Administrative console does not start even though installation completes

This topic discusses problems that you can encounter when you attempt to access the console.

Note: This topic references one or more of the application server log files. As a recommended alternative, you can configure the server to use the High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) log and trace infrastructure instead of using SystemOut.log , SystemErr.log, trace.log, and activity.log files on distributed and IBM® i systems. You can also use HPEL in conjunction with your native z/OS® logging facilities. If you are using HPEL, you can access all of your log and trace information using the LogViewer command-line tool from your server profile bin directory. See the information about using HPEL to troubleshoot applications for more information on using HPEL.

What kind of problem are you having?

Internal Server Error, Page cannot be found, 404, or similar error occurs trying to view the administrative console
Unable to process login. Check user ID and password and try again. error occurs when trying to access the administrative console page
The directory paths in the administrative console contain strange characters

If you can bring up the browser page, but the administrative console behavior is inconsistent, error prone, or unresponsive, try upgrading your browser. Older browsers might not support all the features of the administrative console.

IBM Support has documents and tools that can save you time gathering information needed to resolve problems. Before opening a problem report, see the Support page:

Internal Server Error, Page cannot be found, 404, or similar error occurs trying to view the administrative console

Here are some steps to try if you are unable to view the administrative console:

Verify that the application server that supports the administrative console is up and running. For a base configuration, the administrative console is deployed by default on server1.
Before viewing the administrative console, you must take one of the following actions:
- Run the startServer server1 command for the Windows platform from a command prompt in the install_dir\bindirectory, or the ./startServer.sh server1 command for operating systems such as AIX® or Linux®.
- Click the Start the server link from the First steps console.
- Start WebSphere® Application Server as a service or from the Start menu, if you are using a Windows operating system.
Before viewing the administrative console, you must run the startServer Qshell script. For more information on starting the server, see Starting an application server.
View the SystemOut.log file for the application server to verify that the server that supports the administrative console started.
Check the web address you use to view the console. By default, this address is http://server_name:9060/ibm/console, where server_name is the host name.
If you are browsing the administrative console from a remote machine, try to eliminate connection, address and firewall issues by pinging the server machine from a command prompt, using the server name in the web address.
If you have never been able to access the administrative console see the topic on troubleshooting installation.
If you have never been able to access the administrative console see the topic on installation troubleshooting tips.

Unable to process login. Check user ID and password and try again. error occurs when trying to access the administrative console page

This error indicates that security is enabled for WebSphere Application Server, and that the user ID or password supplied is either not valid or not authorized to access the console.

To access the console:

If you are the administrator, use the ID defined as the security administrative ID. This ID is stored in the WebSphere Application Server security.xml file.
If you are not the administrator, ask the administrator to enable your ID for the administrative console.

The directory paths in the administrative console contain strange characters

Directory paths that are used for class paths or resources specified in a development tool, in configuration files, or elsewhere that contain strange characters when they are viewed in the administrative console might result from the Java™ run time interpreting a backslash (\) as a control character.

[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows] [IBM i] To resolve this problem, modify Windows-style class paths by replacing occurrences of single back slashes to two. For example, change c:\MyFiles\MyJsp.jsp to c:\\MyFiles\\MyJsp.jsp.