WebSphere

 

Portal Express, Version 6.0
Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux, Windows

 

Troubleshoot administration

 

+

Search Tips   |   Advanced Search

 

This section contains information that can assist you in preventing, identifying, and correcting problems related to IBM® WebSphere® Portal Express.

For information related to specific components, see the appropriate troubleshooting topic.

 

Troubleshoot issues related to using or administering the portal

This section describes problem that can occur when using or administering the portal.

 

No pages display in the portal (Linux installations with IBM DB2 Universal Database™ Enterprise Server Edition)

If you selected the option to deploy the base portlets (the administration and customization portlets used by the portal) during the portal installation, but no pages are displayed when you open the portal and the following error messages are in the installation log files for the database, there is a shared memory problem with DB2 and the WebSphere Application Server datasources: 

com.ibm.wps.util.DataBackendException: Error during database access!
Nested Exception is com.ibm.websphere.ce.cm.StaleConnectionException:
[IBM][CLI Driver] SQL1224N A database agent could not be started to service a request, 
or was terminated as a result of a database system shutdown or a force command.
SQLSTATE=55032

 

Solution: On Linux installations, you cannot use the WebSphere Portal Express database directly. Instead, define a local alias for the database.

The alias connects to the WebSphere Portal Express database using a TCP/IP connection. For instructions, see the WebSphere Portal Express information center. Search for the instructions for configuring DB2.

 

Browser switches to another session when multiple users are logged in from the same client

If a user, such as the portal administrator, logs in to the portal, leaves that login active, and then logs in from another instance of the same browser but using a different user ID, the second instance of the browser might switch to the first user's session and other problems might occur.

 

Solution: If you need to log in as different users on the same client, use one of the following methods to avoid this problem:

 

When modifying user information via WebSphere Portal Express, unexpected results could occur

When modifying user information via WebSphere Portal Express, if you receive the error Backend storage system failed. Please try again later., or the user attributes are not updated in LDAP, it might mean that the default tuning parameters for use with DB2 and IBM Tivoli® Directory Server need to be adjusted.

 

Solution: The default DB2 parameters are: 

APP_CTL_HEAP_SZ 128
APPLHEAP_SZ 128

Depending on your environment, the parameters above might be too small for Tivoli Directory Server and WebSphere Portal Express on systems with 2000 user entries.

The HEAP size of UDB is required when updating or inserting data. WebSphere Portal Express spawns heavy transactions to the LDAP server in any phase, especially changing user attributes, which spawns several updates and inserts. To prevent this problem, the following WebSphere Portal Express tuning is required: 

su -ldapdb2
db2 -c update db cfg for ldap using APP_CTL_HEAP_SZ 1024
db2 -c update db cfg for ldap using APPLHEAP_SZ 1024

 

Application error for Edit Layout and Content

An application error might occur when you use the Edit Page task. The sequence of events that result in the problem are:

  1. A new user signs up or enrolls for the portal.

  2. The user logs in.

  3. The user selects the page to work with.

  4. The user selects the Edit Page.

  5. The user selects a portlet on the page and then clicks the edit portlet icon. The edit portlet dialog is displayed in a separate window.

  6. The user edits the portlet and then clicks the OK button. The edit portlet window closes.

  7. The user clicks the edit portlet icon a second time. This time, the edit portlet dialog displays in a separate window, but with the message There has been an application error.

 

Solution: If this problem occurs, the user should log off and then log in again. Then the problem will not occur again.

 

Portlet contents are blank

When a portlet Web application is unavailable, for example because it was stopped in the application server, the corresponding portlets will not show an error message but just display no content. In this case, the log file will show one of the following error messages:

 

Solution: Make sure the enterprise application is started by using the application server's administrative console.

 

An error message after an LTPA timeout that follows a session timeout

After an LTPA timeout following a session timeout, an IllegalArgException error might be displayed and a new login is required.

