sticky sessions with a persistent session manager and a shared file store

[Pablo]

Hi Folks,
     I am a little stumped so I decided to swallow my pride and ask the  
collective.  I am trying to configure tomcat 5.0.25 to have  sticky  
sessions with a persistent session manager and a shared file store.  I  
want to accomplish this using nfs.  I set up the tomcat servers , the  
nfs mounts and I did the following

1) add <distributable/> to the applications web.xml
2) server xml added the following right before the end of the <Host>  
element . Right above </Host>

<!-- Following added by Pablo  -->
        <Context docBase="jsp-examples" path="/jsp-examples">
                <Manager  
className="org.apache.catalina.session.PersistentManager" >
                        <Store  
classname="org.apache.catalina.session.FileStore"
                         directory="/usr/local/nfs" />
                </Manager>
        </Context>
  <!-- end Of entry made by Pablo -->

</Host>
These are the instructions that were in my "Professional Apache Tomcat  
5 " book.  I tried to start up tomcat and it would not budge. Output of  
the catalina.out at the bottom of this email.

I also tried the directions from
http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-5.0-doc/cluster-howto.html
in conjunction to the information in my tomcat 5 book. No dice.
I looked in the web and the only thing that I was able to find was the  
following

http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/03/31/clustering.html?page=2
notice the section that states
"	• 	Saving the session state to a shared file system  
(org.apache.catalina.session.FileStore, part of  
catalina-optional.jar)."
this bullet is under Session Replication in Tomcat.

So I went to my /usr/local/tomcat/common/lib directory and I was unable  
to find that jar file.   I am a little frustrated because there is such  
a lack of documentation on the web regarding this issue on tomcat 5.   
Is there any of you with experience on this topic that may be able to  
point me in the right direction? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Pablo


Output from catalina.out
[EMAIL PROTECTED] /usr/local/tomcat/logs]# cat catalina.out
Sep 23, 2004 1:43:15 PM org.apache.commons.digester.Digester  
startElement
SEVERE: Begin event threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at  
org.apache.catalina.loader.StandardClassLoader.loadClass(StandardClassLo 
ader.java:769)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.loader.StandardClassLoader.loadClass(StandardClassLo 
ader.java:721)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.ObjectCreateRule.begin(ObjectCreateRule.java 
:252)
        at org.apache.commons.digester.Rule.begin(Rule.java:200)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.startElement(Digester.java:1273)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.util.CatalinaDigester.startElement(CatalinaDigester. 
java:65)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.startElement(Unknown  
Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractXMLDocumentParser.emptyElement(Unknown 
 Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanStartElement(U 
nknown Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDis 
patcher.dispatch(Unknown Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(Unkno 
wn Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XMLParser.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1548)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.load(Catalina.java:489)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.load(Catalina.java:528)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at  
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.jav 
a:39)
        at  
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessor 
Impl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.load(Bootstrap.java:250)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:424)
Catalina.start using conf/server.xml: java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.createSAXException(Digester.java: 
2540)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.createSAXException(Digester.java: 
2566)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.startElement(Digester.java:1276)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.util.CatalinaDigester.startElement(CatalinaDigester. 
java:65)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.startElement(Unknown  
Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractXMLDocumentParser.emptyElement(Unknown 
 Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanStartElement(U 
nknown Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDis 
patcher.dispatch(Unknown Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(Unkno 
wn Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XMLParser.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1548)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.load(Catalina.java:489)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.load(Catalina.java:528)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at  
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.jav 
a:39)
        at  
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessor 
Impl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.load(Bootstrap.java:250)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:424)
Sep 23, 2004 1:43:15 PM org.apache.commons.digester.Digester  
startElement
SEVERE: Begin event threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at  
org.apache.catalina.loader.StandardClassLoader.loadClass(StandardClassLo 
ader.java:769)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.loader.StandardClassLoader.loadClass(StandardClassLo 
ader.java:721)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.ObjectCreateRule.begin(ObjectCreateRule.java 
:252)
        at org.apache.commons.digester.Rule.begin(Rule.java:200)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.startElement(Digester.java:1273)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.util.CatalinaDigester.startElement(CatalinaDigester. 
java:65)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.startElement(Unknown  
Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractXMLDocumentParser.emptyElement(Unknown 
 Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanStartElement(U 
nknown Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDis 
patcher.dispatch(Unknown Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(Unkno 
wn Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XMLParser.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1548)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.load(Catalina.java:489)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:548)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at  
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.jav 
a:39)
        at  
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessor 
Impl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:287)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:425)
Catalina.start using conf/server.xml: java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.createSAXException(Digester.java: 
2540)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.createSAXException(Digester.java: 
2566)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.startElement(Digester.java:1276)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.util.CatalinaDigester.startElement(CatalinaDigester. 
java:65)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.startElement(Unknown  
Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractXMLDocumentParser.emptyElement(Unknown 
 Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanStartElement(U 
nknown Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDis 
patcher.dispatch(Unknown Source)
        at  
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(Unkno 
wn Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XMLParser.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown  
Source)
        at  
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1548)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.load(Catalina.java:489)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:548)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at  
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.jav 
a:39)
        at  
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessor 
Impl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:287)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:425)
Sep 23, 2004 1:43:15 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFO: Server startup in 0 ms
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at  
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.jav 
a:39)
        at  
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessor 
Impl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:287)
        at  
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:425)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.await(Catalina.java:619)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:579)
        ... 6 more
[EMAIL PROTECTED] /usr/local/tomcat/logs]#