Unable to start ColdFusion...

[PeytonT]

(I hope the only answer to this problem will not be a virus and the need to re-build my PC!)

Unable to access CF as localhost (both a website I wrote which had been working fine and http://localhost:8500/cfide/administrator), I checked out the Start Menu and sure enough, CF was being instructed to load a boot time. So I uninstalled CF8 and tried to install CF9, un-checking the parts about searching capabilities (Verity, etc.). I believe it claimed to install okay, but then my virus software, AVG, claimed that a CF program was... *malware*! I didn't have the common sense to write down the full pathname, but JRUN was somewhere in that pathname. So I completely uninstalled my Java, and reinstalled the latest version of Java from the java.com website. (In the interim, Firefox told me its new version was incompatible with the installed version of Flash Player and I better update that, attempted to do so, and on the first attempt, was told that "the download did not pass the integrity check", but it succeeded when I tried the second time.) But finally, with the latest version of Java installed, and went back to the task of installing CF9...

After first uninstalling the earlier install of CF9, I undertook the process again (from a saved copy of the .exe by the way, and will all other windows closed). This time I went with all the defaults (built-in server, search capabilities, remote capabilities). At length, I was told "You have successfully completed the first step" and "Now launch the Configuration Wizard in the default browser" (not exact quotes, but close). When I attempted to do so (by clicking Done, since the checkbox for launching the Configuration Wizard was checked), I received the message: "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1."

In other words, after all of the above, I'm back at square one. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I should try next?

Thanks for your help.

Peyton

Message was edited by: PeytonT: Now 3 hours later, I have completed a full scan of the computer (685,000) files, and no infections were found - just 82 'warnings', all of them tracking cookies. But entering the url "127.0.0.1/cfide/administrator" (without the quotes of course) still returns nothing.

[Adam Cameron.]

Another worrisome issue: TM now shows two instances of JRUN.EXE, one of them taking up a lot of memory (158K), the other not (21K). Why? Is that a problem?

One of them is probably the JRun admin server.  Do you have it set to start-up automatically?  In Windows Services it's under "Macromedia JRun Admin Server" or something like that.

And how can I fix it so JRUN loads automatically on bootup, as happens on my other PC? I seem to remember that there's a directory somewhere where you can drag stuff you want to start right away. I'll search the Windows directory, but right now I want to get this post off before some catastrophe like the power going off and me losing all I just wrote.

You use the JRUNSVC program to create a Windows Service.

It's pretty straight forward, just do jrunsvc /? on the command line for the options.  At its most basic level, it's simply

jrunsvc -install [name of CF Server instance here]

EG:

jrunsrv -install cfusion

--

Adam

[PeytonT]

Okay, guys, here are some results:

1. Thanks for telling me how to reset IIS. However, this had no effect on my problem. Did I mention this one already?

2. Turning off AVG security did have an effect, but an ambiguous one. Specifically:

   (a) As advised, I set AVG to 'Manual' (and by the way, thanks for telling me how to get to Windows Services). Then, just as a test, I tried to start CF *without* rebooting (pointless, preumably, but...) ... not only did CF start, but so did my app, when CF would not start at all on the attempt just before playing with AVG security.

   (b) When I did re-boot right after that, and verified via the AVG interface that everything was turned off, the result was... failure. CF did not start.

   (c) But just as I was closing the error window to have a look at the console log I slipped and closed the console log instead, so I had to try to start CF again just to enable me to view the console log, but I was not able to view the console log  because.. CF did start, and so did my app.

   (d) Finally, I set AVG back to automatic and re-booted, and verified via their interface that everything in AVG was turned on. This put back the situation just before playing with AVG. And the result was... success, both in starting CF and in my app.

I think we have to conclude that this pattern of results makes no sense.

3. A potentially promising lead noted by Adam might be that my logs showed the process of starting CF aborting at the xmlrpc step, whereas his continued past there with graphing, verity, solr, and beyond. That suggests that the problem lies with my xmlrpc step. Maybe, but my earlier attempts at starting CF over the past few days usually failed just after announcing (therefore, presumably being on) the graphing step.

It does seem that it's time to start a trouble ticket, and thanks, too, for informing me that it's free for installation problems. But there's just one more thing I'd like to try first: the built-in server. The benefits of using that strategy generally, and not just for my problem, as described by Adam, seem excellent.

Here goes...

[PeytonT]

Incidentally, starting CF via JRun's launcher is not my usual practice either. I am doing so, of course, only because neither JRun nor CF are starting of themselves. However, at some occasions during the above tortured saga, they indeed *were* loading automatically....

[Adam Cameron.]

Incidentally, starting CF via JRun's launcher is not my usual practice either. I am doing so, of course, only because neither JRun nor CF are starting of themselves. However, at some occasions during the above tortured saga, they indeed *were* loading automatically....

