Smarts NCM: Smarts NCM GUI does not display; JBoss service not starting; Error (powerup.log): Cant find the lockbox. Exception: java.lang.Exception: Key store file do not exist

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:


The Smarts NCM GUI does not display and the JBoss service cant be started.

Errors from powerup.log file

DEBUG [com.powerup.common.util.CryptoHelper] (main) Unable to get the key from key store file 
 Exception: java.lang.Exception:  Key store file do not exist 
ERROR [com.powerup.common.util.CryptoHelper] (main) Error loading the lockbox
ERROR [com.powerup.configmgr.server.services.admin.AdminServiceStartup] (main) The necessary Java Cryptography Extension files are not valid for the encryption algorithm. Refer to the installation document to fix the issue
ERROR [com.powerup.configmgr.server.startup.ServerStartup] (main) Failed to start REQUIRED service - Admin Bootstrap

 INFO  [com.powerup.configmgr.server.startup.ServerStartup] (main) java.security.InvalidKeyException: No key given
SHUTTING DOWN...

Environment

VMware Smart Assurance - NCM

Cause

The customer had installed new packages on the server and JBoss was no longer able to start due to changes to the linux groups file (/etc/group):

Resolution

The member of the cst group has been modified in the file /etc/group during the package upgrade and JBoss was no longer able to start due to missing members.

/etc/group is a text file which defines the groups to which users belong under the Linux OS.
Multiple users can be categorized into groups. 

The cst group had been changed from 

cst:x:504:jboss,tomcat,root
to 
cst:x:504:root

Once the jboss and tomcat users were re-added to the cst group and all the services restarted the issue was resolved.