Manually generating heapdumps in Websphere

This post explains the steps on generating heapdumps in Websphere on windows 

1. Navigate to C:\IBM\SDP\runtimes\base_v7\bin
2. Execute wsadmin.bat
3. Execute the following in wsadmin prompt

set jvm [$AdminControl completeObjectName type=JVM,process=server1,*]
$AdminControl invoke $jvm generateHeapDump
$AdminControl invoke $jvm dumpThreads

Websphere Commerce Deployed EAR version

From deployed ear file wcbd-deploy-info.properties, we can figure out the current Websphere commerce deployment package installed on the server. 
The location of this file would be under the deployed EAR


This file has a number of other informations related to the deployment

Here is a sample wcbd-deploy-info.properties

#Fri, 16 Jan 2015 05:19:54 +0000

build.label=2015-01-16_03-47-05_17
build.date=2015/01/16
wcbd.version=101129asup
target.env=uat
connector.module.list=
ejb.module.list=Payments-Plugin-PayPal,Payments-Plugin-PayPoint
existing.web.module.list=Stores,LOBTools
new.web.module.list=
context.root.mapping.list=
partial.app.zip.includes=
partial.app.zip.excludes=
was.host.list=SERVER NAME
db.type=db2
db.name=DB SERVER NAME
db.schema.name=DB SCHEMA NAME
run.dataload.sql.common=false
run.dataload.sql.target=false
run.dataload.xml.common=false
run.dataload.xml.target=false
run.dataload.acug.common=false
run.dataload.acug.target=false
run.dataload.acp.common=true
run.dataload.acp.target=true
run.dataload.acpnls.common=false
run.dataload.acpnls.target=false
wsadmin.deploy.script.file=/usr/WebSphere/CommerceServer70/deployments/jenkins/wcbd-deploy-server-2015-01-16_03-47-05_17/scripts/wcbd-wsadmin.py

rollout.update=true

ADMA0010E: A Validation error occurred in task Selecting virtual hosts for Web modules

If your come across the following error while deploying a web application to websphere

ADMA0010E: A Validation error occurred in task Selecting virtual hosts for Web modules

Then the issue would be your might be missing the following file in your web archive (war)

ibm-web-bnd.xml
ibm-web-ext.xml 

Ensure that you have those files present in the archive and the redploy the application. 
I have come across this error while deploying a new web module to Websphere commerce server using wcbd scripts.

Here is the complete error I have seen in my wcbd wasadmin target 

wcbd.wsadmin.helper:
   [echoNL] Running wsadmin on localhost with /usr/WebSphere/AppServer70/profiles/wcbd/dist/server/wcbd-deploy-server-RELEASE-Rel1-BUILD-2013-12-31_04-02-20-252/scripts/wcbd-wsadmin.py.
  [wsadmin] profileName=template registry=/usr/WebSphere/AppServer70/properties/profileRegistry.xml
  [wsadmin] profileHome=/usr/WebSphere/AppServer70/profiles/template
  [wsadmin] WASX7209I: Connected to process "dmgr" on node templateCellManager01 using SOAP connector;  The type of process is: DeploymentManager
  [wsadmin] WASX7303I: The following options are passed to the scripting environment and are available as arguments that are stored in the argv variable: "[WC_template, /usr/WebSphere/AppServer70/profiles/wcbd/dist/server/wcbd-deploy-server-RELEASE-Rel1-BUILD-2013-12-31_04-02-20-252/scripts, /usr/WebSphere/AppServer70/profiles/wcbd/dist/server/wcbd-deploy-server-RELEASE-Rel1-BUILD-2013-12-31_04-02-20-252/working/module,  , TmplGenericPaymentPlugin,WebSphereCommerceServerExtensionsData, WebSphere Commerce DB2 DataSource template, TmplPenguin,  , /usr/WebSphere/AppServer70/profiles/wcbd/dist/server/wcbd-deploy-server-RELEASE-Rel1-BUILD-2013-12-31_04-02-20-252/working/partialapp.zip, false, 300,  , false,  ,  ,  ,  , true, false]"
  [wsadmin] Deploying Web module TmplPenguin.war to WC_template.
  [wsadmin] Started: 2013/12/31 07:07:18
  [wsadmin] WASX7327I: Contents of was.policy file:
  [wsadmin]  //
  [wsadmin] // Template policy file for enterprise application.
  [wsadmin] // Extra permissions can be added if required by the enterprise application.
  [wsadmin] //
  [wsadmin] // NOTE: Syntax errors in the policy files will cause the enterprise application FAIL to start.
  [wsadmin] //       Extreme care should be taken when editing these policy files. It is advised to use
  [wsadmin] //       the policytool provided by the JDK for editing the policy files
  [wsadmin] //       (WAS_HOME/java/jre/bin/policytool). 
  [wsadmin] //
  [wsadmin] 
  [wsadmin] grant codeBase "file:${application}" {
  [wsadmin] };
  [wsadmin] 
  [wsadmin] grant codeBase "file:${jars}" {
  [wsadmin] };
  [wsadmin] 
  [wsadmin] grant codeBase "file:${connectorComponent}" {
  [wsadmin] };
  [wsadmin] 
  [wsadmin] grant codeBase "file:${webComponent}" {
  [wsadmin] };
  [wsadmin] 
  [wsadmin] grant codeBase "file:${ejbComponent}" {
  [wsadmin] };
  [wsadmin] 
  [wsadmin] 
  [wsadmin] WASX7017E: Exception received while running file "/usr/WebSphere/AppServer70/profiles/wcbd/dist/server/wcbd-deploy-server-RELEASE-Rel1-BUILD-2013-12-31_04-02-20-252/scripts/wcbd-wsadmin.py"; exception information: com.ibm.ws.scripting.ScriptingException: WASX7109E: Insufficient data for install task "MapWebModToVH
  [wsadmin] 
  [wsadmin] ADMA0010E: A Validation error occurred in task Selecting virtual hosts for Web modules. A virtual host is not specified for Web module TmplPenguin with URI TmplPenguin.war,WEB-INF/web.xml."
  [wsadmin] 

Websphere JSP Engine configuration parameters

Today I came across a very basic issue while doing a module in a webapp deployed in Websphere 6.1, Basically there was an error coming from the compiled JSP and I was unable to find out why the issue is happening due to the unavailability of compiled java class. After some googling around I figured out how we can keep generated java source of compiled JSP's by setting jsp engine configuration parameter in the file ibm-web-ext.xmi. Parameter to set is 'keepgenerated' - true

<jspAttributes xmi:id="JSPAttribute_1234" name="keepgenerated"  value="true"/>

This will keep the generated java source under profiles/temp. 

A detailed list of the configuration parameters can be found here - JSP engine configuration parameters