Is there no CF Service listed in Windows Services?  That's how I'd usually start/stop CF.  It might or might nor matter, whilst you're troubleshooting.  I didn't like the way that the JRun applet said my CF instance failed to start when in fact it had started fine, though.  So I don't know that I trust it.

--

Adam

[BKBK]

But there's just one more thing I'd like to try first: the built-in server.

Choose the option of built-in server during installation. After installation, use the Web Server Configuration Tool to add IIS. In my opinion, that is the most problem-free way to do a single-server installation of Coldfusion on Windows.

[PeytonT]

Curiouser and curiouser. First I uninstalled CF9 (as I have always done before these new installations). Then I installed CF9 with the built-in server option, un-checking the verity, solr, and .NET options since I was viewing this as hopefully my final installation and I will have no use for those functions. I was told that the installation was successful (at least its "first step", the next step being the Configuration Wizard. However, when I checked Task Manager. I was surprised to find that no jrun.exe or jrunsvc.exe were present, although they had been after my few earlier sucessful installs. Not surprisingly if the Configuration Wizard requires jrun, 8500/cfide/administrator/index.cfm did not succeed in loading it.

(My memory is hazy on this one point: Either I loaded jrun.exe manually and was then successful in going to 8500/cfide/administrator/index.cfm, and didn't bother to write down that event since it seemed obvious, or I simply assumed it would be successful. But it was late, so I went to bed, with the intent of continuing this morning.)

Going at the task this morning, not only do I find no jrun or jrunsvc having been loaded at reboot (none in Task Manager anyway), but the ColdFusion9 directory did not contain them either, nor much else I'm now accustomed to finding there.Nor were there copies of jrun.exe or jrunsvc.exe anywhere on my hard drive. The only files containing the character string "jrun" were:

1. Some copies of C__COLDFUSION8_RUNTIME_BIN_JRUN.EXE.ndb in a subdirectory of my Documents and Settings directory containing AVG9 in its name. Maybe part of the problem? All were added in the past few days, during the time I was dealing only with CF9, not the CF8.

2. The two files JRUN.EXE-3707B9DE.pf and JRUNSVC.EXE-2F13F13F.pf, both dated last night, at a specific time I would take to be *during* the install.

The 'cf-j2ee-readme.txt' file tells me there could be more to all this than I envisioned, so I'm getting these results posted while I read that readme file more carefully.Meantime, any light you can shed would be appreciated as always. Potentially relevant is the fact that in my installation I left RDS checked, with the wild guess it might help a third party with debugging remotely some day. Reading the readme, I wonder if that's why I was offered the default choice of EAR which I accepted (or was that offer made at an earlier step?...). Anyway, as I said, I'm sending this much right away, fearful as ever that I will lose it all by a loss of power or some other glitch. (One last quick point, though: my computer does meet the hardware requirements for EAR.)

[PeytonT]

Wow. I can only say, based on what I see in the aforementioned readme file, that this seems to require a huge amount of work - far more than my present situation justifies. Maybe I should simply go back to CF8? Go back the the IIS option while buying another computer on the supposition that mine is somehow to blame?

Is installation with the built-in server really that complicated, or am I missing something?

[BKBK]

Curiouser and curiouser. First I uninstalled CF9 (as I have always done before these new installations). Then I installed CF9 with the built-in server option, un-checking the verity, solr, and .NET options since I was viewing this as hopefully my final installation and I will have no use for those functions. I was told that the installation was successful (at least its "first step", the next step being the Configuration Wizard.

However, when I checked Task Manager.... etc., etc.

I identify with you, until the step in bold. Restrict yourself to a clean, single-server installation. You should, during the installation process, resist the temptation to get yourself involved with Task Manager, JRun, JRunsvc, AVG, EAR, and so on. The more balls you juggle, the higher the chance you'll drop 'em all.

I would do it as follows:

1) If you haven't already done so, update AVG with the latest antivirus definitions and scan your computer. I'll therefore assume your computer clean.

2) Disable AVG. This will, for example, prevent it from holding a lock on a file you might want to delete.

3) Stop Coldfusion 9. Uninstall Coldfusion 9, removing every trace of it from your file system.

4) If there is an older version of Coldfusion on your computer, rename its installation folder. For example, C:\Coldfusion8_backup\. That would prevent the possibility of mistakenly running the older version.

5) Restart Windows.

6) Disable AVG to prevent it from interfering.

7) Install Coldfusion 9 as you did before. When you reach the Configuration Wizard step, do nothing. Just get back to the forum for the kumbaya moment, and we'll all proceed from there.

