I've installed a tomcat instance on a clean Windows 2003 machine (VM running on an ESX cluster). I have an IIS background and I'm not familiar with tomcat. I'm hosting a single java/jsp based vendor app.
Every day or so, the tomcat service would just shut down on its own.
How would I go about troubleshooting why this is happening? I'm not finding anything in the event viewer (though tomcat probably doesn't log there)
Best Answer
In my experience, Tomcat normally dies due to an underlying application issue causing a Java exception. As others have suggested, the log files are clearly the first place to look. As you're investigating the issue on Windows, I'd recommend using SysInternal's Process Explorer and Process Monitor as well. Process Explorer will let you see whether tomcat is dying on its own, or the JRE it launches. Process Monitor, on the other hand, is an unparalleled tool for watching exactly what's happening when the process bombs. Tie this in with event log / tomcat log information, and you'll be on the right track.