1 2 Previous Next 24 Replies Latest reply on Aug 24, 2006 4:28 PM by znbailey

    Frequent "failed to start" error

    znbailey

      Hi,

      I am running Eclipse 3.2 final on a Windows XP workstation, using JBoss AS 3.2.7 and JBossIDE 2.0 Alpha. I am finding that about 40% of the time when I am starting the server for debugging, I get a "failed to start" error with no more information - nothing is output on the console in terms of an error message, the server just stops booting.

      I am not using the publishing feature or anything of that sort - we deploy our files manually in a flat EAR.

      Any suggestions/questions?

        • 1. Re: Frequent
          rob.stryker

          The only thing I can think of for that error is if the server is taking longer than my defined timeout.

          How long is it taking your server to start? If it is actually close to where my timeout is, I can either try to increase the timeout or allow the user to do it.

          • 2. Re: Frequent
            znbailey

            Rob,

            It would be great if that were a user-configurable option. We have a considerable deployment, such that when debugging it is not uncommon for it to take anywhere from 55s to 1:35s to fully start up. (this is according to the line that says "17:57:10,562 INFO [Server] JBoss (MX MicroKernel) [3.2.7 (build: CVSTag=JBoss_3_2_7 date=200501280217)] Started in 1m:10s:328ms", for example).

            • 3. Re: Frequent
              jiyanghu

              I got the same issue - failed to start without any info(I am using 3.2.8sp1). It stopped starting after 2 minutes based on console log info. No reason for such a failure. I used the same ear file with IDE1.6 and it starts fine.

              • 4. Re: Frequent
                znbailey

                Rob,

                Any word on this? What is the timeout you have defined? What would be some other reasons for getting this "failed to start" message? It seems that maybe the 2.0 IDE package is less forgiving when certain non-critical startup items fail (i.e. failures not reported to the console, but may be happening internally during the JBoss AS startup process, which do not harm the startup process).

                • 5. Re: Frequent
                  znbailey

                  Here is the result of copying the event details to the clipboard from the error log:

                  eclipse.buildId=M20060629-1905
                  java.version=1.5.0_05
                  java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
                  BootLoader constants: OS=win32, ARCH=x86, WS=win32, NL=en_US
                  Command-line arguments: -os win32 -ws win32 -arch x86
                  
                  Error
                  Thu Jul 06 12:15:58 EDT 2006
                  Server JbossServer Cascade Server 4.x (TRUNK) failed to start.
                  


                  In the error log it says this happened in plug-in "org.eclipse.wst.server.core".

                  • 6. Re: Frequent
                    znbailey

                    A little more information:

                    This problem appears to crop up a lot more frequently (pretty much 100% of the time I get the "failed to start message") when I am doing other things while I am waiting for the server to start (both things inside of and outside of eclipse). I am on a dual-processor machine.

                    • 7. Re: Frequent
                      rob.stryker

                      For this week's release I've up'd the default timeout to 180000 ms, and I've added what I feel is better information to the event log regarding what's going on. You'll also be able to select an item in the 'event log' section of the view and, if the properties view is visible, get some additional information.

                      Hopefully this will help. At least I'm certain if it happens again I'll get more useful information back.

                      - Stryker

                      • 8. Re: Frequent
                        znbailey

                         

                        "rob.stryker@jboss.com" wrote:
                        For this week's release I've up'd the default timeout to 180000 ms, and I've added what I feel is better information to the event log regarding what's going on. You'll also be able to select an item in the 'event log' section of the view and, if the properties view is visible, get some additional information.

                        Hopefully this will help. At least I'm certain if it happens again I'll get more useful information back.

                        - Stryker


                        Rob,

                        Sounds great. Thanks for all the hard work.

                        • 9. Re: Frequent
                          mjdinsmore

                          Rob, You mentioned:

                          "rob.stryker@jboss.com" wrote:
                          How long is it taking your server to start? If it is actually close to where my timeout is, I can either try to increase the timeout or allow the user to do it.


