WebSphere Application Server problems when changing to Java7

By , last updated July 1, 2019

I needed to reinstall my WebSphere Application Server several times and as a result the server wouldn’t start at all with the following error:

DefaultLaunch W   ADML3000E: The tool is unable to locate the systemlaunch.properties file: java.io.IOException: Cannot locate systemlaunch.properties at path: C:\IBM_8.5.5\WebSphere\AppServer\properties\systemlaunch\base\null.systemlaunch.properties
...
DefaultLaunch I   ADML3001W: The defaultEnvironment property is missing from the systemlaunch.properties file.
DefaultLaunch I   ADML3001W: The orbBootstrapJar property is missing from the systemlaunch.properties file.
WsServerLaunc E   ADMU3002E: Exception attempting to process server server1
WsServerLaunc E   ADMU3007E: Exception com.ibm.websphere.management.exception.AdminException
        at com.ibm.ws.management.launcher.DefaultLaunchPlatformHelper.getDefaultBootclasspath(DefaultLaunchPlatformHelper.java:121)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.launcher.LaunchCommand.processBootstrapClasspathInfo(LaunchCommand.java:1683)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.launcher.LaunchCommand.setParamsFromJavaProcessDef(LaunchCommand.java:1226)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.launcher.LaunchCommand.setParamsFromProcessDef(LaunchCommand.java:631)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.launcher.LaunchCommand.init(LaunchCommand.java:375)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.launcher.LaunchCommand.<init>(LaunchCommand.java:269)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.tools.WsServerLauncher.initializeRepositoryAndLauncher(WsServerLauncher.java:424)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.tools.WsServerLauncher.runTool(WsServerLauncher.java:279)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.tools.AdminTool.executeUtility(AdminTool.java:269)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.tools.WsServerController.executeUtilityOnWindows(WsServerController.java:136)
        at com.ibm.ws.management.tools.WsServerLauncher.main(WsServerLauncher.java:140)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:88)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:55)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:613)
        at com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.WSLauncher.main(WSLauncher.java:280)

After searching for some answers I’ve stumbled upon a link on IBM where they say that the problem is that some metadata became corrupted. The solution on IBM didn’t work for me.

I’ve fixed the problem by running a command to actively enable Java7 SDK for WAS.

Start Cygwin (or some other Linux program) and run:

cd /cydrive/c/IBM_8.5.5/WebSphere/AppServer/bin

./managesdk.bat -enableProfileAll -sdkName 1.7_64
./managesdk.bat -setCommandDefault -sdkName 1.7_64
./managesdk.bat -setNewProfileDefault-sdkName 1.7_64

Then simply try to start the server.