Spotfire Server Information Services troubleshooting

As of Spotfire Server version 12.1, Information Services runs in a Java subprocess on the main Spotfire Server node. If the subprocess stops for any reason, the Spotfire Server will try to restart it 3 times every 3 hours.

Some of the issues with the Information Services process can be fixed using troubleshooting steps described in this article. Information Services uses the following log files for logging:

<Spotfire-Server>/logs/informationservices/server.log
<Spotfire-Server>/logs/informationservices.stdouterr.log

1. Information Services process is not starting or not communicating: When you try to open an Information Link or the Information Designer and you get an error message stating that "Information Service process is not started", or "cannot forward the request", try the following:

Increase process memory: In case there is not enough memory specified for the process, try to increase the max memory by running the following command:

config-external-information-services-process --max-memory=<value>

Increase initialization timeout: The default initialization timeout is 2 minutes. This might not be enough time to start this subprocess in some environments. Try to increase the timeout by running the following command: 

config-external-information-services-process --init-timeout=<value>

Command 'config-external-information-services-process' reference: https://docs.tibco.com/pub/spotfire_server/14.0.1/doc/html/TIB_sfire_server_tsas_admin_help/server/topics/config-external-information-services-process.html

Check that configured port is available: If subprocess is not running, it also might be because port 9445 is not available. Make sure that port 9445, or the port you configured to use with Information Services, is available.

2. Missing database JDBC drivers:
If you see errors with messages similar to "Could not open information link" or "Could not get contents of <data source> from the server" while trying to save, test, edit or open an Information Link, this might be because the datasource template is configured, but the JDBC driver jar file is missing.

If the driver files are missing, you will also see an error message similar to this one in <Spotfire-Server>/logs/informationservices/server.log file:

api.common.InformationModelServiceCommon: Failed to initialize connection pool: Cannot instantiate JDBC driver with class name cs.jdbc.driver.CompositeDriver

To resolve the issue, put datasource JDBC driver .jar files in the <Spotfire-Server>/tomcat/custom-ext-informationservices directory.

Note for Oracle driver: If you are using Oracle as the Spotfire database and you want to access data with Information Services (regardless of whether you want to access Oracle data), you must add the same Oracle JDBC jar file in both directories <Spotfire-Server>/tomcat/custom-ext and <Spotfire-Server>/tomcat/custom-ext-informationservices.

You must restart Spotfire Server after adding any new JDBC driver files.