WebModule[/amserver]PWC1396:

Question

Get the following when starting my instance on the web
failure: WebModule[amserver]StandardWrapper.Throwable
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at com.sun.identity.authentication.UI.LoginLogoutMapping.initializeAuth(LoginLogoutMapping.java:89)
at com.sun.identity.authentication.UI.LoginLogoutMapping.init(LoginLogoutMapping.java:74)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:979)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4352)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4709)
at com.sun.webserver.connector.nsapi.WebModule.start(WebModule.java:170)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1089)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:838)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1089)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:514)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Embedded.start(Embedded.java:917)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.PwcWebContainer.onStartup(PwcWebContainer.java:47)
at com.sun.webserver.connector.nsapi.WebContainer.start(WebContainer.java:464)
at com.sun.webserver.init.J2EERunner.confPostInit(J2EERunner.java:292)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.sun.identity.authentication.service.AuthD.<clinit>(AuthD.java:206)
... 15 more
failure: WebModule[amserver]PWC1396: Servlet /amserver threw load() exception
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at com.sun.identity.authentication.UI.LoginLogoutMapping.initializeAuth(LoginLogoutMapping.java:89)
at com.sun.identity.authentication.UI.LoginLogoutMapping.init(LoginLogoutMapping.java:74)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:979)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4352)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4709)
at com.sun.webserver.connector.nsapi.WebModule.start(WebModule.java:170)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1089)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:838)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1089)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:514)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Embedded.start(Embedded.java:917)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.PwcWebContainer.onStartup(PwcWebContainer.java:47)
at com.sun.webserver.connector.nsapi.WebContainer.start(WebContainer.java:464)
at com.sun.webserver.init.J2EERunner.confPostInit(J2EERunner.java:292)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.sun.identity.authentication.service.AuthD.<clinit>(AuthD.java:206)
... 15 more
Anybody got any ideas.

Answer 1

We are running AM 7.1 patch 3 deployed in Sun WebServer 7. We were receiving the error below in the amAuth debug logs:
09/18/2009 03:32:52:831 AM EDT: Thread[main,5,main]
ERROR: AuthD failed to get session service instance
09/18/2009 03:32:52:832 AM EDT: Thread[main,5,main]
ERROR: AuthD init()
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.sun.identity.authentication.service.AuthD.initAuthSessions(AuthD
.java:751)
at com.sun.identity.authentication.service.AuthD.<init>(AuthD.java:251)
at com.sun.identity.authentication.service.AuthD.getAuth(AuthD.java:510
at com.sun.identity.authentication.UI.LoginLogoutMapping.initializeAuth
(LoginLogoutMapping.java:89)
We saw the following error in the WebServer error logs:
[18/Sep/2009:15:48:25] failure (19331): WebModule[amserver]StandardWrapper.Thr
owable
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.sun.identity.authentication.UI.LoginLogoutMapping.initializeAuth
(LoginLogoutMapping.java:89)
at com.sun.identity.authentication.UI.LoginLogoutMapping.init(LoginLogo
utMapping.java:74)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper
.java:1165)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:9
94)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardConte
xt.java:4731)
The only way we figured out this problem was to look at what the open source code to see wha was happening. We first looked
at the amAuth.java and determined that the get of the SessionService was throwing the ERROR:AuthD failed to get session service instance:
901 static SessionService getSS() {
902 SessionService ss = SessionService.getSessionService();
903 if (ss == null) {
904 debug.error("AuthD failed to get session service instance");
905 }
906 return ss;
907 }
In looking at the SessionService.java, we see it will only create a new SessionService if the isServerMode is true.
public static SessionService getSessionService() {
if (WebtopNaming.isServerMode()) {
synchronized (SessionService.class) {
if (sessionService == null) {
sessionService = new SessionService();
return sessionService;
In looking at the WebtopNaming.java, isServerMode default is false and is populated from constants property SERVER_MODE.
private static boolean serverMode = false;
static {
serverMode = Boolean.valueOf(
System.getProperty(Constants.SERVER_MODE, SystemProperties.get(
Constants.SERVER_MODE, "false"))).booleanValue();
try {
getAMServer();
} catch (Exception ex) {
debug.error("Failed to initialize server properties", ex);
In our case the SERVER_MODE was in and WebServer JVM option.
<jvm-options>-Dcom.iplanet.am.serverMode=true</jvm-options>
We had lost the servermode parameter when we have uninstalled Access Manager from the web container and reinstalled.