Around six months ago, I faced a confusing issue with IDS Source 16.7.5 where the “config.bin” executable always crashed when I tried to run it. The installation of IDS binaries itself completed successfully without any errors. However, the configurator, which is supposed to set up the required objects inside the Repository, consistently crashed.
1. Environment context and IDS upgrade
This Documentum environment had just been upgraded to 23.4. The next step was to upgrade the associated IDS component. The latest version of IDS compatible with recent Documentum versions is 16.7.5.
The execution of the “idsLinuxSuiteSetup.bin” installer properly extracted all binaries and deployed the WebCache application in its Tomcat server. To quickly verify that, you can check the version properties file and try starting/stopping the Tomcat instance of the IDS. On my side, there were no problems with that.
To verify the installed version of IDS and ensure that the configurator was also updated:
[dmadmin@cs-0 ~]$ cd $DM_HOME/webcache
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ cat version/version.properties
#Please don't remove this values
#Fri Oct 10 09:52:49 UTC 2025
INSTALLER_NAME=IDS
PRODUCT_VERSION=16.7.5
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ ls -l install/config.bin
-rwxrwxr-x 1 dmadmin dmadmin 54943847 Oct 19 2024 install/config.bin
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
The above confirms that WebCache was properly updated to version 16.7.5 on October 10. It also confirms that the “config.bin” is fairly recent (Q4 2024), i.e. much more recent that the old 16.7.4 file.
2. Running the IDS configurator in silent
My next step was therefore to execute the configurator, still in silent mode, as I have done for all previous IDS installations and configurations. I have not written a blog about IDS silent installation yet, but I have done so for several other components. For example, you can refer to this post for the latest one published.
The silent properties file for the IDS Source configurator is quite simple, as it only requires the Repository name to configure:
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ cat ${install_file}
### Silent installation response file for IDS configurator
INSTALLER_UI=silent
KEEP_TEMP_FILE=true
### Configuration parameters
DOC_BASE_NAME=REPO_01
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
Initially, I simply executed “config.bin“. Since it crashed and there was absolutely nothing in the logs, I had to run it again with the DEBUG flag enabled:
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ $DM_HOME/webcache/install/config.bin -DLOG_LEVEL=DEBUG -f ${install_file}
Preparing to install
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...
Launching installer...
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Djdk.util.zip.disableZip64ExtraFieldValidation=true -Djava.locale.providers=COMPAT,SPI --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.provider=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.pkcs=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.x509=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.util=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.tools.keytool=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/java.lang=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/java.lang.invoke=ALL-UNNAMED
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ echo $?
1
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
3. Investigating the logs
As shown above, the execution failed, as the return code was “1“. With DEBUG enabled and after checking the generated files, I found the following:
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ find . -type f -mmin -20 -ls
92475248907 380 -rw-rw-r-- 1 dmadmin dmadmin 384222 Oct 10 11:58 ./install/logs/install.log
92470810541 4 -rw-rw-r-- 1 dmadmin dmadmin 219 Oct 10 11:57 ./install/installer.properties
92475252084 12 -rwxrwxrwx 1 dmadmin dmadmin 10564 Oct 10 11:57 ./install/config_log/OpenText_Documentum_Interactive_Delivery_Services_Configuration_Install_10_10_2025_11_57_42.log
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ grep -iE "_E_|_F_|ERROR|WARN|FATAL" install/logs/install.log
TYPE ERROR_TYPE 0000000000000000 0 0 0
13:24:12,192 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null/dba/config/GR_REPO/webcache.ini (No such file or directory)
13:24:12,193 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null
13:24:12,194 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null/dba/config/REPO_01/webcache.ini (No such file or directory)
13:24:12,194 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null
13:24:12,199 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null/dba/config/GR_REPO/webcache.ini (No such file or directory)
13:24:12,199 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null
13:24:12,199 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null/dba/config/REPO_01/webcache.ini (No such file or directory)
13:24:12,199 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null
13:24:12,200 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null/dba/config/REPO_01/webcache.ini (No such file or directory)
13:24:12,200 DEBUG [main] com.documentum.install.shared.common.error.DiException - null
TYPE ERROR_TYPE 0000000000000000 0 0 0
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
The DEBUG logs above might make it look like the “$DOCUMENTUM” environment variable is missing, since it complains about “null/dba/xxx” not being found. However, that is not the issue. I checked all parameters and environment variables, and everything was configured correctly. In addition, Documentum had just been successfully upgraded from version 20.2 to 23.4 from start to finish, which confirmed that there was no problem with the OS or environment configuration. So I checked the second file:
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ cat install/config_log/OpenText_Documentum_Interactive_Delivery_Services_Configuration_Install_10_10_2025_11_57_42.log
__________________________________________________________________________
Fri Oct 10 11:57:50 UTC 2025
Free Memory: 15947 kB
Total Memory: 49152 kB
...
