Error "Can't load descriptor" while starting the collector service.

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance

Issue/Introduction

Unable to start the collector service, discover switches and manage the environment.  
Error message similar to the following is seen in collecting.log file:

INFO     -- [2014-02-06 12:27:59 CAT] -- CollectorManagerImpl::getComponentInstance(): Instantiating class com.watch4net.apg.v2.collector.plugins.SocketConnector for connector Backend...
SEVERE   -- [2014-02-06 12:27:59 CAT] -- Bootstrap::main(): Can't start Collector Manager!
com.watch4net.apg.v2.common.config.InvalidConfigurationException: Can't load descriptor 'conf/alertingconnector.xml' for connector Alerting!
    at com.watch4net.apg.v2.collector.CollectorManagerImpl.getInstance(CollectorManagerImpl.java:239)
    at com.watch4net.apg.v2.collector.CollectorManagerImpl.configureConnectors(CollectorManagerImpl.java:418)
    at com.watch4net.apg.v2.collector.CollectorManagerImpl.configure(CollectorManagerImpl.java:170)
    at com.watch4net.apg.v2.collector.Bootstrap.serviceStart(Bootstrap.java:89)
    at com.watch4net.apg.v2.collector.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:140)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at com.watch4net.apg.module.plugin.service.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:59)
    at com.watch4net.apg.module.plugin.service.windows.ProcrunBootstrap.main(ProcrunBootstrap.java:82)
Caused by: com.watch4net.component.loader.ComponentResolutionException: Unable to locate 'Socket-Connector' at 'conf/alertingconnector.xml' in [<APG_BASE>/Collecting, <APG_BASE>/Backends, <APG_BASE>/Collecting/Collector-Manager/Generic-SNMP]
    at com.watch4net.component.loader.impl.LocationResolver.getDescriptor(LocationResolver.java:125)
    at com.watch4net.apg.v2.collector.CollectorManagerImpl.getInstance(CollectorManagerImpl.java:236)
    ... 10 more

Environment

Watch4net/MnR - 7.x

Cause

Some files were deleted (including alertingconnector.xml) while install/upgrade/migration and updating all the required modules. This occurs if the user who completed the upgrade did not select [no] during the upgrade process when asked if the files should be deleted or not.

Resolution

This issue can be prevented by selecting [no] when prompted during the migration, to specify that files such as alertingconnector.xml are not deleted by the migration process. If you encounter the above issue, you have the following options to address this issue, depending on whether you have a back-up of your Watch4net installation:

• Watch4net back-up exists: If you have a recent back-up of your Watch4net installation, you can do the migration procedure again using the back-up, being sure to select [no] when prompted about deleting files.
• No Watch4net back-up exists: If you do not have a good back-up of your Watch4net installation, you must install a new MnR installation and then re-build your old Watch4net configuration in your newly installed environment.

Additional Information

Broadcom strongly recommends that you make regular backups of your product environment.