Remote EJB lookup using Spring Boot and WebSphere 8.5.5

Question

I have a batch application using Spring Batch, and I'm using Spring Boot as well. This application needs to do Remote EJB lookups to load some informations from the application server. Until now we were using JBoss EAP 6.1. My pom.xml contains a profile specific for JBoss and I was using the following dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.jboss.as</groupId>
    <artifactId>jboss-as-ejb-client-bom</artifactId>
    <version>7.2.0.Final</version>
    <type>pom</type>
</dependency>

Now we need to migrate this application to WebSphere 8.5.5. I've created a new maven profile in my pom.xml with the following dependencies for Remote EJB Lookup on WebSphere.

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.ibm.ws</groupId>
    <artifactId>com.ibm.ws.ejb.thinclient</artifactId>
    <version>8.5.0</version>        
    <type>pom</type>
</dependency>

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.ibm.ws</groupId>
    <artifactId>com.ibm.ws.orb</artifactId>
    <version>8.5.0</version>        
    <type>pom</type>
</dependency>

Of course I've already installed this jars in my maven local repository.

Trying to execute the batch again, after configuring all the JNDI properties, Initial Context factory pointing to "com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnInitialContextFactory" and Provider URL to "corbaloc:iiop:localhost:2817", I got the following exception:

Caused by: org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [br.com.cpqd.components.security.api.user.SecurityUser]: Factory method 'securityUserEjb' threw exception; nested exception is javax.naming.NoInitialContextException: Cannot instantiate class: com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnInitialContextFactory [Root exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnInitialContextFactory]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:189)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(ConstructorResolver.java:588)
    ... 27 common frames omitted
Caused by: javax.naming.NoInitialContextException: Cannot instantiate class: com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnInitialContextFactory
    at javax.naming.spi.NamingManager.getInitialContext(NamingManager.java:674)
    at javax.naming.InitialContext.getDefaultInitCtx(InitialContext.java:307)
    at javax.naming.InitialContext.init(InitialContext.java:242)
    at javax.naming.InitialContext.<init>(InitialContext.java:216)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.createInitialContext(JndiTemplate.java:136)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.getContext(JndiTemplate.java:103)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.execute(JndiTemplate.java:85)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.lookup(JndiTemplate.java:152)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.lookup(JndiTemplate.java:179)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiLocatorSupport.lookup(JndiLocatorSupport.java:95)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectLocator.lookup(JndiObjectLocator.java:106)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean.lookupWithFallback(JndiObjectFactoryBean.java:231)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(JndiObjectFactoryBean.java:217)
    at br.com.batch.common.BatchCommonConfig.securityUserEjb(BatchCommonConfig.java:101)
    at br.com.batch.common.BatchCommonConfig$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$e2167a67.CGLIB$securityUserEjb$4(<generated>)
    at br.com.cpqd.saf.events.batch.common.BatchCommonConfig$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$e2167a67$$FastClassBySpringCGLIB$$30b25502.invoke(<generated>)
    at org.springframework.cglib.proxy.MethodProxy.invokeSuper(MethodProxy.java:228)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassEnhancer$BeanMethodInterceptor.intercept(ConfigurationClassEnhancer.java:309)
    at br.com.batch.common.BatchCommonConfig$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$e2167a67.securityUserEjb(<generated>)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:162)
    ... 28 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnInitialContextFactory
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:366)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:270)
    at com.sun.naming.internal.VersionHelper12.loadClass(VersionHelper12.java:63)
    at javax.naming.spi.NamingManager.getInitialContext(NamingManager.java:671)
    ... 51 common frames omitted

Ok, the class has not being found. Trying to figure out the problem, I've changed the dependency type of WebSphere libs from "pom" to "jar".

Now, I'm getting the following exception:

(Sorry about this Portuguese text, but the error code may help)

**NMSV0307E**: Um nome de URL java: foi utilizado, mas a Nomenclatura não foi configurada para manipular nomes de URL java:. A causa provável é um erro do usuário ao tentar especificar um nome de URL java: em um cliente não J2EE ou no ambiente do servidor. Emitindo ConfigurationException.

2016-06-06 14:43:18.952  WARN 18856 --- [           main] s.c.a.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext : Exception encountered during context initialization - cancelling refresh attempt

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is javax.validation.ValidationException: Could not create Configuration.
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1566)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:539)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:476)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:303)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:230)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:299)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:199)
    at org.springframework.context.support.PostProcessorRegistrationDelegate.registerBeanPostProcessors(PostProcessorRegistrationDelegate.java:199)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.registerBeanPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:615)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:465)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:691)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:321)
    at br.com.cpqd.saf.events.batch.BatchProcessingBootstrap.main(BatchProcessingBootstrap.java:62)
Caused by: javax.validation.ValidationException: Could not create Configuration.
    at javax.validation.Validation$GenericBootstrapImpl.configure(Validation.java:175)
    at org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(LocalValidatorFactoryBean.java:223)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor$Jsr303ValidatorFactory.run(ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor.java:381)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor.afterPropertiesSet(ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor.java:174)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1625)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1562)
    ... 12 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0
    at java.util.ArrayList.rangeCheck(ArrayList.java:635)
    at java.util.ArrayList.get(ArrayList.java:411)
    at javax.validation.Validation$GenericBootstrapImpl.configure(Validation.java:173)
    ... 17 common frames omitted

Googling the error message and reading lots of sites, I think that for some reason Spring Boot is not allowing the embeddable EJB container provided by the com.ibm.ws.ejb.thinclient jar to start, but I'm not sure.

Does anyone already tried to do that?

Answer 1

The IndexOutOfBoundsException is the (poor) exception thrown by javax.validation.Validation when the API is available on the classpath (likely com.ibm.ws.ejb.thinclient JAR) but an implementation provider is not. According to the Spring documentation , the ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor class attempts to use the javax.validation API when it is available on the classpath.

I don't know Spring Boot well enough to know if there's a way to disable your behavior, so my best suggestion would to also include a javax.validation implementation on your classpath. For example, you could also include the com.ibm.ws.jpa.thinclient JAR.