Spotfire client: Error opening Information Designer in Spotfire Analyst

When opening the Information Designer tool in the TIBCO Spotfire Analyst client, it fails to open with an error:

Could not start Information Designer because the Information Services did not respond as expected.

The following error is seen on the Spotfire Server server.log file:

FATAL 2022-11-30T17:08:32,726-0500 [] ws.server.InformationServicesServer: Information services server has failed, exiting process with status=1

java.io.IOException: Failed to bind to myserver.mydomain/123.123.123.123:9444

    at org.eclipse.jetty.server.ServerConnector.openAcceptChannel(ServerConnector.java:349) ~[jetty-server-9.4.48.v20220622.jar:9.4.48.v20220622]

    at org.eclipse.jetty.server.ServerConnector.open(ServerConnector.java:310) ~[jetty-server-9.4.48.v20220622.jar:9.4.48.v20220622]

    at org.eclipse.jetty.server.AbstractNetworkConnector.doStart(AbstractNetworkConnector.java:80) ~[jetty-server-9.4.48.v20220622.jar:9.4.48.v20220622]

    at org.eclipse.jetty.server.ServerConnector.doStart(ServerConnector.java:234) ~[jetty-server-9.4.48.v20220622.jar:9.4.48.v20220622]

    at org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:73) ~[jetty-util-9.4.48.v20220622.jar:9.4.48.v20220622]

    at org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server.doStart(Server.java:401) ~[jetty-server-9.4.48.v20220622.jar:9.4.48.v20220622]

    at org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:73) ~[jetty-util-9.4.48.v20220622.jar:9.4.48.v20220622]

    at com.spotfire.ws.server.InformationServicesServer.main(InformationServicesServer.java:75) ~[spotfire-server-is.jar:?]

Caused by: java.net.BindException: Address already in use: bind

    at sun.nio.ch.Net.bind0(Native Method) ~[?:?]

    at sun.nio.ch.Net.bind(Net.java:555) ~[?:?]

    at sun.nio.ch.ServerSocketChannelImpl.netBind(ServerSocketChannelImpl.java:337) ~[?:?]

    at sun.nio.ch.ServerSocketChannelImpl.bind(ServerSocketChannelImpl.java:294) ~[?:?]

    at sun.nio.ch.ServerSocketAdaptor.bind(ServerSocketAdaptor.java:89) ~[?:?]

    at org.eclipse.jetty.server.ServerConnector.openAcceptChannel(ServerConnector.java:344) ~[jetty-server-9.4.48.v20220622.jar:9.4.48.v20220622]


InformationModelException at Spotfire.Dxp.Data:

The HTTP service located at http://... is unavailable.  This could be because the service is too busy or because no endpoint was found listening at the specified address. Please ensure that the address is correct and try accessing the service again later. (HRESULT: 80131500)



Stack Trace:

   at Spotfire.Dxp.Data.InformationModel.InternalInformationModelManager.ListDataSourceTypes()

   at Spotfire.Dxp.Forms.Data.InformationDesigner.Cache.InformationModelCache.RefreshDataSourceTypes()

   at Spotfire.Dxp.Forms.Data.InformationDesigner.Cache.InformationModelCache..ctor(InternalInformationModelManager manager)

   at Spotfire.Dxp.Forms.Data.InformationDesigner.DesignerForm..ctor(DesignerFormController controller, InternalInformationModelManager manager)

   at Spotfire.Dxp.Forms.Data.InformationDesignerUserActionHand


Server stack trace: 

   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelUtilities.ProcessGetResponseWebException(WebException webException, HttpWebRequest request, HttpAbortReason abortReason)

   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory`1.HttpRequestChannel.HttpChannelRequest.WaitForReply(TimeSpan timeout)

   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.RequestChannel.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)

   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.RequestChannelBinder.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)

   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)

   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)

   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)

Starting with TIBCO Spotfire version 12.1, Information Services runs as a separate process from the Spotfire Server for increased stability. 

The default port for Information Services is 9444 but can be modified as required. 

When this error is seen, there is something blocking the use of port 9444 that the external Information Services process is trying to use.

To resolve, either free up the configured port so that Spotfire's Information Services can use it or you can change the Spotfire Server configuration so that Information Services uses a different port by setting the information-services.external-process.port property. 

To change Information Services to use port 9445 the following command can be run:

> config set-config-prop --name="information-services.external-process.port" --value="9445"

See Manually editing the service configuration files for more details on how to run use this command to change the Spotfire Server configuration.

https://docs.tibco.com/pub/spotfire_server/14.6.0/doc/html/TIB_sfire_server_tsas_admin_help/server/topics/manually_editing_the_server_configuration_in_the_configuration_tool.html

Additionally, if the stack trace is seen which shows the time out ("HttpRequestChannel.HttpChannelRequest.WaitForReply(TimeSpan timeout)") you can also increase the timeout to give Information Services more time to start using the following command (example command setting value of 600s, with the default being 120s):

> config config-external-information-services-process --init-timeout=600

See Information Services troubleshooting for more possible causes of Information Services issues as well.