CF2016: large number of NullPointerExceptions at intervals

Report · Aug 03, 2017

We upgraded from CF9 to CF2016 a couple of weeks ago.

The following issue seems to occur every few days. When it occurs, there are large numbers of exceptions at exactly the same instant. There were *47* of these NullPointerExceptions in our exception.log this morning:

"Error","scheduler-2","08/03/17","05:11:14","","'' The specific sequence of files included or processed is: '''' "

java.lang.NullPointerException

at coldfusion.runtime.NeoJspWriter.writeOutput(NeoJspWriter.java:228)

at coldfusion.runtime.NeoJspWriter.flush(NeoJspWriter.java:362)

at coldfusion.cfc.CFCProxy.flush(CFCProxy.java:357)

at coldfusion.cfc.CFCProxy.doInvoke(CFCProxy.java:332)

at coldfusion.cfc.CFCProxy.invoke(CFCProxy.java:302)

at coldfusion.runtime.AppEventInvoker.onSessionEnd(AppEventInvoker.java:462)

at coldfusion.runtime.SessionTracker.invokeOnSessinEnd(SessionTracker.java:292)

at coldfusion.runtime.SessionTracker.cleanUp(SessionTracker.java:275)

at coldfusion.runtime.SessionTracker.access$000(SessionTracker.java:43)

at coldfusion.runtime.SessionTracker$SessionCleanUpAgent.run(SessionTracker.java:484)

at coldfusion.scheduling.ThreadPool.run(ThreadPool.java:260)

at coldfusion.scheduling.WorkerThread.run(WorkerThread.java:71)

The application.log:

"Error","scheduler-2","08/03/17","05:11:14","","'' The specific sequence of files included or processed is: '''' "

...

Please investigate CF team. What is going on here? Why are we getting these exceptions? What damage are they causing?

CF2016, RedHat7, Apache 2.4, everything patched and current.

Thanks

Report · Aug 03, 2017

I'd start with checking if there were any errors in your logs when you performed the upgrade or installation. It may be difficult to track down since this would be an internal process to ColdFusion. It could be the mail spooler, CF cleaning up sessions, caches being invalidated, etc. I'd suggest something like FusionReactor would be able to help you here. You could also expand your search to other logs around the same time and see if any activity there gives you a hint of what is happening at that time.

Nic

Report · Aug 04, 2017

Hi Nic --

No, there were no errors upon install. This appears to be something wrong at the server level.

It just happened again a few minutes ago, and from the looks of it it's an issue stemming from "SESSION CLEANUP AGENT". Wish I knew what was going on here. I have submitted a bug report on the tracker site but haven't heard anything back. My primary concern is that these errors are leaving corrupted sessions hanging around, or leaking memory, or otherwise creating long term stability issues for the server.

"Error","scheduler-2","08/04/17","17:51:21","","'' The specific sequence of files included or processed is: '''' "