Identity Manager JBoss Audit Database Schema Error During Startup

Products

• CA Identity Manager
• CA Identity Governance
• CA Identity Portal
• CA Identity Suite

Issue/Introduction

JBoss may fail to start immediately following an Identity Manager installation or upgrade. The server logs typically display a SQLServerException indicating that a database object already exists:

Error in creating Auditing database schema.: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerException: There is already an object named 'IM_Audit_Start_Date' in the database.

This error indicates that the Identity Manager bootstrap process is encountering pre-existing schema objects that conflict with the deployment, or that the audit version recorded in the database does not align with the installed software version.

Environment

Identity Manager 14.x & 15

Cause

• Stale Schema Objects: Previous installation attempts or manual database modifications may have left orphaned schema objects.
• Version Mismatch: The imsAudit_version table may contain an outdated version number, causing the JBoss startup sequence to trigger an incorrect upgrade or creation path.
• Incompatible JAR Files: In some cases, post-upgrade/patch JAR file mismatches within the iam_im.ear directory can cause erratic startup behavior.

Resolution

1. Validate Audit Version: Before modifying the database schema, verify the current audit version to ensure it is not a simple version configuration issue.

   • Run the following query against your Identity Manager database: SELECT * from imsAudit_version
   • If the version is incorrectly set (e.g., 13.0.0.0.0), update it to the version compatible with your release (e.g., 14.2.0.0.1 for 14.5+).
   • Reference: Identity Manager Unable to Start After Recent Patching with Audit DB Errors

2. Clean Up Stale Database Tables: If the version update does not resolve the startup error, remove existing objects to allow JBoss to recreate them cleanly.

   • Backup: Create a full backup of the Identity Manager database before performing any drop/delete operations.
   • Drop Tables: Use the database-specific cleanup scripts provided in your installation directory:
     • Navigate to: [IdentityManager_Install_Dir]/tools/db/audit/
     • Execute: ims_mssql_audit_delete_.sql (or the equivalent script for your database engine).
   • Restart the Identity Manager service.

3. Verify JAR File Consistency (Clustered Environments): If the error persists in a cluster after schema cleanup, verify that the application JAR files are identical across all nodes.

   • Compare the byte count and versioning of the following files between working and non-working servers:
     • identitymanager.jar
     • idmutils.jar
     • ims.jar
     • imsapi6.jar
     • imsconfig.jar
     • jiam.jar
     • user_console.jar
   • If mismatches are found, replace the mismatched files with the correct versions from the GA release package.