Summary
-------
Installation: Successful with errors.
8 Successes
0 Warnings
1 NonFatalErrors
0 FatalErrors
...
Custom Action: com.documentum.install.webcache.CustomActions.DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase
Status: ERROR
Additional Notes: ERROR - class com.documentum.install.webcache.CustomActions.DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase.install() runtime exception:
...
====================STDERR ENTRIES==================
RepositoryManager: Trying fallback repository location...
8. final log file name=$DM_HOME/webcache/install/config_log/OpenText_Documentum_Interactive_Delivery_Services_Configuration_Install_10_10_2025_11_57_42.log
java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: ""
at java.base/java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(NumberFormatException.java:67)
at java.base/java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:678)
at java.base/java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:786)
at com.documentum.install.webcache.CustomActions.DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase.configureDocbase(DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase.java:329)
at com.documentum.install.webcache.CustomActions.DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase.install(DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase.java:202)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.actions.CustomAction.installSelf(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.InstallablePiece.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.InstallablePiece.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.GhostDirectory.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.InstallablePiece.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.Installer.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.consoleInstallMain(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.executeApplication(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.Main.main(Unknown Source)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:77)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:569)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.launch(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.main(Unknown Source)
Execute Custom Code
class com.documentum.install.webcache.CustomActions.DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase.install() runtime exception:
java.awt.HeadlessException:
No X11 DISPLAY variable was set,
but this program performed an operation which requires it.
at java.desktop/java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment.checkHeadless(GraphicsEnvironment.java:164)
at java.desktop/java.awt.Window.<init>(Window.java:553)
at java.desktop/java.awt.Frame.<init>(Frame.java:428)
at java.desktop/java.awt.Frame.<init>(Frame.java:393)
at java.desktop/javax.swing.JFrame.<init>(JFrame.java:180)
at com.documentum.install.webcache.CustomActions.DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase.install(DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase.java:215)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.actions.CustomAction.installSelf(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.InstallablePiece.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.InstallablePiece.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.GhostDirectory.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.InstallablePiece.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.Installer.install(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.consoleInstallMain(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.executeApplication(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.Main.main(Unknown Source)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:77)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:569)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.launch(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.main(Unknown Source)
Retrying Installables deferred in pass 0
Deferral retries done because:
There were no deferrals in the last pass.
8. final log file name=$DM_HOME/webcache/install/config_log/OpenText_Documentum_Interactive_Delivery_Services_Configuration_Install_10_10_2025_11_57_42.log
====================STDOUT ENTRIES==================
...
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
That log file appeared to indicate that a certain “Number” value might be missing (“NumberFormatException“). Without access to the IDS source code (and I always avoid de-compiling Documentum source files), it was impossible to determine exactly what was missing. There were no additional details in the logs, so in the end I had to reach out to OpenText support to find out what was causing the issue.
4. Root cause: missing value for TOMCAT_PORT_SELECTED
After several back-and-forth exchanges and around 12 days of waiting for a solution, I finally received confirmation that this was a bug in the IDS Source 16.7.5 software. This version is the first one deployed on Tomcat instead of WildFly, so it was somewhat expected that some issues might appear.
When installing the IDS Source binaries, the silent installation properties file requires you to define the port that Tomcat will use. This parameter is “USER_PORT_CHOICE=6677“. You can of course change the port if needed, but 6677 was the default port used with previous IDS versions running on WildFly, so I kept the same value when installing IDS 16.7.5 on Tomcat.
The bug is that even though this value is used correctly during the Tomcat installation step, it is not properly written into the properties file that the configuration process later relies on. The IDS Source “config.bin” looks for the file “$DM_HOME/webcache/scs_tomcat.properties” and reads the port from the “TOMCAT_PORT_SELECTED” parameter.
However, in IDS 16.7.5 this file is not updated during installation. As a result, the port value remains empty, which corresponds to the missing number referenced in the logs and causes the configurator to crash.
5. Fix: updating scs_tomcat.properties
The solution is fairly simple: manually update that file and run the configurator again. In my case, I used the HTTPS port 6679, since my Tomcat was already in SSL (6677 + 2 = 6679):
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ port=6679
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ sed -i "s,\(TOMCAT_PORT_SELECTED=\).*,\1${port}," $DM_HOME/webcache/scs_tomcat.properties
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ $DM_HOME/webcache/install/config.bin -DLOG_LEVEL=DEBUG -f ${install_file}
Preparing to install
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...
