Borland AppServer 6.7 Release Notes

This release note contains information specific to the Borland AppServer 6.7 release. This release of the Borland AppServer addresses most of the customer-reported problems and includes the value-added features set.

This release note contains the following sections:

New Features in BAS 6.7

Platform Information

Licensing and Installation Instructions

Important: BAS must be licensed and registered before it is run. However, you may start your Management Hub and Agents and then license them remotely using the Management Console. For instructions on how to license your product, refer to the licensing section in the Borland AppServer Installation manual.

BAS 6.7 Installation

For BAS installation instructions, refer to the Borland AppServer Installation Guide in the Borland web site at http://www.borland.com/techpubs/appserver

An installation FAQ is also available at http://support.borland.com/.

Other Borland and Third-Party Product Dependencies

Borland AppServer interoperate with other Borland and third-party developed products such as:

These products can impose restrictions on the range of platforms and OS versions that can be supported by BAS. Please refer to the plaform information.

Known Issues in this Release

  1. BAS Documentation Update: The XML Migration Wizard helps you migrate JAR files containing EJBs based on version 1.2 and 1.3 of the J2EE specification to EJBs based on version 1.4 of the J2EE specification. This wizard also enables you to migrate modules from J2EE 1.3 to J2EE 1.2, or J2EE 1.4 to J2EE 1.3. The wizard migrates the XML deployment descriptors only. While migrating from an older version to a newer version of J2EE, any non-Borland, vendor-specific information stored in the older of the two versions of J2EE deployment descriptor (that is, a *.ser file) will not be migrated.

  2. Solaris only: Due to Sun Solaris bug 5045556, the "use user's login environment" configuration option for a managed object does not work when the user's login shell is /bin/sh, /usr/bin/sh, /sbin/sh, or /bin/jsh. All other Solaris shells are not impacted. Sun is working on a fix for this problem.

  3. If an Apache web server stops without deleting its httpd.pid file, the BAS Agent will not be able to start the Apache web server. This typically happens when the machine crashes while it is running the Apache web server. You must manually delete the httpd.pid file, which by default is located in: <install_dir>\var\domains\<domain_name>\configurations\<configuration_name>\mos\<apache_managedobject_name>\logs\httpd.pid.

  4. When creating a Liferay or Liferay 4 configuration with the product installed using the OpenJMS alone install image, the partition doesn't have OpenJMS MO.

    If users want to host liferay in the product installed using the OpenJMS alone install image:

    1. Open the file <bas>\var\templates\configurations\addin\liferay\liferay.xml.

    2. Search for <template path="managed_objects/partitions/liferay">.

    3. Replace it with <template path="managed_objects/partitions/liferay_openjms>.

    4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 with the file <bas>\var\templates\configurations\addin\liferay4\liferay.xml.

  5. When a UNIX text file is downloaded as part of a Managed Object Template, it must follow the UNIX platform rules for Ctrl-M. If the file is edited using a Windows text editor, you must be sure that it does not contain any extra Ctrl-M. Watch for this when including .sh files as part of the Custom Executable Managed Object Template.

  6. UNIX only: The Management Agent will not be able to stop a JDataStore server as a Managed Object process unless it is started using the -ui none option. For an example, see the Pet Store cluster.

  7. To allow the Management Agent to manage an IIS server, using the Windows management console, you must set the IISAdmin and WWW services to: Startup Type = Manual. Also, ensure that all the Recovery actions are set to: Take No Action.

  8. This version of BAS includes the latest version of Borland JDataStore (JDS 7.02). Please read the Release Notes for JDataStore 7 if upgrading from JDataStore 6 (included in BAS 6.0) because the requirements for username/passwords in the database have been tightened.

  9. BAS integrates the open source MC4J Console. There are some known issues in MC4J that Borland has not attempted to fix, and hence passes through as BAS problems from a user's viewpoint.

  10. There is a problem launching MC4J from the Management Console when an external JDK is configured instead of the default JDK. In the case of HP UNIX, an external JDK is always used and this problem is more evident. To fix the problem, edit the mc4j.config file in the <install_dir>/bin directory and change this line to point to the right JDK:

    javahome $var(installRoot)/jdk/jdk1.4.2

  11. ServerTrace: Enabling and then disabling ServerTrace leaves the ServerTraceMBeans.war deployed in the J2EE server. This WAR contains some initialization code and having this deployed does not have any side effects other than a message in the logs.

  12. Optimizeit product error messages: When configuring ServerTrace/Profiler the Borland Management Console log may have one of the following messages:

    JavaTester error: optit.jar not found in the CLASSPATH

    or

    Can't find OPTIT_HOME, trying cwd

    Ignore these messages. These messages do not affect any functionality of the product.

