Troubleshooting: Cannot start WebSphere Portal server due to a missing cn=wpsadmins,o=defaultWIMFileBasedRealm

The WebSphere Portal Server Administration Console fails to open after configuring WebSphere Portal using the configuration wizard.

The SystemOut.log shows the following error:

00000026 Servlet  E com.ibm.wps.engine.Servlet init EJPFD0016E: Initialization of service failed.
com.ibm.wps.ac.DomainAdministratorNotFoundException:
EJPSB0107E: Exception occurred while retrieving the identity of the domain admin user/admingroup cn=wpsadmins,o=defaultWIMFileBasedRealm.
  at com.ibm.wps.ac.impl.AccessControlDataManagementServiceImpl.convertDNtoObjectID(AccessControlDataManagementServiceImpl.java:874)
  at com.ibm.wps.ac.impl.AccessControlDataManagementServiceImpl.access$000(AccessControlDataManagementServiceImpl.java:74)
  at com.ibm.wps.ac.impl.AccessControlDataManagementServiceImpl$1.run(AccessControlDataManagementServiceImpl.java:828)

Solution

You can either put this group back into your local repository or change your WPS admin group to something that exists. The fileRegistry.xml file can be found in the wp_profile/config/cells directory. To add the wpsadmins group, open the WebSphere Application Server Administration Console and select Add Groups.