Unable to start Symantec Protection Engine services after Java upgrade

Products

• Protection Engine for NAS
• Protection Engine for Cloud Services

Issue/Introduction

Java was upgraded to a newer version (e.g 8u411) to remediate vulnerabilities. After Java was upgraded both the Scan Engine, and the REST API services aborted during startup.

A review of SymantecProtectionEngineAbortLog.txt showed entries similar to the following:

Windows:  C:\Program Files\Symantec\Scan Engine\SymantecProtectionEngineAbortLog.txt

2024/06/14-10:16:46 300 XML files did not validate : Error Validating configuration.xml. Element '/configuration/Resources/System/JavaLocation/@value' value: 'C:\Program Files\Java\jre-1.8\bin\java.exe' is not a valid value of the local atomic type. Error Message: Failed to execute Java version command. Valid Java not found. Please configure the supported version of 64 bit java(1.8 family update 232 or later version in the same series).
2024/06/14-10:16:46 0 Symantec Protection Engine is shutting down; logs may contain more information.

Linux:  /opt/SYMCScan/SymantecProtectionEngineAbortLog.txt

2024/06/14-15:15:46 300 XML files did not validate : Error Validating configuration.xml. Element '/configuration/Resources/System/JavaLocation/@value' value: '/usr/java/jre1.8.0_360_hotspot/bin/java' is not a valid value of the local atomic type. Error Message: Configured java does not exist. Please configure the supported version of 64 bit java(1.8 family update 232 or later version in the same series).
2024/08/05-15:15:46 0 Symantec Protection Engine is shutting down; logs may contain more information.

 

Environment

Windows, SPE 9.0, 9.1

Cause

The path to the Java binary changed, but the SPE references to the old path remain in configuration.xml @JavaLocation

Resolution

Steps to resolve:

Windows:

 1. Verify where the current Java.exe binary is located on the server.
 
 2. Copy the path to where the current Java.exe is located into the system clipboard and paste it over/replacing the following syntax highlighted tagged in red (make sure you include java.exe at the end of the path)

 

xmlmodifier -s //Resources/System/JavaLocation/@value "C:\Program Files\OpenLogic\jre-8.0.412.08-hotspot\bin\java.exe" configuration.xml

 

 3. Open an administrative command prompt and CD "C:\Program Files\Symantec\Scan Engine"
 
 4. Run the xmlmodifier command crafted in step #2
 

Attempt to start the Symantec Protection Engine service again.

 

Linux:

1. Verify where the current Java binary is located by examining the java SymLink:    ll /etc/alternatives/java

Example of what may be returned:

/etc/alternatives/java -> /usr/java/jre1.8.0_361-amd64/bin/java

2. Using the information from the SymLink (green) -- replace the path to where the current java binary is located into the system clipboard and paste it over/replacing the following syntax tagged in red.

./xmlmodifier -s //Resources/System/JavaLocation/@value /usr/java/jre1.8.0_360_hotspot/bin/java configuration.xml

3. From the bash prompt:  cd /opt/SYMCScan/bin

4. Run the xmlmodifier command crafted in step #2

Start the symcscan service:   /etc/init.d/symcscan start