Ignition fails to start after reboot

Ignition
1

I've searched the forums and was unable to find anything with the exact issue I'm having. I created a new EC2 Windows instance and installed Ignition 8.1.23. I did not install Java separately. The gateway runs fine until a reboot, then the Ignition service would not start. This was found in the log:

WARN   | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:28 | The 'JAVA_HOME' environment variable was referenced but has not been defined.
STATUS | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:28 | --> Wrapper Started as Service
STATUS | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | Java Service Wrapper Standard Edition 64-bit 3.5.42
STATUS | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 |   Copyright (C) 1999-2020 Tanuki Software, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
STATUS | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 |     http://wrapper.tanukisoftware.com
STATUS | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 |   Licensed to Inductive Automation for Inductive Automation
STATUS | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | 
FATAL  | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | Unable to execute Java command.  The system cannot find the file specified. (0x2)
FATAL  | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 |     "%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java" -version
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | 
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | --------------------------------------------------------------------
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | Advice:
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | Usually when the Wrapper fails to start the JVM process, it is
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | because of a problem with the value of the configured Java command.
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | Currently:
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | wrapper.java.command=%JAVA_HOME%/bin/java
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | Please make sure that the PATH or any other referenced environment
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | variables are correctly defined for the current environment.
ADVICE | wrapper  | 2023/02/01 19:37:29 | --------------------------------------------------------------------

I opened ignition.conf and found that wrapper.java.command was referencing %JAVA_HOME% which could not be found. I changed the path to the following and the gateway launched:

wrapper.java.command=C:\Program Files\Inductive Automation\Ignition\lib\runtime\jre-win\bin\java.exe

I will probably set the environmental variables instead of hardcoding the path as a permanent solution but I wanted to check if anyone else has seen this issue before and hopefully if anyone encounters it in the future they will see the post and be able to resolve.

2

Did you use the standard windows installer? I checked my ignition.conf (8.1.24) and by default it has JAVA_HOME set before it's referenced.

#********************************************************************
# Wrapper Java Properties
#********************************************************************
# Java Application
#  Locate the java binary on the system PATH:
#  Specify a specific java binary:
set.JAVA_HOME=lib/runtime/jre-win
wrapper.java.command=%JAVA_HOME%/bin/java
3

I used the standard Windows installer. I restored a gateway backup so maybe that's why I'm missing this line:

set.JAVA_HOME=lib/runtime/jre-win
4

That was going to be my next question. Do you happen to know what version the backup was from?

Regardless, adding set.JAVA_HOME=lib/runtime/jre-win should prevent it from happening again. Or setting it in the environment variables of the OS directly like you mentioned.

5

Backup was from 7.9.19. Glad to hear I'm on the right track, hopefully this post helps others.

6

That makes sense then. Since there was no embedded JRE in 7.9, it was expected Java would be installed separately and the JAVA_HOME would already be set to point to your Java installation.

In 8.0+ with an embedded JRE the ignition.conf can set the JAVA_HOME path to point to the location in the install directory.

7

It would super nifty if the gateway restore would detect that and prevent overwrites but I'm sure the to-do list is long enough already and this is entirely preventable.

8

The ignition.conf from a backup is supposed to overwrite the existing one. And even for that JAVA_HOME setting, that's a valid thing to change from the default in 8.1 because you're allowed to specify your own JDK to use instead of the one we provide.

9

Thanks for clarifying Kevin. Any idea why the gateway would work just fine after the restore until the reboot?

10

I don't think a restore terminates the process, so you were probably just coasting along on the original JDK until you finally restarted it. If not that, then I'm not sure.