After update, Glassfish 3.1.2-23 fails on startup. 3.1.1 works fine

Question

I updated to 3.1.2-23 today and now the thing won't start. It's a brand new install and 3.1.1 worked fine. I have uninstalled 3.1.2 and re-installed 3.1.1 from the distribution exe, and it works again. I made no other changes. I'm stumped. Anyway, here's the error after typing asadmin start-domain domain1. Any ideas?

Launching GlassFish on Felix platform
Waiting for domain1 to start ..[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.189-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|com.sun.enterprise.server.logging.GFFileHandler|_ThreadID=1;_ThreadName=main;|Running GlassFish Version: GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 3.1.2 (build 23)|#]

[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.588-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.core.com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl|_ThreadID=32;_ThreadName=Grizzly-kernel-thread(1);|Grizzly Framework 1.9.46 started in: 11ms - bound to [0.0.0.0:7676]|#]

[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.588-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.core.com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl|_ThreadID=25;_ThreadName=Grizzly-kernel-thread(1);|Grizzly Framework 1.9.46 started in: 38ms - bound to [0.0.0.0:8181]|#]

[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.588-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.core.com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl|_ThreadID=29;_ThreadName=Grizzly-kernel-thread(1);|Grizzly Framework 1.9.46 started in: 20ms - bound to [0.0.0.0:3700]|#]

[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.588-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.core.com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl|_ThreadID=26;_ThreadName=Grizzly-kernel-thread(1);|Grizzly Framework 1.9.46 started in: 57ms - bound to [0.0.0.0:8080]|#]

[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.588-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.core.com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl|_ThreadID=24;_ThreadName=Grizzly-kernel-thread(1);|Grizzly Framework 1.9.46 started in: 31ms - bound to [0.0.0.0:4848]|#]

.[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.736-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.core.com.sun.enterprise.v3.admin.adapter|_ThreadID=1;_ThreadName=main;|The Admin Console is already installed, but not yet loaded.|#]

[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.765-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|org.hibernate.validator.util.Version|_ThreadID=1;_ThreadName=main;|Hibernate Validator 4.2.0.Final|#]

[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.949-0600|SEVERE|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.core.com.sun.enterprise.v3.server|_ThreadID=1;_ThreadName=main;|Startup service failed to start : com.sun.enterprise.security.admin.cli.SecureAdminStartupCheck|#]

[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.976-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.tools.admin.com.sun.enterprise.v3.admin|_ThreadID=36;_ThreadName=Thread-21;|Server shutdown initiated|#]

[#|2012-03-07T18:00:52.976-0600|INFO|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.core.com.sun.enterprise.v3.server|_ThreadID=36;_ThreadName=Thread-21;|Already stopped, so just returning|#]


Exception: java.lang.NullPointerException thrown from the UncaughtExceptionHandler in thread "Grizzly-kernel-thread(1)"

Exception: java.lang.NullPointerException thrown from the UncaughtExceptionHandler in thread "Grizzly-kernel-thread(1)"

Exception: java.lang.NullPointerException thrown from the UncaughtExceptionHandler in thread "Grizzly-kernel-thread(1)"
.Error starting domain domain1.

The server exited prematurely with exit code 0.

Answer 1

Have you tried?

./asadmin start-domain --upgrade

When that is done you should be able to start and stop your server the usual way.

Answer 2

Sometimes it even doesn't work after ./asadmin start-domain --upgrade. If you still get the "Startup service failed to start : com.sun.enterprise.security.admin.cli.SecureAdminStartupCheck" after the command above, try following:

1. Create new domain with ./asadmin create-domain domain2
2. Backup your cacerts.jks and keystore.jks in domain1
3. Copy cacerts.jks and keystore.jks from new domain2 into domain1
4. Start domain1 ./asadmin start-domain domain1
5. Enjoy!

Then you can revert your backupped cacerts.jks and keystore.jks back. Domain will work.