Troubleshooting issues with plug-in servers

The plug-in server provides common configuration and diagnostics that apply to each of the plug-ins. If one or more plug-in is failing, you should first verify whether the plug-in server is configured correctly and running. If the plug-in server is running, configured correctly, and not showing exceptions in the plug-in server log, you might need to investigate further with the specific plug-in that is encountering the failure.

About the plug-in servers

Depending on the products and features installed, there can be several instances of the plug-in server running on the AR System server. The following table shows the possible plug-in servers.

Plug-in servers for the AR System server

To monitor plug-in server activity

You can monitor the plug-in server activity to know whether the plug-in server is stopping or restarting.

• On Microsoft Windows:
  1. Launch Task Manager
  2. Select View > Select Columns
  3. Select the Command Line, CPU, Memory (Private Working Set), and PID check boxes.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Select Show processes from all users.
  6. Sort by Image Name and examine the lines where the Image Name is java.exe.
  7. In the Command Line column, note the path following the -classpath parameter. This parameter indicates where the plug-in server loads the pluginsvr_config.xml file. Identify the plug-in server from the previous table.
  8. To determine if the plug-in server is near its limit for memory consumption, compare the memory value for the process and the --Xmx parameter specified in the Command Line column.
  9. Click View > Refresh Now to refresh the process list and check if the value of Process ID (PID) changed for any of the java.exe processes.
     A changed PID value indicates that the plug-in server is stopping and restarting.

• On UNIX:
  1. Run the following command as root or the user who started the AR System server:
     ps -auxwww | grep java | grep arpluginsvr   
  2. If this does not work, run the following command:
     ps -ef | grep java | grep arpluginsvr
     The command returns several results.
  3. Note the path following the -classpath, which indicates where the plug-in server loads the pluginsvr_config.xml file. Identify the plug-in server from the previous table.
  4. Identify the PID at the beginning of the line.
  5. Run the ps command to monitor the PID for the plug-in server instance that is having the issue.

To investigate a plug-in server which is not running

• If an instance of the plug-in server is not running, view the armonitor configuration file in a text editor to determine whether the plug-in server is configured to run.

• Search for lines which specify java and include com.bmc.arsys.pluginsvr.ARPluginServerMain in the command line. For each line that is found, scroll to find the -classpath parameter. The first location specified by the -classpath parameter indicates the directory, which contains the pluginsvr_config.xml file for the instance of the plug-in server.

• If one of the instances of the plug-in server specified in the armonitor configuration file is not running, perform the following:
  1. Identify the port specified in the pluginsvr_config.xml file.
  2. Run netstat -a on the server and confirm there is no process using the port.
  3. From the armonitor configuration file, copy the line which starts the plug-in server.
  4. As the user who owns the BMC Remedy AR System installation, launch a command prompt on the server.
  5. Run the line from the armonitor configuration file in the command window.
  6. Investigate any errors reported.

To verify plug-in server configuration

1. Examine the ar.cfg/ar.conf and the pluginsvr_config.xml files to check the configuration.
2. Identify the port specified in the pluginsvr_config.xml file.
3. Verify that the server name specified in the pluginsvr_config.xml and ar.cfg or ar.conf files is consistent. 
4. If the server is in a server group, verify the Server-Connect-Name is configured in the ar.cfg/ar.conf file. For more information, see Understanding server group naming.
5. Review the configured number of plug-in threads. For more information, see Using multithreading in the Java plug-in server.
6. Identify the list of plug-ins in the pluginsvr_config.xml file to determine which plug-ins are hosted by this instance of the plug-in server.
7. Verify that the list of plug-ins specified in the pluginsvr_config.xml file and the Server-Plugin-Alias setting in the ar.cfg/ar.conf file uses a consistent server name and port.

To check for exceptions in the plug-in server log

View the plug-in server log to check for run-time exceptions. By default, the plug-in server logs INFO and WARN events, which describe the behavior of the plug-in server.

• When the plug-in server starts successfully, the following message is displayed:
  The server is ready to receive RPC calls 

• Search the plug-in server log for ERROR to find errors. For example, exceeding Java heap size is a common error situation.

For more information about exceptions, see the Logging exceptions for calls to Java plug-ins section from Running the plug-in server.

To use workflow logging to investigate plug-in server issues

Workflow logging is used when investigating a reproducible issue with a plug-in, or when a plug-in causes the plug-in server to become unresponsive. Because these logs can grow large, disable them after capturing the issue.

Related topics

Enabling server-side AR System logs