 

Solution: Refresh the Web browser by doing one of the following:

 

Receiving session timeout screen

When a user from another application server instance within the single signon domain of WebSphere Portal Express with a Session cookie that has the name JSESSIONID and a cookie path that matches the portal URL (for example, the default value /) accesses the WebSphere Portal Express protected area (for example, myportal), the user will see the session timeout screen. This is because WebSphere Portal Express cannot distinguish if the cookie sent by the browser was created by itself or by another application server instance.

 

Solution: To prevent this problem, the cookie path has to be adjusted so that it can be distinguished from the WebSphere Portal Express URL in the other Application Server instances that share the same single signon domain. Use the Session Management settings in IBM WebSphere Application Server Administration to specify a unique cookie path for the JSESSIONID cookie.

If you specify the cookie path using "overwrite" option in the session management administration screen at a level other then the web container level, you will have to again specify distributed session settings at that level even though they might already be defined at the web container level.

 

Browser refresh forces a portlet transaction

For portlets that use String-based actions, refreshing the browser could cause the portlet to re-execute its action, creating a problem in some transactional portlets. For example, a user clicking refresh could inadvertently trigger an action that updates the quantity of an item in a shopping cart.

 

Solution: Modify the portlet by adding the following configuration parameter and value: 

com.ibm.wps.portlet.action.redirect = true

This allows the page and portlet to be reloaded without the action parameters in the URL. You can add and set configuration parameters by clicking Administration, Portlets, then Manage Portlets. Select the portlet to be modified and click Modify parameters.

 

Search and Browse portlet does not work after reconfiguring from local to remote service or vice versa

If you change the configuration of the Search and Browse portlet from local search service to remote search service or vice versa, the portlet does not work.

 

Cause: You can configure and use the Search and Browse portlet in two ways, either for accessing a locally installed search service or using a remote search service through the EJB or SOAP (Web services) interface. Once you have configured the Search and Browse portlet for local search service or remote search service, you cannot change its configuration to the other type of service. If you try to do this, the portlet does not work any more.

 

Solution: If you want to switch to the other type of service (for example, from local to remote), you need to do so manually. Create another copy of the portlet and configure it for the required service type. For details refer to the Portal Search documentation.

 

Cannot use the XML configuration interface if it is externalized in security

If the virtual resource XML_ACCESS that represents access to the XML configuration interface is put under protection of an external security manager, you can no longer use the XML configuration interface.

 

Solution: If the access rights of WebSphere Portal Express are externalized to an external security manager, such as IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-business, make sure that the XML configuration interface virtual resource is not externalized.

 

Link to launch Edit mode of a portlet disappears

When you use the Edit Layout portlet to edit a page, the page is deactivated and the link to launch the Edit mode of a portlet on that page disappears.

 

Cause: A page is deactivated immediately after you perform an action in the Edit Content and Layout portlet, for example, Add Portlets or Move Portlets/container.

 

Solution: Once the page is deactivated after you an action, you need to click Done to leave the page. This activates the page again. When you click the Edit Page link, the Edit Portlet link is displayed.

 

Administrative Console not loading

WebSphere Portal Express installs the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console application into the WebSphere Portal Express application server so that it can be used to administer the application server without requiring another application server instance (by default, server1) to be configured or operational. The default port used for communication is 10038.

 

Solution: On Windows 2000, a Start Menu item is created to invoke the Administrative Console. If this menu item fails to load the console because of a HTTP 404 error that means that the Application Server is assigned a different administration port than was configured in the shortcut for this Start Menu item.

You might have to change the property of WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console in Windows 2000 Start Menu

Start | Programs | IBM WebSphere | Application Server | Administrative Console

...as appropriate. For example change 

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE http://<hostname>:9060/admin/

...to... 

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE http://<hostname>:10038/admin/

 

Portlet deployment fails due to transfer or timeout problems

Deploying a portlet application by using the Web Modules portlet might fail due to transfer or timeout problems, with the portlet returning to the initial state.

 

Scenario detail: When you deploy a portlet application Web module by clicking the Install button in the Web Modules portlet, selecting a Web module from the browse dialog and clicking Next, the portlet might return to the initial state as it was before you clicked the Install button. No error message is displayed. In the WebSphere Portal Express log file you might see an exception that says: Nested Exception is org.apache.jetspeed.portlet.PortletException: Processing of multipart/form-data request failed. Read timed out.

