DeploymentDescriptorLoadException: dd_in_ear_load_EXC

Question

I have a WebSphere enterprise app. Manual deployment in the IBM admin console works with no issue, but with the wsadmin scripts and jython,

AdminApp.update('%APP_NAME%', 'app', '[ -operation update -contents %EAR_FILE% -usedefaultbindings -defaultbinding.virtual.host default_host -nopreCompileJSPs -installed.ear.destination $(APP_INSTALL_ROOT)/%WAS_HOST%Network -distributeApp -nouseMetaDataFromBinary -nodeployejb -createMBeansForResources -noreloadEnabled -%ws% -validateinstall warn -noprocessEmbeddedConfig -filepermission .*\.dll=755#.*\.so=755#.*\.a=755#.*\.sl=755 -noallowDispatchRemoteInclude -noallowServiceRemoteInclude -asyncRequestDispatchType DISABLED -nouseAutoLink -noenableClientModule -clientMode isolated -novalidateSchema -MapModulesToServers [[ %MODULE_NAME% %WAR_FILE%,WEB-INF/web.xml WebSphere:cell=%WAS_HOST%Network,cluster=%CLUSTER%+WebSphere:cell=%WAS_HOST%Network,node=%WEB_NODE%,server=%WEB_NODE% ][ PobolEJB.jar PobolEJB.jar,META-INF/ejb-jar.xml WebSphere:cell=%WAS_HOST%Network,cluster=%CLUSTER%+WebSphere:cell=%WAS_HOST%Network,node=%WEB_NODE%,server=%WEB_NODE% ]]]' )

the following errors returns and the deployment failed:

com.ibm.websphere.management.application.client.AppDeploymentException: com.ibm.websphere.management.application.client.AppDeploymentException: [Root exception is org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.commonarchivecore.internal.exception.DeploymentDescriptorLoadException: dd_in_ear_load_EXC_] org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.commonarchivecore.internal.exception.DeploymentDescriptorLoadException: org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.commonarchivecore.internal.exception.DeploymentDescriptorLoadException: dd_in_ear_load_EXC_

I verified the war file, the ejb jar file, the deployment descriptor (application.xml), they are all correct. In fact the same automated deployment job in jenkins worked till recently.

I have done lots research on the web, and also tests with no luck.

Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

Webshphere 1.8.5.5.16
JDK 1.8
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Answer 1

In my case, for the same error message, it turned out to be an error with ear metadata - application.xml referred to an module/jar that did not exist.