WebSphere Application Server & Liberty

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Sessions and session management problems in WebSphere Application Server

By Adeoye Omoboya posted Mon April 04, 2022 09:45 AM

  

Problem

Collecting data for problems with the IBM WebSphere Application Server sessions and session management component. Gathering this MustGather information before calling IBM support will help you understand the problem and save time analyzing the data.

Resolving The Problem

Sessions and Session Management specific MustGather information:
The first step in solving a problem with your HTTPSession in Application Server is to reproduce the problem with session tracing enabled. Adding debug code to the application simplifies the task of identifying the problem.

Instructions for setting up the trace:

  1. In the WebSphere Application Server administrative console, expand the Troubleshooting section and click Logs and Trace.
     
  2. Click the link for your server.
     
  3. Click Diagnostic Trace.
     
  4. Make sure Enable Log is checked, Maximum File Size is 100MB, Historical Files is 10, and specify a File Name. You may have to select different values for Maximum File Size and Historical Files as per the frequency of the problem or as suggested by support team.
     
  5. Click OK.
     
  6. Click on Change Log Level Details.
     
  7. In the text box for Trace Specification, enter the following string (type without spaces) depending on the method that you persist session data:
      • If you use memory-to-memory persistence:
        com.ibm.ws.session.*=all:com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.*=all:com.ibm.ws.drs.*=all

    • If you use database persistence:
      com.ibm.ws.session.*=all:com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.*=all:WAS.j2c=all:RRA=all
       
    • If you do not use any persistence:
      com.ibm.ws.session.*=all:com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.srt.*=all
       

8. Click apply and save your configuration.
 
9. Stop the Application Server.
 
10. Enable a plug-in trace by changing the LogLevel attribute from Error to Trace in the plugin-cfg.xml file. This file is located in the following directory:

install_root/profiles/profile_name/config/cells/cell_name/nodes/
web_server_node_name/servers/server_name


For more information on capturing plug-in trace, refer MustGather document for plug-in.

11. Stop the Web server.

12. Clear all logs for the Application Server:
  • trace.log
  • SystemOut.log
  • SystemErr.log
     
13. Start the Application Server.
 
14. Start the Web server.
 
15. Reproduce your problem.
 
16. Capture the cookie information from the browser by typing the following text in the address bar:
javascript:document.cookie
 
17. Collect the following:
  • Trace file from the diagnostic trace.
  • All files in the following directory:
    install_root/profiles/profile_name/logs/server_name
     
  • All files in the following directory:
    install_root/profiles/profile_name/logs/ffdc
     
  • The server.xml file located in the following directory:
    install_root/profiles/profile_name/config/cells/cell_name/nodes/
    node_name/servers/server_name
     
  • The http_plugin.log file.
     
  • The sessionID that encountered the problem or was captured in step 16.
     
  • historyReport.html generated by running the tool genHistoryReport.bat or genHistoryReport.sh, located in the install_root/bin directory; historyreport.html is generated in the working directory of where the genHistoryReport tool is run.
18. Follow instructions to send diagnostic information to IBM support.
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