"state is undetermined" when starting Grails app on CloudFoundry - grails

Question

I have a Grails app that has been running on CloudFoundry for months. I updated the app from Grails 2.0.4 to 2.1.0 and also updated a few plugins I have been using.
Now when I push the app to CloudFoundry and do the start, I receive the error:
'appname' state is undetermined, not enough information available.
The tomcat Catalina log shows the NoClassDefFoundError below.
I've read about issues with the Ivy cache but have not looked into that yet. I have updated vmc to the latest version (0.3.18).
SEVERE: Error deploying web application directory ROOT
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/tomcat/PeriodicEventListener
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:632)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:616)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.findClassInternal(WebappClassLoader.java:2818)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.findClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1159)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1647)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1526)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1128)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1026)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4421)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4734)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:799)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:779)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:601)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:1079)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectories(HostConfig.java:1002)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:506)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1317)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:324)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:142)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1065)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:840)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1057)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:463)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:525)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:754)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:595)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:289)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:414)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.tomcat.PeriodicEventListener
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1680)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1526)
... 34 more

Answer 1

I've just had this problem when migrating from Grails 1.3.7 to 2.1.1.
I fixed it by unpacking the WAR file, removing all the tomcat-*.jar files (there are several tomcat-embedded jars) and then restarting Tomcat.
I've got Tomcat 6 running and I wondered if that was the issue? Anyway my app is working for now--though it's not the best installation procedure!

Answer 2

I resolved the issue by rolling back to Grails 2.0.4 from 2.1.0. I think the issue might be the one described here. But the workaround provided by Graeme did not resolve the issue when deploying to cloudfoundry.com.
Running this app locally under Grails 2.1.0 had no problems but it would not work under cloudfoundry.com.

Answer 3

I'm not using CloudFoundry, but experienced the same issue deploying Grails 2.1 WARs to Tomcat 6. For now, I've configured _Events.groovy to remove the embedded tomcat- and grails-plugin-tomcat- jars from the WAR staging area right before WAR generation:
eventCreateWarStart = { warName, stagingDir ->
// Work-around to remove tomcat jars from .war.
File libDir = new File("${stagingDir}/WEB-INF/lib/")
if (libDir.exists() && libDir.isDirectory()) {
ant.echo(message: 'Events.eventCreateWarStart: Removing embedded tomcat .jars from .war.')
libDir.eachFileMatch(FileType.FILES, ~/^(tomcat|grails-plugin-tomcat).*\.jar$/) { File jarToRemove ->
jarToRemove.delete()
}
}
}
(The libDir.exists() && libDir.isDirectory() check may not be necessary.)
This is working for now, but it would be nice to get a real solution rather than a workaround.

Answer 4

I had the same issue with spring apps. After restarting the services ~cloudfoundry/vcap/dev_setup/bin/vcap stop, cloudfoundry/vcap/dev_setup/bin/vcap start I managed to push my application without any issue.Installin the CF on a more powerful machine may help. What is your current HW?

Answer 5

I know this question is about Grails and CF, but Google doesn't care too much about that... ;)
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.tomcat.PeriodicEventListener
may also appear when Eclipse WTP tries to publish a Maven-project and you run it. Somewhere in your hierarchy of dependencies you should find one to a tomcat-library, even if its scope is provided or test.
Check the lib-directory of your WTP-webapp and notice the bunch of tomcat-libraries in there.