Some common problems in RAD and their solutions/work arounds

Bug in RAD Debugger!

If the value of a variable is enclosed in angle braces, the RAD debugger displays an empty string when we move the mouse over the variable.

The exact value can be seen in the variables window…

Or in the Inspect or Expressions window (Select the variable, right click & select “Inspect” option)

Websphere profile selection disabled…

Double clicking on the server from the “Servers” window opens the server configuration page.



The selection of profile name is sometimes disabled. It does not allow you to select a new profile.

Work Around:

From the .metadata/.plugins folder in your workspace, open the servers.xml file that is under com.ibm.wtp.server.core folder.

Enter the desired profile name against the webSphereProfileName property. The name has to be exact in terms of upper/lower case.

Close RAD and start it again. The new profile should now be selected in the server configuration.

Websphere application server in RAD shows status as “Starting…” but hangs or does not start

If you come across this symptom where the server displays “Starting…” for a long time, but does not start up and eventually displays an error -

This usually occurs when the ORB Bootstrap port that is set in the server configuration does not match the bootstrap port that was assigned to the profile when the profile was created.

In the example here, the correct port should be 2809.

Now, how do we find out the correct bootstrap port for this profile?
There are a couple of ways.

First, the correct port number for the server should flash in the /server output console as below. Modify the server configuration accordingly and re-start the server.

If the server does not flash the port number on the console, we can find it in the serverindex.xml that exists in the profile directory.

Open the profiles directory from the windows explorer. In this case, it is under

C:\Program Files\IBM\Rational\SDP\6.0\runtimes\base_v6\profiles

Open the profile that was attached to the server we were just trying to start. Follow the path

<profileName>/config/cells/<cellName>/nodes/<nodeName>

The cellName and nodeName usually contain your machine name.
Open the serverIndex.xml residing in this folder.

The correct bootstrap address can be found in serverindex.xml.

Modify the server configuration in RAD accordingly and re-start the server.

Websphere application server in RAD tries to start projects that are not added to the server

This usually occurs when you use the same profile in 2 different workspaces. Or when you try to add/remove projects from the server using the “Add and Remove Projects” window.

The symptom of this problem is that even though you have DETACHED the project from server, it still tries to start the project (and possibly gives error). In the example here, the server will try to start project “online” even though it is not attached to the server anymore.

The serverindex.xml that exists in the profile keeps track of projects that are added to the server. Sometimes, RAD does not update the serverindex.xml file correctly during the Add/Remove operation.

Workaround

Stop the server.

Open the profiles directory from the windows explorer. In this case, it is under

C:\Program Files\IBM\Rational\SDP\6.0\runtimes\base_v6\profiles

Open the profile that was attached to the server we were just trying to start. Follow the path

<profileName>/config/cells/<cellName>/nodes/<nodeName>

The cellName and nodeName usually contain your machine name.
Open the serverIndex.xml residing in this folder.

The list of projects attached to the server can be found here.

Remove the deployedApplications entry for the unwanted project. Save & close the serverindex.xml.

Open the applications directory under the <profileName>/config/cells/<cellName> directory.

If you find a .ear folder for the unwanted project here, delete the folder. In this case, we will delete the online.ear folder.

Start the server again. The server should now start only the attached projects.

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Another way to get around this would be to UNINSTALL the conflicting app from admin console. This works only if your server starts and you are able to view the admin console. If your server refuses to start in normal mode, you can try starting the server in DEBUG mode.

You can then uninstall the unwanted app from Application -->Enterprise Applications option.