Activation errors

Error types

Mismatching keys

If activation fails due to a mismatch of the keys on the two instances, an error "Handshake information for activation was incorrect" is displayed. You can also find the error message in the logs:

ERROR  info.magnolia.module.exchangetransactional.TransactionalSyndicator 29.11.2013 12:46:50 -- Failed to activate content.
info.magnolia.cms.exchange.ExchangeException: Message received from subscriber: Handshake information for activation was incorrect. Someone attempted to impersonate author instance. Incoming request was from 127.0.0.1
	at info.magnolia.module.activation.BaseSyndicatorImpl.activate(BaseSyndicatorImpl.java:425)
	at info.magnolia.module.exchangetransactional.TransactionalSyndicator$2.run(TransactionalSyndicator.java:175)
	at EDU.oswego.cs.dl.util.concurrent.PooledExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724)

To resolve the issue, generate a new public key and copy it to the public instance.

See Monitoring for more about logging and debugging Magnolia.

Handshaking errors

Non-EE subscriber detected

If you activate SSL certificates on your magnolia public instance, and configure everything so that any http request is redirected to https by default but leave the subscriber on the author instance configured to point to http:// , any activation request will fail with the following message:

Non EE subscriber detected on xxx.

Change the URL property in the configuration at the /server/activation/subscribers/<subscriber-name>@URL path. Make sure it starts with https:// .

Simple exchange transport failed

Whenever Java attempts to connect to another application over SSL (e.g. HTTPS, IMAPS or LDAPS), it will only be able to connect to that application if it can trust it. The way trust is handled in the Java world is that you have a keystore, typically JAVA_HOME/lib/security/cacerts , also known as the truststore. The error message in this type of failure will look like as follows:

Can't activate: : info.magnolia.cms.exchange.ExchangeException: 1 error detected: Simple exchange transport failed: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target on xxx.

To fix this, make sure that -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore is present in your JVM arguments. Java will use the keystore specified with that argument.

Cleaning the errors

During the activation process Magnolia makes a copy of the current content on the public instance and stores it in the mgnlSystem workspace. The system rolls back any changes using the backup copy if transactional activation fails for some reason. If the activation succeeds, the system overwrites the current content with the activated content and removes the backup copy.

Below tips and tools could help you either detect the issue or clean up unnecessary content before publishing:

• Debugging activation
• Checking at startup
• Cleaning tool
• Visual inspection

Debugging activation

The steps of an activation on Public can be viewed by turning the XAReceiveFilter to DEBUG using the Log Tools app. Here we see an example of the steps during page activation.
Activation of page /travel/about/company

About to begin activate of website:8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186:/travel/about/company
Got clearance for JCR lock on parent node /travel/about
Requesting XA lock
About to perform activate
Starting content update
Checking for existence of content website:8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186
Content 8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186 was located under path website:/travel/about/company
Stored content website:/travel/about/company:8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186 for rollback later
User superuser successfully activated /travel/about/company on magnoliaPublic.
User superuser attempted to activate 8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186 on magnoliaPublic.
Finished activate of website:8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186:/travel/about
Activate was executed in total of 0.757 seconds
About to begin commit of website:8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186:/travel/about/company
Got clearance for JCR lock on parent node /travel/about/company
About to perform commit
Proceeding with commit of content 8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186
Commited content 8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186
User transaction committed on MgnlUser - superuser [51ae3379-67cf-4994-9e05-f97cb8bc3e4a].
Finished commit of website:8fa4a73f-51c3-40ac-b698-715595216186:/travel/about/company
Commit was executed in total of 0.073 seconds 

It is possible that something goes wrong while Magnolia is activating the content. For example, the server process is killed or the server loses power. This means that the backup copy may have gotten left in the mgnlSystem workspace. Never clean up properly after the activation during the commit step.

Checking at startup

The system will automatically check for nodes. If a node is found in the mgnlSystem workspace during startup this message will be recorded in the public log.

WARN PUBLIC [main] info.magnolia.module.exchangetransactional.ExchangeTransactionalUtil: Removing backup copy of /company from mgnlSystem, please verify that page was activated correctly to this public instance.

This is a sign that the server went down during the activation step. The backup copy remains indicating that the commit step was never reached. This means that the page may have not been activated correctly.

Cleaning tool

After a successful activation a cleanup procedure is run to remove the backup copies. This is performed during the commit step. If for some reason it cannot cleanup then a message like this will occur in the log.

ERROR info.magnolia.module.exchangetransactional.XAReceiveFilter - Failed to cleanup backup of a1918662-8cbe-4346-ac5a-1b24a9950e2b. Activation of this content will not be possible until manual cleanup of mgnlSystem workspace is performed.

To try and resolve the issue, clean the mgnlSystem workspace yourself on the public instance. There is a cleaning tool in the Activation Tools app. This is the same procedure that is run during startup but triggered manually using this app.

After running be sure to check the log. If you see repository exceptions then you need to take other actions. For example, restarting the server to release any locks that may still be present. Restarting will automatically call the cleanup procedure described above. If locks was the issue then you should see the system successfully remove the backup copies during the restart. However, if you still see repository exceptions in your log during startup then you most likely have a repository corruption issue. In that case probably the best course of action would be to recreate the workspace from scratch.

Visual inspection

The JCR Browser app will allow you to visually inspect the workspace as well.

 
The mgnlSystem  workspace should normally be empty if there is no activation in progress. After cleaning, make sure the website tree is OK on your public instance.