Server troubleshooting

This section contains troubleshooting tips for the IBM Traveler server.

For information about gathering logs for IBM Traveler Support, see Gathering log files for support.

Startup and configuration

The message "Initialization error for library j9gc24(5): Failed to instantiate heap;" displays when trying to start IBM® Traveler.

This problem occurs when there is not enough system memory for IBM® Traveler to startup. This is only a problem on 32-bit operating systems.

Verify that notes.ini does not contain the following parameter: MEM_EnablePreAlloc=1.

If the notes.ini does contain the above parameter and will still not start, contact IBM® Support to help analyze the memory usage on the system.

IBM® Traveler server starts, but the HTTP Servlet does not.

Verify that the notes.ini file does not contain this parameter: HTTPDisableJVM=true.

This parameter disables all Java based servlets, including the IBM® Traveler servlet.

Connection, Log-in, and server status

Verifying that the server is running

To verify that the server is running:

  • Run the show task tell command from the IBM® Domino® Administrator client and look for the following:
    • IBM® Traveler Running: 2 of 2 users active
    • HTTP server listen for connect request on TCP Port:80
  • Check the server console for the following:
    • IBM® Traveler: Server started
  • On Windows, look for ntraveler.exe in the Microsoft Windows Task Manager for Traveler status, and nhttp.exe for HTTP status. On Linux, run the top command and look for the Traveler and HTTP status messages.

Logging into the server

If you are unable to log into the IBM Traveler server, verify that:
  • Open LotusTraveler.nsf and check the security state of the user
  • ID is not locked out of HTTP server
  • Password is correct
  • Server name is correct
  • You have granted access to the IBM Traveler server in your mail database
  • Check Allow/Deny section of the server configuration document

IBM Traveler client reports error registering with the server

Verify that:
  • The user ID must only contain characters that are supported by the Domino® server. These include characters (A - Z), numbers (0 - 9), and the ampersand (&), dash (-), period (.), space ( ) , and underscore (_). See the IBM® Domino® Administrator Help topic "Table of Domino® Naming Requirements" for more information.
  • You may need to enable the Domino® HTTP server to accept "More name variations with less security", rather than the default "Fewer name variations". IBM Traveler clients behave as Internet clients to the Domino® web server, and the name look up algorithms are controlled by the Domino® server security settings. To modify this setting:
    • From the Domino® Administrator, click Configuration, and open the server document
    • Click Security
    • In the Internet Access section, choose More name variations with less security
    • Save and close the document
  • For a IBM Traveler server installed on a Thai server, verify you have added the setting NTS_Java_Parms=-Duser.language=th.US to its notes.ini file. This setting changes the default Java calendar from Buddhist to Gregorian.

Overall system status

Use the LotusTraveler.nsf to gather detailed information about users and their devices that are using the IBM® Traveler service.

You can use the tell traveler status command to make a number of checks in the IBM Traveler server to determine if it is operating normally.

In a High Availability pool, use tell traveler hadr show to view status on all servers in the pool. This information is also available from the Web-based administration interface under the Servers view.

The tell traveler hadr show command will also show the status of a standalone server.

Invalid user ID or password problems

Depending on how your network is set up, when your authentication service goes down or cannot be accessed by the IBM Traveler server or an intermediate proxy, the mobile device client may display an error to the mobile user that their ID or password is invalid. This situation should resolve itself as soon as the authentication service is restored.

Devices are not receiving updates from the IBM Traveler server, or many sync attempts are failing with a 503 return code.

From the Domino® console, issue a Tell Traveler Status command. Note if there are messages like:
Tell traveler status
The number of active HTTP connections is 233 percent of the number of available HTTP threads (1,200).
The peak number of HTTP connections is 233 percent of the number of available HTTP threads (1,200).
There have been 37,445 device sync failures because the server is too busy and returned status code 503.
There have been 24,779 device sync failures for reasons other than the server is too busy.

The overall status of IBM Traveler is Red.

One possible cause for a high number of sync failures with a 503 return code is that there are too few HTTP threads. See Tuning performance of the server for more information before raising the number of HTTP threads. Having too many HTTP threads can result in insufficient memory for the Domino® server to run properly.

