idp 2.4.0 tomcat 8 startup problems

[Baron Fujimoto]

On Wed, Feb 04, 2015 at 01:04:36AM +0000, Cantor, Scott wrote:
>> Although the instructions are written of IdP v3.0, the bit about Slow Startup is
>> still pertinent...
>
>It is, but I don't believe it results in outright failure, just long and unacceptable delays.
>
>That error simply means the context didn't deploy, so there should be errors in the IdP log.

I didn't find errors (or anything, for that matter) logged to idp-process.log.
However, after setting <logger name="org.springframework" level="DEBUG"/> I
found:

2015-02-04 16:16:45.441 ERROR [org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader] Context initialization failed
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'shibboleth.OpensamlConfig' defined in URL [file:/home/shib/idp//conf/internal.xml]: Cannot resolve reference to bean 'shibboleth.ParserPool' while setting bean property 'parserPool'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'shibboleth.ParserPool' defined in URL [file:/home/shib/idp//conf/internal.xml]: Cannot create inner bean 'shibboleth.XercesSecurityManager' of type [org.apache.xerces.util.SecurityManager] while setting bean property 'builderAttributes' with key [TypedStringValue: value [http://apache.org/xml/properties/security-manager], target type [null]]; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [org.apache.xerces.util.SecurityManager] for bean with name 'shibboleth.XercesSecurityManager' defined in URL [file:/home/shib/idp//conf/internal.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.xerces.util.SecurityManager

The Xerces reference reminded me of the endorsed library directory, so
after copying the jar files from the shib install directory to a
${tomcat_base}/lib/endorsed directory, I tried again and that seems to
have done the trick.

FWIW, I wasn't able to find good references to setting up the endorsed
library directory in the Shib IdP docs. Searching the wik turned up
indirect references that mostly seemed to point back to IdPInstall, but
it no longer seems to be there or in IdPApacheTomcatPrepare. I also didn't
find under the IDP30's Installation or ApacheTomcat8 pages (but perhaps
it's no not relevant for v3?) Did I miss it somewhere?

I also discovered that as of Java 8 (1.8), the Java "-XX:MaxPermSize"
parameter has been deprecated and removed. Apparently the PermGen stuff
it was for is now being handled by its successor "Metaspace".  I won't
pretend to know if some corresponding Metaspace parameter should also be
adjusted, and if so how.

Aloha,
-baron
-- 
Baron Fujimoto <baron at hawaii.edu> :: UH Information Technology Services
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