Exception in Virtual-Tomcat

[darran]

Hi,
I`m using Windows Vista Business.

I`ve installed Enterprise Alfresco 201 and WCM 201.

I`ve installed the virtual-tomcat as a service after reading http://forums.alfresco.com/viewtopic.php?t=5858
and all the related links.

And I`m ensuring that my Virtual-server starts after my main Alfresco installation but I`m still getting the following exception in my virtual-tomcat:-

SEVERE: Exception starting filter alfrecoCacheControlFilter
java.lang.NullPointerException
   at org.alfresco.filter.CacheControlFilter.Init(CacheControlFilter.java:94)
   at org.alfresco.filter.CacheControlFilter.init(CacheControlFilter.java:65)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.getFilter(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:223)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.setFilterDef(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:304)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.<init>(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:77)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.filterStart(StandardContext.java:3634)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4217)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.context.AVMStandardContext.start(AVMStandardContext.java:71)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:759)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:739)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:524)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.host.AVMHostConfig.deployAVMdirectory(AVMHostConfig.java:1402)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.host.AVMHostConfig.deployAVMWebapp(AVMHostConfig.java:1201)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.host.AVMHostConfig.deployAVMWebappDescriptorTree(AVMHostConfig.java:1047)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.host.AVMHostConfig.deployAVMWebappDescriptorTree(AVMHostConfig.java:1056)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.host.AVMHostConfig.deployAVMWebappsInDependencyOrder(AVMHostConfig.java:1040)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.host.AVMHostConfig.deployAllAVMwebappsInRepository(AVMHostConfig.java:403)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.host.AVMHostConfig.deployApps(AVMHostConfig.java:244)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1122)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.host.AVMHostConfig.start(AVMHostConfig.java:196)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:310)
   at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1021)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:718)
   at org.alfresco.catalina.host.AVMHost.start(AVMHost.java:632)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1013)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:442)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:450)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:709)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:551)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:294)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:432)

Any ideas why??

Thanks

Darran

[darran]

It appears the JNDI lookup is failing to find the spring context to get the necessary bean causing a Null Pointer exception

[kvc]

Darren:


Hmmm … what app server / OS are you deploying Alfresco on?  Also, if you are a customer or partner, can you raise a support ticket on this?



Kevin

[steve]

Hi,

Please note we have not yet done any testing of Alfresco on any version of Vista so there is no guarantee that it will work (unfortunately as you are finding out).

We will be doing client testing on Vista for 2.1, but no formal testing for running the server - so any issues you or anyone else finds running Alfresco server components on Vista are more than welcome to be submitted to our issue tracker (http://issues.alfresco.com).

Thanks,

Steve

[sacco]

One begins to wonder if  anybody is actually using this virtualisation!

A month later I'm experiencing the exact same stack dump which is causing every context to fail on startup on a pristine new intallation on … RHEL4

Looking back in the forum I find the same stack dump under 2.0.1 in March,,,

Any idea what it's about yet?s the filter really supposed to be called 'alfreco…' (sic)

[jcox]

Sacco,

We have several thousand active installations that are using
WCM virtualization quite sucessfully.   This includes people on
windows NT, XP, W2K,  Linux, OS-X,  and others.

It's quite possible that you were bitten by an upgrade
issue or ended up on a bad patch (or are missing one),
but whatever problems you've experienced, they are certainly
not the norm.  All known upgrade & patch mismatch issues
have been cleared up for months now, so troubleshooting
what's going on within your installation is more of a support
issue at this point.   Therefore, if you're on a support contract,
I suggest you contact them directly & get help with  whatever
has gone amiss.

As a developer, the direct support I can offer to you with your
site-specific problem is necessarily somewhat limited, but
I still don't want to see you left high-and-dry.   I suggest trying
a more recent build to rule out other things like jar files where
they shouldn't be, patch issues. and so on. 

If I were you, the first thing I'd do is grab a build from HEAD
and try that.   This will help you rule out a bunch of things in
just a few minutes.

Let me know how it goes for you.

   I hope this helps,
   -Jon

[sacco]

Hmmm … late night postings…: perhaps I wasn't clear what I meant.

I wasn't suggesting that WCM virtualisation is not being used, simply that this exact same problem can be found in these forums for all the 2.x releases going back at least as far as March, but  with no suggestion as to what might be causing it or how to resolve the problem.

As I am experiencing it on a new installation from scratch, on the most standard platform I have available:

RHEL4, completely updated to lates patches
IBM JVM 1.5.0 r8 (Red Hat released version)
Alfresco  tomcat bundle (to avoid issues with my version of tomcat)

I conclude that if it is something about my configuration, it's a problem that many others must be hitting too.

It's quite possible that you were bitten by an upgrade
issue or ended up on a bad patch (or are missing one),

As I've explained, it happens with a pristine installation (and also with a more recent nightly build I checked).  Without any more detailed idea of what this is about, I'm not sure I have the time to dismantle my whole config line by line just in case, with no certainty that it will make any difference anyway.

[jcox]

Sacco,

Concrete information would make it easier for me to help you,
but so far you have only provided information about your platform.
Are you seeing exactly the same stack trace as darran?
Did you in fact follow the suggestion I offered to you?
If so, what was the outcome?

There just isn't enough concrete information here to speculate
about what is going wrong on your machine.  However, given the
large number of active WCM users and the small number of reported
issues along the lines you're describing, it clearly is not effecting
many others, fortunately.

Clearly, something is wrong on *your* box, and that's
enough reason for me to want to get to the bottom
of things and help you out  if I can. 

I'm not asking you to dismantle your config line by line.
Download HEAD, record the SVN revision number,
and re-run your test (possibly with debugging cranked up).
If you get a stack trace, then please post it.  


   Thanks,
   -Jon

[sacco]

Sacco,

Concrete information would make it easier for me to help you,
but so far you have only provided information about your platform.
Are you seeing exactly the same stack trace as darran?

Yes, exactly the same trace, otherwise I'd have posted it.

The same trace can also be seen elsewhere on the forum, e.g:
http://forums.alfresco.com/viewtopic.php?t=5858

Did you in fact follow the suggestion I offered to you?
If so, what was the outcome?

Yes, I did try more recent builds.  I originally noticed the problem with the released 2.1.0RC1, but it also occurs with 2.1.0RC2, the released version of 2.1.0 , as well as the latest updated nightly build of 2.10 (dated July 31).

I also did some other experiments: there's more information here:

http://forums.alfresco.com/viewtopic.php?t=6893&start=3

Thanks,
t.