ColdFusion 2023 Excel Export Breaks When AppDynamics Java Agent Is Enabled

[Madhabdhk]

Hello all, I am having an issue with ColdFusion 2023 where exporting to Excel only fails when the AppDynamics Java Agent is enabled. As soon as I add this JVM argument 

-javaagent:C:\AppDynamics\JavaAgent\ver25.6.0.37159\javaagent.jar

my excel export fails and which results: 500 - Internal server error. If I remove that line and restart ColdFusion services, the export works perfectly again.

I think the issue here is AppDymanics agent is interfering with ColdFusion's functionality. 

Has anyone  esle run into this with CF 2023 and AppDynamics, or is there any known conflict between these two? 

any adivce, tips or shared experience would be really helpful. 

Thanks 

[BKBK]

If the Excel export works perfectly without the AppDynamics agent, doesn't that mean you don't need the agent in the first place? Or do you need the agent for something else?

 In fact, ColdFusion 2023 is itself capable of exporting an Excel file. So I wonder why you need an external agent. In any case, could you share the code you want to use for exporting Excel?

[Madhabdhk]

Thank you for your comment. Just to clarify, we’re not using AppDynamics for the Excel export. The agent is required by our organisation for server and application monitoring, so disabling it isn’t an option. The issue seems to be a conflict between the AppDynamics Java agent and ColdFusion 2023’s Excel export functionality. Any insights from others who have faced this would be appreciated.

[BKBK]

Thanks for clarifying. Please say what you mean by "ColdFusion 2023’s Excel export functionality". Could you, for example, share the code you're using?

[BKBK · Accepted solution]

I've never used AppDynamics before. However, looking at the AppDynamics documentation, I have a suggestion.

What if you implement "prefer retransformClasses"  and, in addition, "exclude classes" that are used in ColdFusion 2023 for Excel generation? In other words, test with something like

-javaagent:C:\AppDynamics\JavaAgent\ver25.6.0.37159\javaagent.jar
-Dappdynamics.agent.exclude.classes=org.apache.poi.*,org.apache.xmlbeans.*,org.openxmlformats.*,com.adobe.coldfusion.excel.*
-Dappdynamics.agent.prefer.retransformClasses=true

This combination, if it works, should do two things:

• prevent AppDynamics from instrumenting the problematic Excel libraries in ColdFusion (POI, XMLBeans).
• allow safer late retransform for other ColdFusion-managed classes.

[Madhabdhk]

@BKBK, I mean I use cfspreadsheet to export the Excel files, that will fail when I use that JVM Argument for AppDynamics. 

For example: 

 <cfspreadsheet
            action="write"
            overwrite="true"
            autosize="true"
            filename="#strFilename#"
            query="qryFiltered"
            sheetname="Summary #dateFormat(Now(), 'dd-mm-yyyy')#"/>

        <cfheader name="content-disposition" value="attachment;filename=MaddyTest%20#dateFormat(Now(), 'dd-mm-yyyy')#.xlsx"> 
        <cfcontent type="application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet" file="#strFilename#" deleteFile="yes">

[BKBK]

@Madhabdhk , thanks for explaining which Excel code you use.

Do AppDynamics and cfspreadsheet-write now work as intended, without any hiccups or errors? 

[Dave Watts]

What exactly do your logs say?

Have you contacted Adobe tech support directly?

[Madhabdhk]

@Dave Watts, When the Excel export fails, the stack trace includes the following AppDynamics class: com/singularity/ee/agent/appagent/entrypoint/bciengine/FastMethodInterceptorDelegatorBoot