[PeytonT]

BKBK, I would love not to be involved in the installation process. The only reason I ever did any of the things you say not be be involved in was because the normal installation process was not doing it for me - loading JRun, for example (as it did do on the few occasions when it did succeed, only to fail to load JRun after a reboot). And how could me just taking a peek into Task Manager to find out whether JRun is there involve myself in the installation *process*? I have done that only when the installation program has either (a) aborted midstream and I'm investigating after the fact; or (b) it claims to have completed but all attempts to access localhost/cfide/administrator/index.cfm are unsuccessful - and, as it turns out, do become successful when JRun is manually loaded.

Nonetheless, I'm ready to undertake the steps you describe, subject to the following possible glitch: when I look at Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, I find no instance of ColdFusion there for me to uninstall. Is that because going the built-in server route doesn't actually install it at all in the usual sense, but rather just puts the EAR or WAR files in the ColdFusion9 directory? In such a case, would "uninstall coldfusion" be another name for simply deleting the ColdFusion9 directory? But could that be enough? Could this most recent installation with the built-in server option have put nothing at all in the Registry?

Peyton

[BKBK]

PeytonT, I do sympathize with you, and admire your patience. You'll gain something from the saga, I'm sure. At the end of it all, you'll know about the process better than most of us.

Take into account what Adam has just said. If it is true, then it should be sufficient to delete the files. In any case, you will find the tools to uninstall the single-server Coldfusion 9 installation, or to kill JRun, in C:\ColdFusion9\uninstall\. Good luck.

[PeytonT]

You were quite right, Adam, that I had simply not selected an install CF option during the installation. I now see that, when faced with the choice between Single Server, Multiple, or JEEE, I went with JEEE, no doubt because the word "server" suggested IIS Server while JEEE suggested Java, which is what the built-in server runs on. I blame my fatigue at that time, and the lateness of the hour.

Doing the installation again, and selecting the built-in server for what I now know to be the very first time, the result was that everything installed perfectly: localhost:8500/cfide/administrator/index.cfm, loaded without a hitch, and once I had pointed therein to my two datasources, my app ran perfectly too, including its third page, where I suspected all along that the CF error screen appearing on that page when an installation did appear to succeed was not the fault of my code but of the installation. A check in Task Manager subsequent to all this showed that jrun.exe and jrunsvc.exe are indeed loaded. And the same was true after a re-boot. My app also continues to run smoothly after the reboot.

Looking upon all we have done, I see that behold, it is good, and we are well entitled to a rest since it is, I believe, even more than seven days we have been at this task.

Again many thanks for your patience!

Peyton

[PeytonT]

Having also verified that ColdFusion is now listed in Windows Services, I checked 'Problem Solved', and attempted to further enhance our kumbaya moment by checking 'Helpful' on the bulk of your responses, but it only let me do so once... At least we all know your contribution.

[Adam Cameron.]

Heh.  No worries mate.  It's good you got it sorted out.

I suppose you still need to have a go at getting IIS talking to CF now, but that's pretty straight fwd.  It should just be a matter of running wsconfig and following your nose.

--

Adam

[Adam Cameron. · Accepted solution]

The 'cf-j2ee-readme.txt' file tells

It tells me that you didn't select either of the "install CF" (either stand-alone or multi-server) options during the install, you choice the "create EAR/WAR" file option.  Which doesn't install CF, it just creates a EAR or WAR file (for deployment on an existing J2EE server).

--

Adam

[Adam Cameron.]

Since a comment there calls this "the built-in Jrun web server', does that mean I should have chosen the built-in server instead of 'all IIS sites' when in installed ColdFusion 9 yesterday?

Ah, it doesn't matter.  IIS and JWS can connect to the CF server @ the same time, over different ports (say port 80 for IIS and port 8500 for JWS).

When I'm having issues with CF serving up pages (or, really: not serving up pages ;-), I move as close as possible to CF to start with, to check where the problem lies.

As the JWS is part of JRun, which is what CF runs on, there are fewer "moving parts" when using the JWS to test things.  If one can get CF to serve pages via JWS but not IIS, then the problem lies with the IIS connection.  If even JWS doesn't serve pages, there's a fundamental problem at the JRun / CF config end of things.

So, to start with, let's get CF working through JWS, and move from there.

--

Adam

[BKBK]

During installation, you perhaps inadvertently configured Coldfusion to use a webserver other that its own inbuilt JRun webserver. Apache, perhaps? The built-in webserver runs by default on port 8500, Apache on 80.

[PeytonT]

Okay, it won't kill me to install it yet again, this time choosing the built-in web server. But if that's the nature of the problem, how come it was working fine yesterday right after the install and isn't working now?

[Adam Cameron.]

It sounds to me like the CF services isn't running.

If it claims ot be running, check the JRun (not CF, JRun) logs for any errors.

--

Adam

[Yoosaf Abdulla]

None of the above solutions worked for me in CF2018. 

The solution was the Java.Home variable in windows environment variables was incorrect. 

please refer: https://community.hostek.com/t/coldfusion-service-startup-failures/550