IBM Support

PH61471: APACHE BASED WEBSERVER PARENT PROCESS MAY EXIT DURING STARTUP WITH SIGPIPE

Subscribe to this APAR

By subscribing, you receive periodic emails alerting you to the status of the APAR, along with a link to the fix after it becomes available. You can track this item individually or track all items by product.

Notify me when this APAR changes.

Notify me when an APAR for this component changes.

 

APAR status

  • Closed as program error.

Error description

  • Advanced troubleshooting may show a SIGPIPE shortly after
    writing to a socket. The SIGPIPE default behavior is to
    terminate the process abruptly.
    
    This occurs during an uncommon I/O error at startup with when
    HostVerificationStartupCheck has not been set to false.
    

Local fix

Problem summary

  • ****************************************************************
    * USERS AFFECTED:  All users of the WebSphere Application      *
    *                  Server WebServer Plug-in on non-Windows     *
    *                  operating systems.                          *
    ****************************************************************
    * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION: With the WAS Plug-in 8.5.5.24/9.0.5.16  *
    *                      and later, IHS/Apache startup may       *
    *                      silently fail. In these                 *
    *                      cases, the IHS parent process (usually  *
    *                      recorded in logs/httpd.pid) has         *
    *                      disappeared without any                 *
    *                      message in the terminal or error_log.   *
    *                      Some other processes may be left behind *
    *                      with parent PID of                      *
    *                      1.                                      *
    ****************************************************************
    * RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
    ****************************************************************
    In 8.5.5.24/9.0.5.16 and later, the WAS WebServer Plug-in
    validates each application servers
    certificate at startup, unless plugin-cfg.xml properties
    HostVerificationStartupCheck or
    SecureHostVerification are specified.
    A very narrow class of errors during the SSL handshake may cause
    the process to be terminated with a
    SIGPIPE signal.  This signal might be visible in output like
    `strace` or `truss` but is not
    otherwise printed anywhere.
    If this is occurring:
    1. Nothing is displayed in the shell that started IHS, even if
    `apachectl -X` is used
    2. The IHS parent process (logs/httpd.pid) will be gone, but
    some other processes may remain with
    parent PID 1.
    3. Turning on DEBUG or TRACE in plugin-cfg.xml would show that
    logging abruptly stops during an SSL
    handshake at startup.
    4. The host:port listed last in http_plugin.log is probably
    abruptly closing the TCP connection
    during the SSL handshake, rather than connection refused or an
    SSL error.
    Normally, SIGPIPE is blocked/ignored.  But this occurs shortly
    after the Apache startup phases where
    HostVerificationStartupCheck occurs.
    

Problem conclusion

  • The WAS plugin was updated to ignore the SIGPIPE signal during
    HostVerificationStartupCheck.
    
    The fix for this APAR is targeted for inclusion in fix pack
    8.5.5.26 and 9.0.5.20. For more information, see 'Recommended
    Updates for WebSphere Application Server':
    https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/715553
    

Temporary fix

  • HostVerificationStartupCheck="false" delays SSL checks until
    SIGPIPE is ignored.
    

Comments

APAR Information

  • APAR number

    PH61471

  • Reported component name

    WEBSPHERE APP S

  • Reported component ID

    5724J0800

  • Reported release

    850

  • Status

    CLOSED PER

  • PE

    NoPE

  • HIPER

    NoHIPER

  • Special Attention

    NoSpecatt / Xsystem

  • Submitted date

    2024-05-22

  • Closed date

    2024-05-24

  • Last modified date

    2024-05-27

  • APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

  • APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

  • Fixed component name

    WEBSPHERE APP S

  • Fixed component ID

    5724J0800

Applicable component levels

[{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU048","label":"IBM Software"},"Product":{"code":"SSEQTP","label":"WebSphere Application Server"},"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"8.5","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB67","label":"IT Automation \u0026 App Modernization"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
28 May 2024