I had a lot of troubles starting Oracle Weblogic 10.3g under linux (CentOS 5.2). It took anywhere between 5 to 20 minutes from the time I ran startup script to the point when Weblogic actually started. Here is typical log:
<Mar 12, 2009 12:35:34 PM EDT> <Info> <Management> <BEA-141107> <Version: WebLogic Server 10.3 Fri Jul 25 16:30:05 EDT 2008 1137967 >
<Mar 12, 2009 12:46:37 PM EDT> <Notice> <WebLogicServer> <BEA-000365> <Server state changed to STARTING>
Turns out Weblogic uses random number generator during start up. Because of the bug in java it reads ‘randomness’ from /dev/random. /dev/random is very good random numbers generators but it is extremely slow. It takes sometimes 10 minutes or more to generate one number. /dev/urandom is not that good, but it is instant.
Java somehow maps /dev/urandom file to /dev/random. That’s why default settings in $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/java.security are useless.
Possible solutions:
1) Add “-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom” (/dev/urandom does not work) to java parameters.
Worse but working solution is:
2) mv /dev/random /dev/random.ORIG ; ln /dev/urandom /dev/random
3) Best solution is to change $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/java.security
Replace securerandom.source with
securerandom.source=file:/dev/./urandom
This problem does not happen under windows because it uses different implementation of /dev/random.
It takes seconds to start weblogic server now.
We have been working with bea to resolve this issue for most of a year. Your accurate explanation and solution solved it. Much appreciated.
It works like magic!
Thanks so much for blogging this!
+100 kuddos! Every vendor should mention this turbo boost option.
Marc
Thank You very much. It helped a lot!
Starting WebLogic NodeManager now takes 2 seconds instead of 5 minutes, thanks to your solution!
Great job!
You have saved my life, really great, no words to explain, Thank you very much. Keep blogging.
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Nice!
BUT, why? What is wrong with the random number generator on Linux? I’d like to understand why securerandom.source=file:/dev/./urandom works where securerandom.source=file:/dev/urandom doesn’t.
Any ideas?
My guess it a bug in file names parser.
This method just doesn’t work really so well in solaris. I tried all that has been mentioned here and its all in vain, no use folks, really. Any suggestion in solaris. thanks
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Thanks for that tip. The Point (in /dev/./urandom/) is the point.
Thanks for the nice tip
Thanks a lot! Now the server start-up takes from 8 mins to 8 seconds!
Thanks a lot. I tried to beat this issue for more than a week without any success. Your tip finally made possible for my team to move forward.
Issue should be addressed via java bug fix 6998583. Available in 6u25.
Thank you so much..It helped !!!
Finaly ! been strugling with this about a year.
Thumbs up for you
This is fantastic, really helped us out. But how on earth did you find it? We have been looking at our weblogic process with strace and netstat searching for our root cause with no luck at all…
Thank You!!!! We have a bunch of WebLogic servers that are running fine. I recently installed a new environment and was plagued by this problem until now. I’m running Java 6u26 on RedHat ES 6.1 and WebLogic 10.3.5.
Thanks again!
And I thought they fixed it already in 6u24 or so.
THANKS THANKS!! SOO MUCH!
I am a Websphere admin. Was trying to install WLS1035 with jrockit-jdk1.6.0_29 and was stuck with slow domain creation and slow admin console.
Your clue helped me to overcome the crazy slowness.
Great info. Thanks
I was stuck with WLST, trying to connect to an SSL administration port.
The error message was unclear (no server is running on t3s://ip:port – whereas the port is open).
This post both solved the problem by reducing the response time of the Admin Server (from several minutes to a few seconds, WLST timeout is ~30 seconds) and dramatically reduced the WebLogic servers startup time (from 6 minutes to 40 seconds).
Thanks a lot for your post niteartadmin, it helped me twice !
My conf is : RHEL 6.1, JDK Sun 1.6u27, WebLogic 10.3.3.
this is so great, thx dude!
Brilliant. Weblogic is starting (CentOS) in seconds after making this fix.
Thanks a lot … this helped us resolve a long standing issue…..
Thanks a lot! Just shaved off 80% of the startup time in our development environment.
Hi,
now the post is more than 3 years old – the problem still persists and the post yet helps alot.
Thank you so much!
Like mentionned above, any tips to solve a similar issue on Solaris?
A note, according to this document from Oracle, this should not be used in Production as it uses pseudo-random numbers instead of genuine random numbers for security.
Document is about Solaris.
My understanding using /dev/urandom in linux environment is Ok because of the way it works. There are always hardware random number generators to avoid entropy starvation.
But on windows ???? Thanks
I have no idea about windows. I suspect it does not have this exact problem.
Mindblowing , awesome , stupendous , etc … i do not have words for expressing my gratitude . facing the issue for the past 3 years with no solution and with god’s grace found it today . Deeply grateful for your contribution.
My WLS installation is 10.3.5 on Solaris 10 64 bit, I changed the setting but it dint work for me . Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks a lot. Was really helpful..
Thank you, this solved my slowness problem when running embedded wls in jdeveloper 11gR2