Launching installer...
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Djdk.util.zip.disableZip64ExtraFieldValidation=true -Djava.locale.providers=COMPAT,SPI --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.provider=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.pkcs=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.x509=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.util=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports=java.base/sun.security.tools.keytool=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/java.lang=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/java.lang.invoke=ALL-UNNAMED
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ echo $?
0
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
As you can see above, the return code is now “0“, which indicates a successful execution. The logs generated during this new attempt are much cleaner, and there are no longer any exceptions or errors:
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ cat install/config_log/OpenText_Documentum_Interactive_Delivery_Services_Configuration_Install_10_22_2025_13_37_46.log
__________________________________________________________________________
Wed Oct 22 01:39:40 UTC 2025
Free Memory: 14800 kB
Total Memory: 49152 kB
...
Summary
-------
Installation: Successful.
9 Successes
0 Warnings
0 NonFatalErrors
0 FatalErrors
...
Custom Action: com.documentum.install.webcache.CustomActions.DiWAWebcsConfigureDocbase
Status: SUCCESSFUL
...
====================STDERR ENTRIES==================
RepositoryManager: Trying fallback repository location...
8. final log file name=$DM_HOME/webcache/install/config_log/OpenText_Documentum_Interactive_Delivery_Services_Configuration_Install_10_22_2025_13_37_46.log
Retrying Installables deferred in pass 0
Deferral retries done because:
There were no deferrals in the last pass.
8. final log file name=$DM_HOME/webcache/install/config_log/OpenText_Documentum_Interactive_Delivery_Services_Configuration_Install_10_22_2025_13_37_46.log
====================STDOUT ENTRIES==================
...
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
As mentioned earlier, this configurator is responsible for installing components inside the Repository. It creates the required IDS objects or updates them if they already exist. The DAR files were also successfully installed:
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ iapi $DOCBASE_NAME -Udmadmin -Pxxx << EOC
> ?,c,select r_object_id, r_modify_date, object_name from dmc_dar order by r_modify_date asc;
> EOC
OpenText Documentum iapi - Interactive API interface
Copyright (c) 2023. OpenText Corporation
All rights reserved.
Client Library Release 23.4.0000.0180
Connecting to Server using docbase REPO_01
[DM_SESSION_I_SESSION_START]info: "Session 011234568027fb88 started for user dmadmin."
Connected to OpenText Documentum Server running Release 23.4.0000.0143 Linux64.Oracle
1> 2>
r_object_id r_modify_date object_name
---------------- ------------------------- ---------------------------------
... ... ...
08123456800c99a5 10/22/2025 13:38:32 SCSDocApp
08123456800c99be 10/22/2025 13:38:58 SCSWorkflow
08123456800c99e1 10/22/2025 13:39:29 icmRating
(43 rows affected)
1>
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
6. Another small bug
However, I later discovered another small bug. The “scs_admin_config.product_version” attribute in the Repository was not updated correctly. Previously installed version was 16.7.4, so it’s unclear whether the configurator updated the value (with 16.7.4 still) or not at all. In any case, the stored product version was incorrect.
This value is used by IDS to verify version compatibility during execution. For example, you can see this version referenced during the End-to-End tests. Therefore, I had to update the value manually. To correct the issue:
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$ iapi $DOCBASE_NAME -Udmadmin -Pxxx << EOC
> ?,c,select product_version from scs_admin_config;
> ?,c,update scs_admin_config object set product_version='16.7.5' where product_version='16.7.4';
> ?,c,select product_version from scs_admin_config;
> exit
> EOC
OpenText Documentum iapi - Interactive API interface
Copyright (c) 2023. OpenText Corporation
All rights reserved.
Client Library Release 23.4.0000.0180
Connecting to Server using docbase REPO_01
[DM_SESSION_I_SESSION_START]info: "Session 011234568027fd13 started for user dmadmin."
Connected to OpenText Documentum Server running Release 23.4.0000.0143 Linux64.Oracle
Session id is s0
API>
product_version
------------------------
16.7.4
(1 row affected)
API>
objects_updated
---------------
1
(1 row affected)
[DM_QUERY_I_NUM_UPDATE]info: "1 objects were affected by your UPDATE statement."
API>
product_version
------------------------
16.7.5
(1 row affected)
API> Bye
[dmadmin@cs-0 webcache]$
OpenText mentioned that both of these bugs should normally be fixed in a future update of the binaries. I have not checked in the last six months, but hopefully the issue has already been resolved. If not, at least you now have the information needed to fix it!
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