Naming service troubleshooting tips

Naming is a J2EE service which publishes and provides access to resources such as connection pools, enterprise beans, and message listeners to client processes. If you have problems in accessing a resource which otherwise appears to be healthy, the naming service might be involved. To investigate problems with the WebSphere Application Server Naming service:

• Browse the JVM logs for the server which is hosting the resource you are trying to access. Messages starting with NMSV are related to the Naming service.

• With WebSphere Application Server running, run the dumpNameSpace tool and pipe, redirect, or "more" the output so that it is easily viewed. Running the tool results in a display of objects in the WebSphere Application Server namespace, including the directory path and object name. Remember: The dumpNameSpace tool does not dump all of the objects in the distributed namespace. It only dumps the objects that are in the local namespace of the process against which the command was run.

• If the object a client needs to access does not appear, use the administrative console to verify that:

  • The server hosting the target resource is started.

  • The Web module or EJB container, if applicable, hosting the target resource is running.

  • The JNDI name of the target resource is correct and updated.

  • If the problem resource is remote, that is, not on the same node as the Name Server node, that the JNDI name is fully qualified, including the host name.

    This is especially applicable to Network Deployment configurations.

• View detailed information on the runtime behavior of the Naming service by enabling trace on the following components and reviewing the output:

  • com.ibm.ws.naming.*

  • com.ibm.websphere.naming.*

• If you see an exception that appears to be CORBA related ("CORBA" appears as part of the exception name) look for a naming-services-specific CORBA minor code, further down in the exception stack, for information on the real cause of the problem. For a list of naming service exceptions and explanations, see the class com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnCorbaMinorCodes in the API documentation.

If none of these steps solve the problem:

• For specific problems that can cause access to named object hosted in WebSphere Application Server to fail, see Cannot look up an object hosted by WebSphere Application Server from a servlet, JSP file, or other client.

• Check to see if the problem has been identified and documented using the links in Diagnosing and fixing problems: Resources for learning.

• If you do not see a problem that resembles yours, or if the information provided does not solve your problem, contact IBM support for further assistance.

For current information available from IBM Support on known problems and their resolution, see the IBM Support page.

IBM Support has documents that can save you time gathering information needed to resolve this problem. Before opening a PMR, see the IBM Support page.

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