HTTP plug-in component troubleshooting tips

If you are having problems with the HTTP plug-in component - the component which sends requests from your HTTP server, such as IBM HTTP Server, Apache, Domino, iPlanet, or IIS, to the WebSphere Application Server, try these steps:

• Review the file install_dir/logs/http_plugin.log for clues. Look up any error or warning messages in the message table.

• Review your HTTP server's error and access logs to see if the HTTP server is having a problem:

  • IBM HTTP Server and Apache: access.log and error.log.

  • Domino web server: httpd-log and httpd-error.

  • iPlanet: access and error.

  • IIS: timedatestamp.log.

If these files don't reveal the cause of the problem, follow these additional steps.

Plug-in Problem Determination Steps

The plug-in provides very readable tracing which can be beneficial in helping to figure out the problem. By setting the LogLevel attribute in the config/plugin-cfg.xml file to Trace, you can follow the request processing to see what is going wrong. At a high level:

1. The plug-in gets a request.

2. The plug-in checks the routes defined in the plugin-cfg.xml file.

3. It finds the server group.

4. It finds the server.

5. It picks the transport protocol, usually HTTP.

6. It sends the request.

7. It reads the response.

8. It writes it back to the client.

You can see this very clearly by reading through the trace for a single request:

• The first step is to determine if the plug-in has loaded into the HTTP server successfully.

  • Check to make sure thehttp_plugin.log has been created.

  • If it has, look in it to see if any error messages indicate some sort of failure that took place during plug-in initialization. If no errors are found look for the following stanza, which indicates that the plug-in started normally. Ensure that the timestamps for the messages correspond to the time you started the Web server:

    [Thu Jul 11 10:59:15 2002] 0000009e 000000b1 - PLUGIN: ---System Information--- 
    [Thu Jul 11 10:59:15 2002] 0000009e 000000b1 - PLUGIN: Bld date: Jul  3 2002, 15:35:09 
    [Thu Jul 11 10:59:15 2002] 0000009e 000000b1 - PLUGIN: Web server: IIS 
    [Thu Jul 11 10:59:15 2002] 0000009e 000000b1 - PLUGIN: Hostname = SWEETTJ05 
    [Thu Jul 11 10:59:15 2002] 0000009e 000000b1 - PLUGIN: OS version 4.0, build 1381, 
                                                           'Service Pack 6' 
    [Thu Jul 11 10:59:15 2002] 0000009e 000000b1 - PLUGIN: ------------------------- 

  • Some common errors are:

    lib_security: loadSecurityLibrary: Failed to load gsk library

    The GSKit did not get installed or the installation is corrupt. If the GSKit did not get installed you can determine this by searching for the file gsk5ssl.dll on all drives for Win32 or see if there are any libgsk5*.so files in /usr/lib on UNIX. Try reinstalling the plug-in to see if you can get the GSKit to install in order to fix this.

    ws_transport: transportInitializeSecurity: Keyring wasn't set

    The HTTPS transport defined in the configuration file was prematurely terminated and did not contain the Property definitions for the keyring and stashfile. Check your XML syntax for the line number given in the error messages that follow this one to make sure the Transport element contains definitions for the keyring and stashfiles before it is terminated.

  • If thehttp_plugin.log is not created, check the Web server error log to see if any plug-in related error messages have been logged there that indicate why the plug-in is failing to load. Typical causes of this can include failing to correctly configure the plug-in with the Web server environment. Check the documentation for configuring the Web server you are trying to use with the Web server plug-in.

• Determine whether there are network connection problems with the plug-in and the various appservers defined in the configuration. Typically you will see the following message when this is the case:

  ws_common: websphereGetStream: Failed to connect to app server, OS err=%d

  Where %d is an OS specific error code related to why the connect() call failed. This can happen for a variety of reasons.

  • Ping the machines to make sure they are properly connected to the network. If the machines can't be pinged then there is no way the plug-in will be able to contact them. Possible reasons for this include:

    • Firewall policies limiting the traffic from the plug-in to the app server.

    • The machines are not on the same network.

  • If you are able to ping the machines then the likely cause of the problem is that the port is not active. This could be because the appserver or cluster has not been started or the appserver has gone down for some reason. You can test this by hand by trying to telnet into the port that the connect is failing on. If you cannot telnet into the port the application server is not up and that problem needs to be resolved before the plug-in will be able to connect successfully.

• Determine whether other activity on the machines where the servers are installed is impairing the server's ability to service a request. Check the processor utilization as measured by the task manager, processor ID, or some other outside tool to see if it:

  • Is not what was expected.

  • Is erratic rather than a constant.

  • Shows that a newly added member of the cluster is not being utilized.

  • Shows that a failing member that has been fixed is not being utilized.

• Check the administrative console to ensure that the appservers are started. View the administrative console for error messages or look in the JVM logs.

• In the administrative console, select the problem appserver and view its installed applications to verify that they are started.

If none of these steps solves the problem:

• For specific problems that can cause web pages and their contents not to display, seeWeb resource (JSP file, servlet, html file, image, etc) will not display in the information center.

• Check to see if the problem has been identified and documented using the links in Diagnosing and fixing problems: Resources for learning.

• If you do not see a problem that resembles yours, or if the information provided does not solve your problem, contact IBM support for further assistance.

For current information available from IBM Support on known problems and their resolution, see the following topics on the IBM support page:

• HTTP transport

• HTTP plugin

• HTTP plugin remote install

IBM Support has documents that can save you time gathering information needed to resolve this problem. Before opening a PMR, see the following topics on the IBM support page:

• HTTP transport

• HTTP plugin

• HTTP plugin remote install

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