CommunicationException thrown when trying to lookup session bean

[stianst]

I'm trying to lookup a session bean from a servlet. There lookup code looks like this:

{code}
InitialContext ic = new InitialContext();
ic.lookup("MyBean/remote");
{code}

I don't have a jndi.properties file

However, the lookup throws javax.naming.CommunicationException: Receive timed out [Root exception is java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Receive timed out]

I've had a look at NamingContext to figure out what is going on. To summarize NamingContext#checkRef does the following:

1. Check if Context.PROVIDER_URL is specified in refEnv - It isn't
2. Use the server in the same VM - localServer is null so this isn't available
3. Discover server using broadcast - this is where the CommunicationException is thrown

Does anyone have any idea what is going on? It seems to me that NamingContext#localServer shouldn't be null? Also why does it do a broadcast discovery by default (I assume HA isn't enabled by default)?

[stianst]

Problem solved!

NamingContext#localServer was null because jnp-client.jar was included in the WAR so the NamingContext class was loaded by the WAR class loader instead of retrieved from the system classloader. NamingContext#localServer is a static variable and is set by NamingBeanImpl on startup of the server and is obviously only set on the NamingContext class that is loaded by the system classloader.

I still have some questions on this issue though:

• Why is broadcast discovery enabled by default?
• It seems the CommunicationException should be replaced with an exception that is more intuitive. The problem in this case is that InitialContext couldn't lookup an object as is couldn't get a hold of the naming server which is not at all made clear by the exception.