Smart Instrumentation cross-process automatic trace affects Application Operations

Products

• CA Application Performance Management Agent (APM / Wily / Introscope)
• INTROSCOPE

Issue/Introduction

  When authenticating a user in an application, the application log shows the following Null Pointer Exception:

   Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
 at com.wily.introscope.agent.trace.intelligent.HighPerformanceIntelligenceStackElement.getException(HighPerformanceIntelligenceStackElement.java:2054)
 at com.wily.introscope.agent.trace.intelligent.HighPerformanceIntelligenceStackElement$HighPerformanceIntelligenceStackElementVirtualStack.IIntelligentInstrumentationMethodTracer_setThrownException(HighPerformanceIntelligenceStackElement.java:1661)
 at com.alibaba.dubbo.common.bytecode.Wrapper3.invokeMethod(Wrapper3.java)
 at com.alibaba.dubbo.rpc.proxy.javassist.JavassistProxyFactory$1.doInvoke(JavassistProxyFactory.java:46)
 at com.alibaba.dubbo.rpc.proxy.AbstractProxyInvoker.invoke(AbstractProxyInvoker.java:72)
 ... 25 more

 

  

Environment

Java Agent 10.3 Only

Cause

The problem is related to a defect in the "Cross Process Auto trace" feature (DE242519)

Resolution

Install 10.3 Hot Fix#18  or upgrade to any 10.5.x release.

 

Workaround:

Turn off automatic crossprocess trace feature in the introscopeAgent.profile. Smart Instrumentation can still be ON.

     introscope.agent.deep.automatic.trace.crossprocess.enabled=false

 

Additional Information

https://docops.ca.com/ca-apm/10-3/en/ca-apm-release-notes#CAAPMReleaseNotes-JavaAgent

https://docops.ca.com/ca-apm/10-3/en/using/apm-webview/collect-and-analyze-transaction-traces#CollectandAnalyzeTransactionTraces-AutomaticallyCollectedTransactionTraces