Tomcat fails to load

(Last modified: 18May2004)

This document (10092883) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

fact

Novell NetWare NetWare 6.5 SP1

Tomcat 4.1.18

symptom

Error: "org.apache.commons.digester.Digester fatalError SEVERE: Parse Fatal Error at line 211 column 43: The reference to entity "xyz" must end with the ';' delimiter. org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The reference to entity "xyz" must end with the ';' delimiter. "

Error: "java: Class org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap exited with status 1"

Unable to load Tomcat 4.

cause

The server.xml file contains the path to the tomcat-roles organizational unit created during the Tomcat install. If the path to this OU contains a character that is either a directive or command in xml, the parsing of this file will fail with the above error.

Example from server.xml file:

roleBase="ou=Tomcat-Roles,OU=IS&T,OU=DUKE,O=UNC"

In this case the '&' will be read as a directive, not as a character, causing the parsing of this file to fail.

fix

Open the server.xml file located in the sys:/tomcat/4/conf directory. Find the roleBase line and change the '&' to the ASCII value for the ampersand with the leading '#' sign.

Example from server.xml file:

roleBase="ou=Tomcat-Roles,OU=IS#38T,OU=DUKE,O=UNC"

Save the file and load Tomcat with the tomcat4 command.

The same would apply to any character used in the server context that is either a command or directive in xml. Find the ASCII value for that character and use that value proceeded with the '#' sign.

**The same change will need to be made in the admin_tomcat.xml file for the tcadmup instance of Tomcat. After the change is made to the admin_tomcat.xml file located in the sys:/adminsrv/conf directory, run tcadmup.

note

This is an example of the entire Java stack dump that would be seen from the logger screen when the process fails:

java: Class com.novell.application.tomcat.util.tccheck.LDAPVerifier exited succe
ssfully
13-May-2004 18:01:23 org.apache.commons.digester.Digester fatalError
SEVERE: Parse Fatal Error at line 210 column 55: The reference to entity "NI" mu
st end with the ';' delimiter.
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The reference to entity "NI" must end with the ';
' delimiter.
        at org.apache.xerces.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(Un
known Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.fatalError(Unknown Source)

        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLScanner.reportFatalError(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLScanner.scanAttributeValue(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanAttribute(U
nknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanStartElemen
t(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContent
Dispatcher.dispatch(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(Un
known Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DTDConfiguration.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XMLParser.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1548)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:449)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.execute(Catalina.java:400)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.process(Catalina.java:180)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.
java:39)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAcces
sorImpl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:203)
Catalina.start: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The reference to entity "NI" must
end with the ';' delimiter.
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The reference to entity "NI" must end with the ';
' delimiter.
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1548)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:449)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.execute(Catalina.java:400)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.process(Catalina.java:180)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.
java:39)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAcces
sorImpl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:203)
java: Class org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap exited with status 1

document

Document Title:	Tomcat fails to load
Document ID:	10092883
Solution ID:	NOVL96992
Creation Date:	14May2004
Modified Date:	18May2004
Novell Product Class:	Web Services

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