Directory

Verifying directory access

Run the command tell traveler show <user> and look for the following:
  • User name resolves as expected
  • If not, make sure that the security setting Server Document > Security > Internet Access > Internet Authentication allows the format of <user>, For example, if you want to use the shortname for <user>, you must set this to More name variations with less security.
Statistic and Log information

IBM® Traveler Server user statistics

Run the command tell traveler stat show for the following information:
  • Number of users known to the system, including online, offline, and mail file statistics
  • Number of devices know to the system, including online, offline, and connection statistics
  • Number of prime syncs, including time and success rate statistics
  • Number of device syncs, including time and success rate statistics

Troubleshooting a user on the server

Not all of these options will always be available. The administrator may have disabled some of them.

Commands may be executed at the Traveler servlet, available at http://<hostname>/traveler.

Selecting Manage the Notes ID brings you to the ID management screen.

Select Execute Commands to go to the command screen.

The servlet can be used to verify that the Traveler task is able to access a user mail file, the status of unread mark replication, and other useful information. Select Show , or the user <username> command at the Domino® console.

The information displayed by the SHOW command may include any of the following informational messages:
  • IBM® Traveler does not have delete rights to the database <database name>.
  • IBM® Traveler could not open the database <mail database> . Verify that the server <Traveler server name> and the database grant access to server <Domino server name> and that there is a network connection available between these servers.
  • Internal error encountered attempting to validate access to database <mail database name>.
  • The Domino® server <Domino server name> for <mail database name> does not support <canonical name> for IBM® Traveler. See logs for more details.
  • The IBM® Domino® server, <Domino server name>, that hosts the <mail database name> mail file is an earlier version so some functions are not fully implemented.
  • Database <mail database name> is <bytes> bytes in size and <percent> percent used, which is over the quota of <quota> bytes.
  • The database <mail database name> on <canonical name> is not configured to replicate read and unread marks. As a result, unread marks do not replicate with the device.

Select Manage Security to open the user managed security options. With user managed security, users can now remotely wipe or lock their own devices, without the help of an administrator. They can also "clear" their own actions. For example, they can cancel the wipe request or unlock the device.

Select Report a Problem to generate a problem report. This action captures information about your user session and creates a diagnostics report that is stored on the Traveler server. IBM® Technical Support may ask your server administrator for these logs if you ever need to report a problem to IBM®.

High Availability

Server-to-server communication problems

If it seems that one or more of IBM Traveler servers in an HA pool cannot communicate with each other, run the command tell traveler hadr show and check for the following:
tell traveler hadr show


Domino Name     ID    Hostname            IP:Port         Alive  Reachable...
ha-srv1/domain  2050  hasrv1.company.com  10.1.1.5:50125  true   false
ha-srv2/domain  2150  hasrv2.company.com  10.1.1.8:50125  true   true  
Note: The output has been truncated for readability.
Occasionally after being restarted, one of the IBM Traveler servers in the pool may not have received messages from another server. When this happens, the hadr show command displays that server as unreachable. In the example, the command was run on the console on ha-srv2. The first step to troubleshoot this problem is to run the command tell traveler hadr ping ha-srv1 from the console on ha-srv2. The output should look like the following:

tell traveler hadr ping ha-srv1

Successfully sent 'ping' to server ha-srv1/domain. 
Ping response received from server ha-srv1/domain. 
All ping responses have been received. 
If the ping command shows successful results similar to the example output, rerun the command tell traveler hadr show. Both servers should be reachable now. If the ping command is unable to reach the other server, there may be a network connectivity problem between the two servers. Try the following steps:
  • Try running the command tell traveler hadr ping ha-srv2 from the console on ha-srv1.
  • Verify the servers are on the same TCP/IP subnet.
  • Verify that ping commands from an OS command prompt work between the servers.
  • Verify that the Traveler servers are using the correct network interface. If any of the servers have multiple network interfaces, Traveler may have automatically selected the wrong interface when it was started. The notes.ini property named NTS_HOST_IP_ADDR can be used to specify the correct IP address to use.