                          Does your later comment:

                          "rob.stryker@jboss.com" wrote:
                          For this week's release I've up'd the default timeout to 180000 ms, and I've added what I feel is better information to the event log regarding what's going on. You'll also be able to select an item in the 'event log' section of the view and, if the properties view is visible, get some additional information.

                          Hopefully this will help. At least I'm certain if it happens again I'll get more useful information back.

                          - Stryker


                          mean that you did not add the user configurable timeout? I tried changing
                          ...\eclipse\plugins\org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core_1.0.0.Alpha\plugin.xml
                          with the startTimeout and stopTimeout values to something else but it didn't seem to have any effect. I'd be happy if the timeout was set to 300000 ms as even 180000 ms isn't going to be anywhere close to long enough for things to start up... (the larger value would at least give me breathing room)

                          Am I missing something? Should that manual change in the plugin.xml file actually be used?

                          thanks,
                          Mike

                          • 10. Re: Frequent
                            rob.stryker

                            Here's the issue: the plugin.xml requires a global max. For right now I set the global max at 7.5 minutes (450,000 ms). Any user-defined max will not be able to go beyond this global max. If you think this global max is too low, please suggest a higher one.

                            For the release we are making this week, there is no preference dialog yet, and you are correct to notice that changing the xml does not change the results for you.

                            My code checks the plugin preferences (which you are not yet able to set) and if they are not set, it defaults to 180000 ms (instead of the 120000 ms from before, but as you said still not high enough for you.)

                            The build this week will go out with this 3 minute effective max unless you all make a big stink about it and demand a higher one, in which case I can probably convince Marshall to initiate a rebuild and set the effective max to the global max for this release.

                            I suppose I should have done that anyway.

                            • 11. Re: Frequent
                              znbailey

                              Rob,

                              That sounds good. I'm sure there may be people here whose servers take that long to start, but I think we can imagine they would be in the minority.

                              I will see if the new build addresses this issue. However I am not sure it was the timeout issue I was ever suffering from - I have seen this error screen pop up once before when my server took more than 2 minutes to start - and it was different than the error dialog I receive most of the time which is the generic "the server failed to start" rather than the "timeout exceeded" error message.

                              I will report back in this thread when the new release hits. Thanks!

                              • 12. Re: Frequent
                                znbailey

                                I just upgraded to Alpha1a. Now, when starting the server the status box ALWAYS says "starting...", even after I have received the message "11:47:57,734 INFO [Server] JBoss (MX MicroKernel) [3.2.7 (build: CVSTag=JBoss_3_2_7 date=200501280217)] Started in 56s:922ms". Then, after a while the error dialog pops up : "The server failed to start in 450 seconds", but that error dialog does not make the server stop running. It seems there is some disconnect between the actual state of the server and the state returned by the method the jboss adapter uses to poll the server.

                                • 13. Re: Frequent
                                  rob.stryker

                                  znbailey:

                                  could you please provide me with more information from the jboss server view's event log? Also, you can get some extra information by opening the properties view and clicking on various event log items to see some properties of them.

                                  Please provide as much data from there as you can. You are correct. There is a disconnect of some sort. What type of configuration are you using? Is it a modified minimal configuration or a generic standard configuration?

                                  What JBoss version are you using?

                                  etc etc.

                                  • 14. Re: Frequent
                                    znbailey

                                    Rob,

                                    Absolutely. My configuration information is as follows:

                                    JBoss 3.2.7, using the "default" configuration. Deploying in a flat file EAR.

                                    The error message in the error console (and in the dialog that appears) is as follows:

                                    Timeout waiting for JbossServer Cascade Server 4.x (TRUNK) to start. Server did not start after 450s.


                                    The Exception Stack Trace is not available.

                                    Here is the session data, as available from the "event details":

                                    eclipse.buildId=M20060629-1905
                                    java.version=1.5.0_05
                                    java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
                                    BootLoader constants: OS=win32, ARCH=x86, WS=win32, NL=en_US
                                    Command-line arguments: -os win32 -ws win32 -arch x86


                                    My program arguments are : "--configuration=default --host=localhost"

                                    VM arguments: "-Xms256m -Xmx512m"

                                    Let me know if I can get you any other information.

                                    Thanks.


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