Chapter IV: A New Error

[WolfShade]

Good morning, all.

Been getting a flood of error emails generated from production.  Related to Apache POI, but something I have never heard of, before.

com/zaxxer/sparsebits/SparseBitSet
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError

I looked at the line number indicated in the error message.  Inside of a cfscript tag:

...

SpreadsheetMergeCells(variables.mySpreadsheet,1,1,1,6);

...

This is from a Cost Estimate form on our Public site.

I've done some digging around, but can't find anything on SparseBitSet.  Or, not much, anyway.  I think I read somewhere that it's not an actual module, so I am guessing there's no package install that can fix this.  Please advise.

WolfShade

UPDATE:  This isn't affecting only the Cost Estimate form, it appears to also be affecting a Rates Lookup page that uses Excel files to query rates from one port to another.

[BKBK]

What is the ColdFusion version and update level?

[WolfShade]

Hi, BKBK.

Product Version is 2021,0,20,330407 (copied from my earlier post, so may not be accurate).  I believe we are on update 21.  Although our SA did state that there was a quarterly update that came out a few days ago.  (CORRECTION: two weeks ago?)  So, I can't swear to the update level.  I currently suspect that this might be the cause.

WolfShade

UPDATE:  Reached out to our SA.  We are on update 21-330-446, if that makes a difference.

UPDATE2:  This is affecting only production, right now.  Our test environment does not appear to have this issue.

[BKBK · Accepted solution]

Such an error might arise when you install a recent update of ColdFusion 2021. That is what has been happening of recent. All ColdFusion versions suffer from a condition whereby some packages are not updated when an update is installed. 

During the installation of an update existing libraries and packages are deleted or updated. However, for an as yet unknown reason, ColdFusion fails to replace or update some of the deleted libraries or packages. That is probably what happened in your case:

com/zaxxer/sparsebits/SparseBitSet
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError

The relevant package, C:/ColdFusion2021/bundles/repo/SparseBitSet-1.2.jar, is probably missing.

A common solution to such update issues is as follows:

1.  Stop ColdFusion;
2.  Delete the directory /bin/felix-cache. (No worries here: ColdFusion will recreate and repopulate it upon restart, which is the main idea); 
3.  Restart ColdFusion;
4.  Verify whether the issue has been resolved.

[WolfShade]

BKBK, should we copy/paste SparseBitSet-1.2.jar, first?

WolfShade

[Charlie Arehart]

I'll jump in and say "no".  Really, just follow those steps. They're literally recommended by Adobe in the technote for the most recent updates, just as they've been for most of the recent updates. It's just a one-minute effort, without risk (though, granted, it requires a cf restart).

But trying to cherry pick and guess what cf needs based on these sort of error seems risky business. Another "mole" will likely pop up, needing to be "whacked". Just flush the field, in the hopes it will eradicate all the moles. 🙂

Then let's hope eventually Adobe gets to the bottom of whatever is the true root cause of this package mismanagement being caused (in some situations) by their updates.

Finally, if this DOES NOT solve the problem, then at least we've ruled that out. I'd propose the next thing to consider would be whether there were any errors in the update or its subsequent package update process. But let's wait to cross that bridge if we get there.

Or bkbk may have a different perspective to share, if course. 

[WolfShade]

Charlie,

Thank you.  I believe you are the "Installation Guru", and will pass that along to our SA.  Hopefully, we'll get it fixed before he goes home.  He has tomorrow off.  🙂

WolfShade

[Charlie Arehart]

Thanks for the kind regards. We're blessed as well to have other frequent longtime contributors here like bkbk, Dave Watts, and even you. 🙂 We're all in this together! 

[WolfShade]

I am not sure if it's related, or not.. but I've been combing through some of the error emails that have been generating due to the SparseBitSet issue, and ran across an email indicating that around the same time as this issue started, there was at least one error email generated from an issue with the SOLR server.

IOException occured when talking to server at https://localhost:8993/solr/{collection name} : localhost:8993 failed to respond
There was a problem while attempting to perform a search.

I can't find but the one error email for SOLR, there could be more.  Sadly, the inbox that it is sent to does not allow me to search for keywords in any of the emails in it.  There could be more.

WolfShade

[BKBK]

I think that neither error is due to the other. But my instinct tells me they have the same root-cause, hence the same solution: deleting felix-cache, then restarting Coldfusion.

[WolfShade]

I am hoping that's the case.  I haven't seen any more of those emails since the last cache delete and restart.

WolfShade

[BKBK]

Glad to hear that. Thanks for the update.