Administrative REST API Service and Pulse are Not Available if Starting Locators Using LocatorLauncher API

Products

• VMware Tanzu Gemfire

Issue/Introduction

Sometimes, if starting Locators are using the LocatorLauncher API, the Administrative REST API service or Pulse may not be available, but these locators would seem to work fine otherwise. This article provides a resolution for the issue.

Symptoms:

The Administrative REST API service and Pulse may not be available if starting Locators are using the LocatorLauncher API. You may see the following log message in the locator logs according to log level (FINE or INFO, depending on GemFire version).

GEMFIRE environment variable not set; HTTP service will not start.

Cause

As you can see from the log message, the HTTP service does not start in this case. The HTTP service is required for the Administrative REST API service and Pulse. As a result, those services are not available.
 

Resolution

According to the log message, you have to set the GemFire environment variable (i.e., GemFire's root installation directory) because GemFire recognizes the location of HTTP service modules from the GemFire environment variable. 

The GemFire environment variable should be set in any case according to the installation manual.