Cause: A timeout might have occurred on the HTTP connection when trying to install the portlet application WAR file. This problem can depend on several factors, for example:

Solution: To resolve this problem, try changing one or more of the properties or timeout values that can affect the installation of the WAR file. Here are some examples:

Use discretion when changing these values. Depending on the portal configuration and the size of the WAR file to be installed, it might be sufficient to increase one parameter, or you might have to increase more than one parameter. You might have to set one or more parameters to infinite.

 

Extracting a JNDI namespace in portal

WebSphere Application Server provides a command line utility for creating a JNDI namespace extract of a dedicated application server. This utility is named dumpNameSpace.bat or dumpNameSpace.sh, depending on your operating system. This utility is located in the WebSphere Application Server installation directory app_server_root/bin.

To extract a namespace from a server, the following requirements must be met:

For a detailed list of parameters for the dumpNameSpace utility, call the utility with a question mark as an input parameter. For example, depending on your operating system, you might change to the directory app_server_root/bin and enter dumpNameSpace.sh ?. If you run the utility without any additional parameters, the namespace of the default application server of WebSphere server1 is extracted, and the connection port 2809 is used.

Before you extract the JNDI namespace of the WebSphere Portal Express application server, you need to determine the port number. To do this, open the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console and navigate to...

Servers | Application Servers | yourPortalServerName | End Points | BOOTSTRAP_ADDRESS

To extract the JNDI namespace of WebSphere Portal Express on the local host for the port number determined by the procedure above, change to the directory app_server_root/bin and enter the following command, depending on your operating system: 

dumpNameSpace.sh/bat -port port_number

where port_number is the port number that you looked up in the Administrative Console.

The result is written to the standard output.

 

Portal hangs on Windows with JVM Heap Size larger than 1430 MB

You might experience a Portal System Hang on Windows if the JVM Heap Size is set at larger than 1430 MB.

 

Solution:

Set the heap size to less or equal than 1430 MB. See page 12 of the performance tuning guide for reference.

 

Error occurs when exporting files from various portlets

When you export files from the Manage Pages, Template Library or Policy administrative portlets, you may receive one of the error messages below if using Internet Explorer:

 

Solution: Perform the following steps:

  1. Open your Internet Explorer browser.

  2. Click Tools > Internet Options.

  3. Click the Security tab.

  4. Click the Custom Level button.

  5. Under the Downloads section, click the Enable radio button under Automatic prompting for file downloads.

 

Error message EJPPH0004E on renamed wps.ear file

Portal shows the following message: EJPPH0004E: Administration rights for Application Server are missing.

 

Cause: The portal EAR file wps.ear has been renamed.

 

Solution: Change the name of the file back to wps.ear. Do not rename the file. In the administration console the portal must be shown as an enterprise application with the name wps.ear.

 

Troubleshoot issues related to national language support

This section describes problems that can occur when viewing different languages with WebSphere Portal Express.

 

Issues with browsers displaying DBCS characters in selection boxes

This information concerns languages that use double-byte character sets (DBCS). Sometimes when DBCS text is displayed in selection boxes (such as the selector for pages), all of the characters are displayed as square boxes. It has not been possible to determine the browser versions and operating systems on which this situation occurs consistently.

 

Solution: None at this time.

 

Issues with information center and Portal Help search

If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x to display the WebSphere Portal Express information center or Portal Help and then use the Search function, some corrupted characters might be displayed in the search results list.

 

Solution: See the Requirements section in the information center to view a list of other Web browsers that you can use.

 

Issues with Microsoft Internet Explorer in a Japanese environment

 

Solution:

 

Search Crawler OutofMemory error

You might receive an OutofMemory error when using Search Crawler on large portlet JSPs.

 

Solution: Either pre-compile your large portlet before using Search Crawler or see Setting the JVM max heap size to increase your JVM heap size.

 

Parent topic:

Search the product documentation for a solution