Problem Note 60919: SAS® Content Server backup fails when the SAS administrator password (sasadm@saspw) contains blank characters
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When you back up SAS Content Server, the backup fails and the SAS Deployment Backup and Recovery tool reports the following error:
at com.sas.svcs.backup.server.handler.SCSBackupHandler.execute(SCSBackupHandler.java:167)
at com.sas.svcs.backup.server.handler.SCSBackupHandler.execute(SCSBackupHandler.java:43)
at com.sas.svcs.backup.server.BackupServerSession.execute(BackupServerSession.java:107)
at com.sas.svcs.backup.server.BackupDriver.main(BackupDriver.java:131)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
This problem occurs if there are blank characters in the password for the SAS administrator account (sasadm@saspw). When the password contains blank characters, those blanks are translated to either a plus sign (+) or %211 in the post request. This behavior causes the failure.
To confirm an issue with the password, generate a debugging report by following these steps:
- In a plain-text editor (for example, Microsoft Notepad), open the serverlog4j.properties file that resides in the SASHOME\SASPlatformObjectFramework\9.4\SASDeploymentBackup\ directory.
- Under the section FOR REST BATCH UTILITIES, change the value for the log4jrootLogger= entry from INFO to DEBUG, as shown below:
log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, R
- Save the file and run the backup from the command line.
After you perform the steps above, the debugging report that is generated in the backserver.log file should look similar to the following snippet:
2017-06-02 12:47:05,701 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - >> "[\r][\n]"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,701 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - >> POST /SASLogon/v1/tickets HTTP/1.1
2017-06-02 12:47:05,701 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - >> content-type: text/plain
2017-06-02 12:47:05,701 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - >> Content-Length: 59
2017-06-02 12:47:05,701 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - >> Host: example.demo.com
2017-06-02 12:47:05,701 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - >> Connection: Keep-Alive
2017-06-02 12:47:05,701 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.headers - >> User-Agent: Apache-HttpClient/4.2.5 (java 1.5)
2017-06-02 12:47:05,701 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - >> "username=sasadm%40saspw&password=Sample+Password+from+window%211"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,723 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - << "HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request[\r][\n]"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,726 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - << "Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2017 16:47:05 GMT[\r][\n]"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,726 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - << "Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1[\r][\n]"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,726 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - << "X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge[\r][\n]"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,726 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - << "Content-Type: text/plain;charset=ISO-8859-1[\r][\n]"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,726 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - << "Content-Length: 36[\r][\n]"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,726 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - << "Connection: close[\r][\n]"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,726 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.wire - << "[\r][\n]"
2017-06-02 12:47:05,727 [main] DEBUG org.apache.http.impl.conn.DefaultClientConnection - Receiving response: HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
As you can see in the highlighted password above, the password contains both the plus sign (+) sign and %211.
To work around this problem, change the password for the administrator account so that it does not contain any special characters.
Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.
Operating System and Release Information
| Product Family | Product | System | Product Release | SAS Release | ||
| Reported | Fixed* | Reported | Fixed* | |||
| SAS System | SAS Deployment Backup and Recovery Tool | z/OS | 9.4 | 9.43 | 9.4 TS1M0 | 9.4 TS1M5 |
| Microsoft® Windows® for x64 | 9.4 | 9.43 | 9.4 TS1M0 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled AIX | 9.4 | 9.43 | 9.4 TS1M0 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled Solaris | 9.4 | 9.43 | 9.4 TS1M0 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| HP-UX IPF | 9.4 | 9.43 | 9.4 TS1M0 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Linux for x64 | 9.4 | 9.43 | 9.4 TS1M0 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Solaris for x64 | 9.4 | 9.43 | 9.4 TS1M0 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||