Peer Cannot Connect to the Hub

When an Environment Management peer (typically an agent or the viewer) can't communicate with the hub, the following error messages appear in the logs and stdout:

Broken connection - attempting to reconnect
RemoteException while connecting to server - retrying attempt 1
RemoteException while connecting to server - retrying attempt 2
RemoteException while connecting to server - retrying attempt 3

The peer periodically attempts to reconnect to the hub (by default every ten seconds) with the parameters that are specified in the configuration.properties file.

Determining the Error Condition

The peer may not be able to communicate with the hub for one of the following reasons:

  • The peer is started but the hub is not started.

    The peer reconnects once the hub is started.

  • The peer is started but the web server is configured to run on a different machine.

    Edit the configuration.properties file and change the hubURL parameter.

  • The peer is started but the web server is configured to listen on a different port.

    Users continue to see the error messages described previously. Edit the configuration.properties file and change the port number for the hubURL parameter. Shut down and restart the peer.

  • The peer is running and communicating with the hub, and the PIA web server is shut down.

    Users see the broken connection error message. Once the PIA web server is started, the connection is restored.

When the peer has a pinginterval configuration parameter set to a high value (60 seconds or more), the following exception might appear in the log:

INFO Thread-48 org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodBase - Recoverable
 exception caught when processing request WARN Thread-48
org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodBase
- Recoverable exception caught but MethodRetryHandler.retryMethod() returned
false, rethrowing exception Broken connection - attempting to reconnect
Sending pulse from 'com.peoplesoft.emf.peer:id=5'

This is due to an HTTP client connection timeout which does not affect functionality.

Ensuring the Correct Configuration

To ensure that you've configured the peer (agent or viewer) to properly connect with the hub, try each of the following actions in turn:

  • Ping the hub host machine.

    At a command prompt, enter ping machinename, using the machine name configured in the hubURL setting. You should see messages indicating a reply from the machine.

  • Ping the hub host domain.

    At a command prompt, enter ping hostdomain, using the fully qualified domain name as it's configured in the hubURL setting; for example, mymachine.example.com. You should see messages indicating a reply from the machine.

  • Use an IP address in the hubURL.

    In configuration.properties, replace the domain name in the hubURL setting with the machine's IP address, then restart the peer.

  • Ensure that you specify the right port number in the hubURL.

    In configuration.properties, the port number in the hubURL setting must be <PIA port> if you set up PIA for a single server. In single server configurations, the hub uses the same port to which PIA is configured.

    In multi-server configurations, the hub uses the application default port, which is 8001. If you need to change this setting, it must be done in the web server configuration files.

Agent-Specific Resolutions

If an agent is still experiencing connection difficulties, delete the following agent directories if they exist:

  • PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\data\ids

  • PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\PersistentStorage

  • PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\transactions

Note: You must also delete these directories after you install an additional hub on the same machine which doesn't replace the existing hub, then shut down the old hub and start the new hub using the same settings.

Viewer-Specific Resolutions

If the viewer Java application can't connect to the hub, first ensure that you specify the right port number when launching the viewer program.

If you set up PIA for a single server, 80 is the default port number, if you set up PIA for multiple servers, 8081 is the default listening port number for PSEMHUB.

If the viewer is still experiencing connection difficulties, delete the following viewer directories if they exist:

  • PS_HOME\PSEMViewer\envmetadata\data\ids

  • PS_HOME\PSEMViewer\envmetadata\PersistentStorage

  • PS_HOME\PSEMViewer\envmetadata\transactions

Note: You must also delete these directories after you install an additional hub on the same machine which doesn't replace the existing hub, then shut down the old hub and start the new hub using the same settings.