scripting)
Operating system(s): Windows
Software version: 6.0
Software edition:
Reference #: 1214441
IBM Group: Software Group
Modified date: Jun 7, 2006