IBM Automatic Data Lineage Server Takes a Long Time to Start on Linux/Unix

Problem

Manta Server takes a long time (more than a minute) to start up. There are no relevant errors in the server logs and the CPU utilization is low most of the time.

Additional Information

This might be caused by the system waiting for a sufficient amount of random data to initialize the random number generator. On some Linux/Unix-like systems, a "secure random" generator is used which uses network traffic, mouse movements, and keyboard input as sources of randomness. On isolated or virtual servers with neither a keyboard nor a mouse and almost no network traffic, it may take a long time to gather enough data for the initialization.

Solution

One possible solution is to use a random number generator that doesn't rely on gathering user and network inputs to initialize. Note that this might result in slightly less secure random number generation, which might slightly weaken any cryptographic operations performed (e.g., when using HTTPS connections).

To test whether this resolves the issue:

  1. Stop Manta Flow Server.

  2. Open a new terminal.

  3. Run this command: export CATALINA_OPTS="-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom"

  4. Start Manta Flow Server in the same terminal.

To make this change permanent:

  1. Create or open the file <MANTA_SERVER_HOME>/bin/setenv.sh.
  2. Append the command
    export CATALINA_OPTS="-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom".
  3. Save the file.
  4. Set the file's executable permission to chmod 755 <MANTA_SERVER_HOME>/bin/setenv.sh.
  5. Stop Manta Flow Server.
  6. Open a new terminal.
  7. Start Manta Flow Server in the new terminal.