Java, jsch and EC2...can't run an application in root

Question

I'm connecting to an EC2 instance from a remote machine via Java and Jsch. Once connected, I want to start a jboss server that sits in a directory owned and created by root. (I can't change that). Usually from my putty shell, I would start jboss by issuing the following commands:

myUser@myIP:~# sudo su -
root@myIP:~:# cd jbossDirectory
root@myIp:~/jbossDirectory# ./startJbossScript.sh 

The problems start when I try to do the same via Java/Jscp. This is my code:

import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import com.jcraft.jsch.Channel;
import com.jcraft.jsch.ChannelExec;
import com.jcraft.jsch.JSch;
import com.jcraft.jsch.Session;
import com.jcraft.jsch.UserInfo;

public class SSHExecutor {

static String SSHprivateKey = privateKeyFileLocation;
static String username = myUser;
static String hostnamePublicIP = EC2InstanceIP;
static String startJbossCommand = "sudo -i /root/jbossDirectory/startJbossScript.sh";

static String sudo_pass = "";

public static void main(String[] arg) {
    java.util.Properties config = new java.util.Properties();
    config.put("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");

    try {
        JSch jsch = new JSch();
        jsch.addIdentity(SSHprivateKey);

        Session session = jsch.getSession(username, hostnamePublicIP, 22);

        // username and passphrase will be given via UserInfo interface.
        UserInfo ui = new MyUserInfo();
        session.setUserInfo(ui);
        session.setConfig(config);
        session.connect();
        Channel channel = session.openChannel("exec");
        ((ChannelExec) channel).setCommand(startJbossCommnand);

        InputStream in = channel.getInputStream();
        OutputStream out = channel.getOutputStream();
        ((ChannelExec) channel).setErrStream(System.err);

        channel.connect();

        out.write((sudo_pass + "\n").getBytes());
        out.flush();

        byte[] tmp = new byte[1024];
        while (true) {
            while (in.available() > 0) {
                int i = in.read(tmp, 0, 1024);
                if (i < 0)
                    break;
                System.out.print(new String(tmp, 0, i));
            }
            if (channel.isClosed()) {
                System.out.println("exit-status: "
                        + channel.getExitStatus());
                break;
            }
            try {
                Thread.sleep(1000);
            } catch (Exception ee) {

            }
        }

        channel.disconnect();
        session.disconnect();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        System.out.println(e);
    }
}
}

This program will correctly starts Jboss. However, when Jboss receives a request for a dynamic page, it throws the following error:

06:48:13,137 INFO  [STDOUT] >>>>>>>>/root/.
06:8:13,138 INFO  [STDOUT] Exception while initializing hibernate:    java.io.FileNotFoundException: WEBAPP_CONF/hibernate.properties (No such file or directory)
06:48:13,141 INFO  [[/rubis]] Marking servlet BrowseRegions as unavailable
06:48:13,141 ERROR [[BrowseRegions]] Allocate exception for servlet BrowseRegions
javax.servlet.UnavailableException: Couldn't find file mysql.properties:    java.io.FileNotFoundException: WEBAPP_CONF/mysql.properties (No such file or directory)<br>
at edu.rice.rubis.servlets.RubisHttpServlet.init(Unknown Source)
at edu.rice.rubis.servlets.HibernateRubisHttpServlet.init(Unknown Source)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:212)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1161)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.allocate(StandardWrapper.java:806)
at  org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:129)
at  org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:175)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
at org.jboss.web.tomcat.service.jca.CachedConnectionValve.invoke(CachedConnectionValve.java:157)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:562)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:262)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:844)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:446)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724)

So it appears that it can't find the mysql configuration file. The file is there and this issue does not happen when I launch jboss from the console (as showed above). My guess is that the process does start with the sudo -i command, but then, it can't access the files that are within the jbossDirectory folder, hence it throws the error file not found. The WEBAPP_CONF/ is a subdirectory of jbossDirectory.

Any idea on how to fix this?

Thank you.

Answer 1

You are running the shell script from a different directory, and there is something in your code that expects the start-up script to start specifically in /root/jbossDirectory.

A simple workaround would be to edit startJbossScript.sh and add

cd /root/jbossDirectory

as the first line.

Answer 2

Before the channel.connect() line in your code add the below line which will allow you to excecute sudo commands

((ChannelExec) channel).setPty(true);