  13. Optimizeit: You may receive the following error message when configuring Profiler on more than one BAS Partition:

    The port 1470 is already used, the audit system cannot start

    The work around is to use the Audit System Selector utility to explicitly assign a different port number so that the next Partition chooses this new port.

  14. In some situations the serialization and de-serialization of a local corba stub leads to a class cast exception. To resolve this problem, you can do one of the following:

    Set the following property from the command line:
    Dvbroker.orb.autoLocateStubs=true

    or

    Call the PRO.narrow() method before the references are used.

    Standard deployment of web services through service-ref is not supported in this release. Web Services deployment is based on AXIS proprietary web services deployment descriptors. When the archive containing service-ref in its deployment descriptor is deployed, deployment succeeds with the following warning "Service Refs are not supported in this release".

  15. If you select the option-A (Exclusive) as the transaction commit mode for entity beans, you will encounter an unexpected occurrence of javax.ejb.ObjectNotFoundException in situations where a transaction involves large number of entity beans.

    You can do one of the following to avoid this issue:

    1. Use option-B (Shared) commit mode instead of option-A commit mode.

    2. Increase the value of the ejb.maxBeansInTransactions property.

    3. Disable transaction cache compaction by setting it to 0.

    4. Increase the value of transaction cache compaction to a much higher value than you will need.

  16. The URL specification of a localhost for Tibco JMS in a Partition's Configuration file must be consistent with the specification of hostname in a DAR file. For example, if the localhost name is myhost and you specify localhost:7222 in the jndi-definitions.xml file, you must also specify localhost:7222 for the Tibco Managed Object in the Configuration file. Similarly, if you specify myhost:7222 in the jndi-definitions.xml file you must also specify myhost:7222 in the Configuration file.

  17. If you host liferay on 64 bit machines (Windows, Solaris, or HP-UX), you may encounter an out-of-memory error from LifeRay. To avoid this error, make sure you increase the heap size in the console.config file according to the available system resources. For example, change the following:

    vmparam -Xmx256m (this is the default size)

    to

    vmparam -Xmx512m

  18. On the 64-bit Windows platforms only, do not use JDK 1.4.2, which is distributed as part of the installation, to launch any of the BAS launchers. JDK 1.4.2 is a 32-bit JDK, and on the 64-bit platforms is used only by the uninstaller to uninstall BAS. To launch BAS launchers, use JDK 1.5 (located in the <bas_install>/jdk directory), which is a 64-bit JDK.

  19. While configuring ServerTrace, the Console does not automatically pick up the path to the Partition's JDK. You must ensure that ServerTrace has the path to the correct JDK in order for it to dynamically create ServerTrace's JNI stub JAR file. To do so:

    Check that the required jni stub jar files exist in <Serve Trace install>\lib\oibcp directory:

    <Serve Trace install>\lib\oibcp\oibcp_sun_142_05.jar for JDK 1.4.2
    <Serve Trace install>\lib\oibcp\oibcp_sun_150_06.jar for JDK 1.5.0

    If the above jar files exist, make sure the bootclasspath element in the configuration.xml file is set to the correct JDK jar file. For example,

    C:\borland\Optimizeit\ServerTrace3\lib\optit.jar C:\borland\Optimizeit\ServerTrace3\lib\oibcp\oibcp_sun_150_06.jar

    If the jar file does not exist, then do the following:

    1. Stop the Partition.

    2. From the Management Console, configure the Partition to use the desired JDK.

    3. Restart the Agent. This will remove ServerTrace's jni stub which was previously loaded by the agent.

    4. Modify the ServerTrace JDK path entry in configuration.xml file to use the Partition's JDK

    5. Save the configuration.xml file.

    6. User the Management Console to configure ServerTrace. Now you should see the jni stub jar in the <Serve Trace install>\lib\oibcp\ directory.

  20. AIX and HP-UX only : ServerTrace is NOT SUPPORTED for AIX and HP-UX platform.

  21. Example: Do the following changes in build.xml for ejb/20 perf exmaple to work. (changes in line number 62 and 71).Change "descriptors/thrasher/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF" to "descriptors/command/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF"(line 62) and "descriptors/command/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF" to "descriptors/thrasher/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF"(line 71)

  22. UNIX only: Make sure you are not logged on as root when installing BAS. If you do so, you will get an error message at the time of registering the product, even though the installation may appear to be successful.

