Error:"HTTP Status 500" after upgrading to GroupWise 8.0.2 WebAccess on Microsoft Windows Server with IIS

  • 7006760
  • 31-Aug-2010
  • 26-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell GroupWise WebAccess 8 Support Pack 2
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Situation

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)"

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.

To resolve the problem, remove the 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>

The ConfigWin section would read after removing drive letter as:

<init-param>
<param-name>ConfigWin</param-name>
<param-value>\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.

Note: In previous version, drive letter was present but in GroupWise 8.0.2 it has been fixed and do not require any drive letter.