JBoss 4.2.3 EAR and Apache 2.2 virtual hosts with jk_mod serving blank white page

Question

I have an EAR file I am trying to deploy alongside various WAR deployments on JBoss 4.2.3

The individual standalone WAR deployments are all working fine and are just a copy of the same application that is contained inside the EAR but the EAR deployment and it's included WAR(s) does not work correctly.

I am receiving a blank white page in the browser when I visit the virtual host that the jboss-web.xml is configured to associate with this EAR. The other virtual hosts associated with the standalone WAR deployments all work fine and are configured the same way.

I get no errors on startup and JBoss reports that the site was started. I have a jboss-web.xml file in the WAR's WEB-INF that ties it into a definition from server.xml. This works on every other type of configuration except the EAR. I keep getting just a white page, as if JBoss can't connect the WAR in the EAR to the host or maybe the WAR isn't starting right or I have some config wrong here.

When I fire up JBoss it creates the flex and railo directories in webwar1.war/WEB-INF as well as a railo-server directory as railo.ear/lib/railo-server but still just serves me a blank white page.

Here is where I stand...

I have a set of shared Railo JAR files are located in /JBoss/server/default/deploy/jboss-web.deployer/railojars/lib (I have told jboss-service.xml to include this as a classpath)

My site1.WAR and site2.WAR files are in the deploy folder and each contain an index.cfm and a WEB-INF with web.xml and jboss-web.xml mapped to a virtual host. They each use this shared Railo JAR instance and run perfectly. The sites I've configured in server.xml with a docPath and appPath to an outside folder use this shared JAR installation and run perfectly. Everything is good with this.

If I place a railo1.war, railo2.war, etc in the /JBoss/server/default/deploy folder (the full WAR with Railo lib folder) those sites use the Railo instance contained within the WAR. This is also great.

So, my only problem left is this:

under /JBoss/server/default/deploy I have created railo.ear

Inside railo.ear is: META-INF which contains application.xml with:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE application PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD J2EE Application 1.2//EN" "http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/application_1_2.dtd"&gt;
<application id="RailoInstance1">
 <display-name>Railo3</display-name>
 <description>Railo3</description>
 <module id="Module1">
 <web>
  <web-uri>webwar1.war</web-uri>
  <context-root>/webwar1</context-root>
 </web>
 </module>
</application>

It also contains webwar1.war which contains: index.cfm and WEB-INF

WEB-INF has has web.xml, lib and jboss-web.xml

jboss-web.xml looks like this:

<jboss-web>
    <context-root>/</context-root>
    <virtual-host>foo3.com</virtual-host>
</jboss-web>

From server.xml:

<Host name="foo3.com">
    <Alias>www.foo3.com</Alias>
</Host>

foo3.com is using jk_mod to send to JBoss via a virtual host from Apache. The other two sites (foo1.com, foo2.com) which are mapped to WAR deployments are configured the exact same way and work fine.

The WEB-INF includes the lib folder so I would expect this webwar1.WAR instance to use the Railo JAR files contained in that lib folder. The problem is that when I start JBoss, all of my other sites configured their various ways work, but the site in webwar1.war is not coming up. I simply see a white page in the browser.

So, either the jboss-web.xml in WEB-INF in the webwar1.war file is not being connected to the defined in server.xml or something else is going wrong here. My other standalone WAR installations and the shared JARs sites all see their respective descriptors as marked in their jboss-web.xml and have the same content as this deployment.

So, I'm just trying to figure out what I need to do to get this last EAR configuration to work.

The way I am trying now seems like each WAR would try to use the JAR files it contains, but I want to have one set of shared JAR files for the whole EAR and then each WAR file in the ear use those JARS.

I want to be able to have webwar1.war, webwar2.war, etc under this one EAR configuration so I have moved the lib folder out of webwar1.war/WEB-INF/lib and into railo.ear/lib

I would love to set it up this way, but I can't even get one WAR with its own JAR files to load up right when inside the EAR. I have tried this new configuration and get the same blank white page in the browser.

Any ideas?

JBoss gives me no errors. Another odd thing is that I don't get an error from Apache like I do when I try to visit a site that is improperly configured and did not start up. And if I visit a site that is not set up as a host in JBoss and I am redirected via jk_mod to JBoss, I see the JBoss default page. I am not seeing this default page when I visit the virtual host associated with this webwar1.war in the railo.ear, so JBoss must know that it's supposed to do something with the domain / virtual host or else it would show me that default JBoss page. Instead I see a blank white one.

I should also mention that this works on JBoss 5.1. The railo.ear configured the exact same way latches onto the virtual host and works properly.

Help? Thanks!!!!

Answer 1

Sounds like a complicated job; the folks on the railo-users mailing list might be able to help : http://groups.google.com/group/railo

Railo also has a professional services team who are ace : http://www.getrailo.com/index.cfm/contact-us/