  23. The osagent does not start in a cluster on UNIX platforms. To avoid this problem, use a specific agent or hub name instead of using a variable for it while creating the cluster using the Cluster Creation Wizard. On the first page of the Wizard, select the agent or the hub name instead of ${HUB.name} from the Agent to run Smart Agent drop-down menu. If you use ${HUB.name}, then on UNIX, osagent can not be started, on Windows osagent can be started but osagent file agentaddr and localaddr can not be created in the server footprint.

  24. If you encounter an error, such as NoClassDefFoundError or ClassNotFoundException, when using the Web Services explorer through the Console, JBuilder, or JBuilder embedded console, do the following:

    Copy (NOT rename) commons-discovery-0.2.jar file in the <BAS_install>/lib/axis directory to the commons-discovery.jar in the same lib/axis folder. This is required as some external modules refer to the jar using this name.

  25. UNIX only: NullPointerException is thrown when the look-and-feel in DDEditor & Management Console is changed to GTK+. This will be fixed in our future release.

  26. UNIX only: When adding a resource reference with the sharing scope () set to UnShareable, the verification process fails. This is a known issue in DDEditor. The workaround is to manually edit the value to Unshareable.

  27. Directory listing has been disabled by default in the new Web Container (based on Tomcat 5.5.17). In order to enable it, you need go to the corresponding web.xml (usually located at ${you_configuration}/mos/standard/adm/tomcat/conf), locate the DefaultServlet, change the value for init-param listings from false to true.

  28. When migrating from 5.2.1, the migration tool allows users to specify the data_dir name differently from the default data_dir. However, users are strongly recommended not to tweak this property.

  29. Console feature console -feature iisregwiz is no longer supported in this release.

  30. Console: Stubs generation would fail if the console is set to run with JDK1.4 The Console MUST be run with JDK 1.5, but it can deploy ejb jar or ear file compiled JDK 1.4 to a Partition running with JDK 1.4. To set the Console to run only JDK 1.5 you must edit the Console's console.config file as follow

  31. Iastool on AIX: Iastool gets a coredump with an error of "JVMST017: Cannot allocate in initializeMarkAndAllocBits(markbits1)" when running with JDK 1.4. To set Iastool to run only JDK 1.5 you must edit the Iastool's iastool.config file as follow

  32. Console: When Migrating BES 5.2.1 to BAS 6.7, the Partition will set "HTTP Adaptor" to be true (i.e. http.adaptor enable="true" in partition.xml file) for Partition which has JMX enable and running JDK 1.5. This cause an exception of "Unable to initialize the partition's JMX HTTP Adaptor". You MUST disable HTTP Adaptor by doing the following steps.

  33. AIX only: BAS GUI tools (like Console under /bin directory) throws "java.lang.InternalError" while using IBM JDK1.5. To resolve this, set LIBPATH to $JAVA_HOME/jre/bin/j9vm before launching the installer.
    Note: JAVA_HOME should point to IBM JDK1.5 location..

  34. WTP: When renaming a bean, we don't do refactoring at the template file (it is not feasible). Hence, there might be some syntax errors which require manual changes.

  35. WTP: When the SCU is started outside the WTP environment, the status is not reflected correctly in the WTP.

  36. WTP: When you are creating an EJB project and you select Add Project to an EAR, you are advised not to select the option Create an EJB Client JAR module to hold the client interface and classes, else the bean created under the EJB Project will have missing files.

  37. WTP: When creating an Application Client project, the client JAR can only be executed by exporting the JAR to a location and running it outside the eclipse environment.

  38. WTP: The BAS development plug-in provides validation of J2EE project as follows:
  39. WTP: Creating session, message driven, entity bean, and serlvet can only be done from the Outline view.
  40. WTP: When renaming a bean, we don't do refactoring at the template file as it is not feasible. Hence, there might be some syntax errors which may require manual changes.
  41. AIX Example: Kindly use build.xml for building ejb examples in the Borland Application Server.The Makefile does not work with a IBM jdk 32 bit installation.

  42. Web Container: For setting up https in AIX using IBM JVMs you should use the value IbmX509 for the algorithm and the value SSL for the SSL protocol.
    As indicated below, set the algorithm attribute and the ssl Protocol attribute for the connector tag in the server.xml to be IbmX509 and SSL respectively. The server.xml is found in $var(installRoot)/var/domains/base/configurations//mos//adm/tomcat/conf/server.xml

    <Connector port="8443" minProcessors="5" maxProcessors="75" enableLookups="true" disableUploadTimeout="true" acceptCount="100" debug="0" scheme="https" secure="true"; clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="SSL" algorithm="IbmX509">