OC4J Installation Appears to be Half Complete, Hangs

Question

Thank you in advance for providing any guidance on this issue. I have been trying to get this straight for nearly a week, and still don't understand what is happening.
I am attempting to install Oracle Containers for J2EE 10g (10.1.3.3.0) (oc4j). I believe I have been following all necessary steps:
1. unzip oc4j_extended_101330.zip in a newly created oc4j folder.
2. specify the ORACLE_HOME env variable
3. specify the JAVA_HOME env variable
4. start the installation/deployment by typing "oc4j -start" inside of the bin directory
I then get the following message at my unix prompt, "08/06/11 14:23:05 Oracle Containers for J2EE 10g (10.1.3.3.0) initialized"
Then, nothing...my prompt does not return. I.e., the "$" that is the command prompt doesn't come back. It appears to be hanging...but,
When I open a browser to http://<server>:8888/ I get the Welcome page for Oracle Containers for J2EE! I try the Quick Check JSP/Servlet Test Pages, and they work too!
Also, when I go to http://<server>:8888/em/ I am able to use the control panel.
In short, everything seems to work, but when I close my shell, oc4j shuts down. Or, if I press Ctrl+C it shuts down.
Shouldn't oc4j be able to run even after I have closed my shell?
What do you suppose is wrong with it? Why won't it just finish installation?
The oc4j is on a sun server, running solaris 9.
Thanks again for your assistance,
John

Answer 1

Thanks for the very well worded question.
After doing some validation of the environment, the oc4j.cmd/oc4j.sh script basically launches OC4J via:
$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -jar $ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/home/oc4j.jarThe JVM process then runs directly in the shell.
If you hit ctrl+c, OC4J will stop. This is by design.
If you exit the shell, then that kills the running process and OC4J stops.
What platform are you running on? Oh I see, Solaris 9.
If you are running on Linux/Unix then look at nohup as an option to keep the process running after you exit the shell and log out of the system.
http://www.pcnetcom.net/solaris.htm
Keep commands running after you leave with nohup
It's 3 p.m., and you want to start a long job running. Unfortunately, you can't be sure that the job will finish by 5 p.m. when you need to leave, and the company is very strict about making sure you log off when you leave. However, if you log off the system, the job will be stopped. What can you do?
On Solaris systems you can use the "nohup" (no hang-up) command to keep jobs running long after you log off the system. Using nohup tells the system not to "hang-up" on your job after you've logged off the system.
Here's how to run the job, and keep it running after you log off:
root> nohup my-long-job &
This creates a file named "nohup.out" in the current directory that contains the standard output of the command ("my-long-job") you're running.
Everyone is happy because the job keeps running, you get to leave at 5 p.m., and you're properly logged off the system.
Just for completeness, if you are running on Windows, then there really is no simple solution for this -- you need to keep the console open and the cmd window running. What you can do is to seek out one of the open-source utilties that wraps a Java process as a Windows Service and investigate that. It gives you lights out capability. Or alternatively, use the OracleAS installation where we provide a managent process called OPMN that is installed as a windows service, which in turn can start/monitor OC4J processes.
-steve-
-steve-