Migrating application from WAS7 to WAS 8.5 - migration

Question

I am in the process of migrating an application from WAS 7 to WAS 8.5 but am having trouble starting the application. Following is the error I get. A similar question was asked earlier but was not answered,Unable to start application on websphere 8.5, but running on version 7
. I would appreciate if someone could throw some light on this issue.
ADMA0116W: Unable to start: dcaEAR using: WebSphere:name=ApplicationManager,process=server1,platform=proxy,node=W7-PC009NYLNode01,version=8.5.0.1,type=ApplicationManager,mbeanIdentifier=ApplicationManager,cell=W7-PC009NYLNode01Cell,spec=1.0 exception is: javax.management.MBeanException: Exception thrown in RequiredModelMBean while trying to invoke operation startApplication
at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invokeMethod(RequiredModelMBean.java:1112)
at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invoke(RequiredModelMBean.java:966)
at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:848)
at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:773)
at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl$1.run(AdminServiceImpl.java:1335)
at com.ibm.ws.security.util.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:118)
at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl.invoke(AdminServiceImpl.java:1228)
at com.ibm.ws.management.application.AppManagementImpl._startApplication(AppManagementImpl.java:1482)
at com.ibm.ws.management.application.AppManagementImpl.startApplication(AppManagementImpl.java:1371)
at com.ibm.ws.management.application.AppManagementImpl.startApplication(AppManagementImpl.java:1320)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)
at sun.reflect.misc.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:49)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)
at sun.reflect.misc.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:256)
at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invokeMethod(RequiredModelMBean.java:1085)
at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invoke(RequiredModelMBean.java:966)
at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:848)
at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:773)
at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl$1.run(AdminServiceImpl.java:1335)
at com.ibm.ws.security.util.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:118)
at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl.invoke(AdminServiceImpl.java:1228)
at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.AdminServiceDelegator.invoke(AdminServiceDelegator.java:181)
at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.ipc.CallRouter.route(CallRouter.java:247)
at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.ipc.IPCConnectorInboundLink.doWork(IPCConnectorInboundLink.java:360)
at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.ipc.IPCConnectorInboundLink$IPCConnectorReadCallback.complete(IPCConnectorInboundLink.java:602)
at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.AioReadCompletionListener.futureCompleted(AioReadCompletionListener.java:165)
at com.ibm.io.async.AbstractAsyncFuture.invokeCallback(AbstractAsyncFuture.java:217)
at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncChannelFuture.fireCompletionActions(AsyncChannelFuture.java:161)
at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture.java:138)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHandler.java:204)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingLoop(ResultHandler.java:775)
at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler.java:905)
at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1814)
Caused by: com.ibm.ws.exception.RuntimeWarning: com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.exception.WebAppNotLoadedException: Failed to load webapp: Failed to load webapp: null
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.install(WebContainerImpl.java:432)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.start(WebContainerImpl.java:718)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.start(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1173)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedApplicationImpl.fireDeployedObjectStart(DeployedApplicationImpl.java:1370)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedModuleImpl.start(DeployedModuleImpl.java:639)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedApplicationImpl.start(DeployedApplicationImpl.java:968)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.startApplication(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:772)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.startApplicationDynamically(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1367)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.start(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:2172)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl.start(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:445)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitImpl.start(CompositionUnitImpl.java:123)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl.start(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:388)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl.access$500(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:116)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl$1.run(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:663)
