HTTP Status 500 Error after upgrading to GroupWise 8.0 SP1 WebAccess on Microsoft Windows / IIS 6

Error: "HTTP Status 500"

Error: "The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request."

Error: "java.lang.NullPointerException

com.novell.webaccess.common.BaseServlet.loadOptionalConfigs(Unknown Source)

com.novell.webaccess.common.BaseServlet.loadConfig(Unknown Source)

com.novell.webaccess.common.BaseServlet.initSettings(Unknown Source)

com.novell.webaccess.WebAccessServlet.initSettings(Unknown Source)

com.novell.webaccess.common.BaseServlet.callInitSettings(Unknown Source)

com.novell.webaccess.common.BaseServlet.init(Unknown Source)

com.novell.webaccess.WebAccessServlet.init(Unknown Source)"

Cause:

The location of the WebAccess Application configuration file (webacc.cfg) configured in the <Drive>:\Novell\GroupWise\tomcat5.5\webapps\gw\WEB-INF\web.xml file is listed as a relative path, so if the GroupWise WebAccess Application was installed to a web site whose home directory is located on any other drive than C:\, Tomcat 5.5 is not able to find the webacc.cfg file to know where to load the WebAccess servlet.

Resolution:

Edit the <Drive Letter>:\Novell\GroupWise\tomcat5.5\webapps\gw\WEB-INF\web.xml file to point to the explicit location of the webacc.cfg file.

For example, if your web server root directory is on the E:\ drive, you would edit E:\Novell\GroupWise\tomcat5.5\webapps\gw\WEB-INF\web.xml and modify the following section:

By default, the ConfigWin section would read:

<init-param>

<param-name>ConfigWin</param-name>

<param-value>\novell\groupwise\webaccess\webacc.cfg</param-value>

</init-param>

To resolve the problem, add the correct drive letter after <param-value> and before "\novell", as below:

<init-param>

<param-name>ConfigWin</param-name>

<param-value>E:\novell\groupwise\webaccess\webacc.cfg</param-value>

</init-param>

After making the change to web.xml, stop and restart the Tomcat 5.5 service on the Windows server.

This has been reported to GroupWise Engineering as a bug.