9th September 2008

Apache Tomcat 6 Startup Error

posted in Tomcat |

I recently had to install Apache Tomcat 6 on a Windows Server 2003 machine and I ran into a problem which prevented the Tomcat service from starting. I had already installed the Java Runtime and then installed Tomcat following the default options. However, the Tomcat service just wouldn’t start. I looked in the Windows System Event Log and saw the rather unhelpful error message shown below. So, in order to try and get a handle on the problem I decided to run some monitoring on the server whilst the Tomcat process was starting. This is what I discovered.

The service failed to start again and the same entry appeared in the System event log.

I delved a bit deeper and discovered that the Tomcat service writes to a log file called jakarta_service_YYYYMMDD.log, so I looked in this file and saw the following entry : [994 prunsrv.c] [error] Failed creating java C:\Java\bin\client\jvm.dll

As you can see the error in the log file seemed to suggest that there was a problem with the file jvm.dll in the C:\Java\bin\client folder. I looked in that folder and I could see that the file was already there - so why should Tomcat be throwing an error suggesting there was a problem creating the file ?

Thinking I was perhaps facing a permissions issue I reached for a copy of Sysinternals Process Monitor and fired up a trace on the server whilst trying once more to start the Tomcat service. What I found was quite interesting.

The Tomcat service (tomcat6.exe) seemed to be able to find the jvm.dll file OK but then it appeared to be looking for a file called MSVCR71.DLL and, as you can see highlighted in the screen capture below, it wasn’t able to locate this file in any of the folders in which it was searching. Immediately following this you can see the tomcat6.exe process start writing to its own log file (jakarta_service_20080826.log) recording the error message shown above.

Since Tomcat was unable to find this file I decided to see if I could. I searched the whole of the C drive on the server and actually found the MSVCR71.DLL file in the locations shown here.

As you can see the file was actually found on my server - just not in any of the locations in which Tomcat was looking. The solution was simple. Once I had copied MSVCR71.DLL to the C:\Java\bin\client folder the Tomcat service started successfully.

You can get the Sysinternals free utilities here : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 11:38 am and is filed under Tomcat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 12 responses to “Apache Tomcat 6 Startup Error”

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  1. 1 On October 8th, 2008, mark said:

    Nice troubleshooting! I have to remember that Process Monitor has more capabilty than top cpu.

  2. 2 On October 14th, 2008, Paul Taylor said:

    Nice detective work!! Spent a good while trying to get to the bottom of this before finding your post. Fixed the problem for me too.

  3. 3 On November 28th, 2008, Martin Bird said:

    Hi

    I’ve come across the dreaded MSVCR71.DLL error before. Microsofts decision to stop providing Mirosoft Visual
    C++ Run Time as part of the OS, and forcing Applications to embed it in their installs seems to have spread considerable misery.

  4. 4 On April 1st, 2009, Anu said:

    Thanks! That helped a ton.

  5. 5 On June 10th, 2009, teoh said:

    i follow the above guide but still the same, error 0, my process monitor log at http://www.sendspace.com/file/t0tahr any idea what i missed out?

  6. 6 On June 10th, 2009, teoh said:

    i post my solution at
    http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.jakarta.tomcat.user/184218

  7. 7 On September 10th, 2009, Owain said:

    Many thanks, very clear analysis.

  8. 8 On October 21st, 2009, kapil said:

    lots of Thanks It’s really help full

  9. 9 On December 21st, 2010, jenitta said:

    Nice information,Many thanks to the author.I hope that you will continue sharing your knowledge with us.

    http://godwinsblog.cdtech.in/2010/12/requested-page-cannot-be-accessed.html

  10. 10 On January 23rd, 2011, T RAMKUMARAN said:

    Please try reducing “Maximum memory pool”

    Launch E:\apps\RTC-ExpressC-Server-2.0\jazz\server\tomcat\bin\tomcat5w.exe
    Click on Java Tab
    Entry 700 in Maximum memory pool
    and then start…

  11. 11 On March 26th, 2012, Scorp said:

    Cool, thank you copying the MSVCR71.DLL file helped a lot … :)
    Many thanks

  12. 12 On December 1st, 2012, Install Pentaho 4.5 CE as service on Windows 7 x64 | Dot … said:

    [...] Apache Tomcat 6 Startup Error [...]

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