at com.ibm.ws.security.auth.ContextManagerImpl.runAs(ContextManagerImpl.java:5363)
at com.ibm.ws.security.auth.ContextManagerImpl.runAsSystem(ContextManagerImpl.java:5579)
at com.ibm.ws.security.core.SecurityContext.runAsSystem(SecurityContext.java:255)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl.startCompositionUnit(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:677)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl.startCompositionUnit(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:621)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.startApplication(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1259)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)
at sun.reflect.misc.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:49)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)
at sun.reflect.misc.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:256)
at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invokeMethod(RequiredModelMBean.java:1085)
... 38 more
Caused by: com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.exception.WebAppNotLoadedException: Failed to load webapp: Failed to load webapp: null
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.addWebApp(WSWebContainer.java:759)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.addWebApplication(WSWebContainer.java:634)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.install(WebContainerImpl.java:426)
... 68 more
Caused by: com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.exception.WebAppNotLoadedException: Failed to load webapp: null
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.VirtualHostImpl.addWebApplication(VirtualHostImpl.java:176)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.addWebApp(WSWebContainer.java:749)
... 70 more
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.GenericSignatureFormatError
at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.error(SignatureParser.java:115)
at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.parseSimpleClassTypeSignature(SignatureParser.java:274)
at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.parseClassTypeSignatureSuffix(SignatureParser.java:282)
at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.parseClassTypeSignature(SignatureParser.java:256)
at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.parseClassSignature(SignatureParser.java:183)
at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.parseClassSig(SignatureParser.java:138)
at sun.reflect.generics.repository.ClassRepository.parse(ClassRepository.java:46)
at sun.reflect.generics.repository.ClassRepository.parse(ClassRepository.java:35)
at sun.reflect.generics.repository.AbstractRepository.<init>(AbstractRepository.java:68)
at sun.reflect.generics.repository.GenericDeclRepository.<init>(GenericDeclRepository.java:42)
at sun.reflect.generics.repository.ClassRepository.<init>(ClassRepository.java:42)
at sun.reflect.generics.repository.ClassRepository.make(ClassRepository.java:59)
at java.lang.Class.getClassRepository(Class.java:1825)
at java.lang.Class.getTypeParameters(Class.java:1842)
at org.apache.webbeans.util.ClassUtil.isDefinitionConstainsTypeVariables(ClassUtil.java:1653)
at org.apache.webbeans.config.BeanTypeSetResolver.normalClassConfiguration(BeanTypeSetResolver.java:72)
at org.apache.webbeans.config.BeanTypeSetResolver.startConfiguration(BeanTypeSetResolver.java:60)
at org.apache.webbeans.util.ClassUtil.setTypeHierarchy(ClassUtil.java:1710)
at org.apache.webbeans.portable.AbstractAnnotated.<init>(AbstractAnnotated.java:55)
at org.apache.webbeans.portable.AnnotatedTypeImpl.<init>(AnnotatedTypeImpl.java:58)
at org.apache.webbeans.portable.AnnotatedElementFactory.newAnnotatedType(AnnotatedElementFactory.java:98)
at org.apache.webbeans.config.BeansDeployer.deployFromClassPath(BeansDeployer.java:484)
at org.apache.webbeans.config.BeansDeployer.deploy(BeansDeployer.java:171)
at org.apache.webbeans.lifecycle.AbstractLifeCycle.startApplication(AbstractLifeCycle.java:124)
at org.apache.webbeans.web.lifecycle.WebContainerLifecycle.startApplication(WebContainerLifecycle.java:78)
at com.ibm.ws.webbeans.common.CommonLifeCycle.startApplication(CommonLifeCycle.java:106)
at com.ibm.ws.webbeans.services.JCDIServletContainerInitializer.onStartup(JCDIServletContainerInitializer.java:85)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppImpl.initializeServletContainerInitializers(WebAppImpl.java:613)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppImpl.initialize(WebAppImpl.java:409)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebGroupImpl.addWebApplication(WebGroupImpl.java:88)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.VirtualHostImpl.addWebApplication(VirtualHostImpl.java:169)
... 71 more

Answer 1

According to soa4j
This error happens when you use reflection and you try to load a class
but the definition of the class does not match what you expected to found,
probably due to an older JAR library being loaded in a more modern
version of a server. Check the nested exception to try to find the
name of the class colliding and put it in another classloader.
http://www.soa4j.com/RequestContentFromID?q=968830446190576900&lang=en
Have you tried enabling verbose loading of classes to see in which class this happens?