1.2 About This Technical Note

This document covers the following versions of Sun Java System Application Serveron the Solaris^TM Operating System, HP-UX, Linux, and Microsoft Windows platforms:

• Sun Java System Application Server 9.1

• Sun Java System Application Server 9.0

• Sun Java System Application Server 8.2

• Sun Java System Application Server 8.1

You can use this document in all types of environments, including test, pre-production, and production. Verbose debugging is not used (to reduce performance impact), except when it is deemed necessary. At the same time, it is possible that the problem could disappear when you configure logging for debug mode. However, this is the minimum to understand the problem. In the majority of cases, the debug data described in this document is sufficient to analyze the problem.

This document does not provide workarounds, techniques, or tools to analyze debug data. It provides some troubleshooting, but you should not use this guide as an approach to troubleshooting Application Server problems.

If your problem does not conveniently fit into any of the specific categories, supply the general information described in 2.1 What Application Server Debug Data Should You Collect? and clearly explain your problem.

If the information you initially provide is not sufficient to find the root cause of the problem, Sun will ask for more details, as needed.

1.2.1 Prerequisites for Collecting Application Server Debug Data

The prerequisites for collecting debug data for Application Server are as follows:

• Make sure you have superuser privileges.

• For the Solaris OS platform, obtain the appserver_8_dbhang and pkg_app scripts from the following location:

  http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/scripts/indexSjs.html

• On the Windows platform, download the free Debugging Tools for Windows to help in analyzing process hang problems. The debugger Dr. Watson is not useful for process hang problems because it cannot generate a crash dump on a running process. Download the free Debugging Tools from the following location:

  http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx

  Install the last version of Debugging Tools and the OS Symbols for your version of Windows. Also, you must add the environment variable NT_SYMBOL_PATH.

  Use the command drwtsn32 -i to select Dr. Watson as the default debugger. Use the command drwtsn32, check all options, and choose the path for crash dumps.

1.2.2 Variables Used in This Technical Note

The following describes the variables used in the procedures in this document. Gather the values of the variables if you don't already know them before you try to do the procedures.

• appserv-pid: Process ID of a Application Server daemon.

• windbg-root: The directory on the Windows Application Server machine dedicated to holding the WinDebugger program, and configuration, maintenance, and information files.

• server-root: The directory on the Application Server machine dedicated to holding the server program, configuration, maintenance, and information files. The default location for the Solaris OS version of the Sun Java System Application Server is /opt/SUNWappserver. See To Obtain the server-root Variable for instructions on determining the server-root.

To Obtain the server-root Variable

Use one of the following commands to obtain the value of the server-root variable for Application Server.

Solaris

pkgparam —v SUNWappserver

Linux

rpm -q --qf '%{INSTALLPREFIX}' sun-application-server

Windows

Look in the C:\windows\system32\appservregistry.inf file.