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java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not self-attach to current VM using external process

See original GitHub issue

When trying to start Elastic APM agent the following issue is encountered :

2022-09-09 07:37:15,776 [Attach Listener] INFO  co.elastic.apm.agent.util.JmxUtils - Found JVM-specific OperatingSystemMXBean interface: com.sun.management.OperatingSystemMXBean
2022-09-09 07:37:15,850 [Attach Listener] INFO  co.elastic.apm.agent.configuration.StartupInfo - Starting Elastic APM 1.28.4 as DocSignManagerAPI on Java 11.0.16.1 Runtime version: 11.0.16.1+1-LTS VM version: 11.0.16.1+1-LTS (Red Hat, Inc.) Linux 3.10.0-1160.53.1.el7.x86_64
2022-09-09 07:37:15,855 [Attach Listener] INFO  co.elastic.apm.agent.configuration.StartupInfo - enable_log_correlation: 'true' (source: Attachment configuration)
2022-09-09 07:37:30.516  WARN 1 --- [           main] ConfigServletWebServerApplicationContext : Exception encountered during context initialization - cancelling refresh attempt: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'APMConfig': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not self-attach to current VM using external process


2022-09-09 07:37:39.540 ERROR 1 --- [           main] o.s.boot.SpringApplication               : Application run failed

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'APMConfig': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not self-attach to current VM using external process
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:160) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInitialization(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:440) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1796) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:620) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:542) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.lambda$doGetBean$0(AbstractBeanFactory.java:335) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:234) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:333) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:208) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:955) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:918) ~[spring-context-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:583) ~[spring-context-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.context.ServletWebServerApplicationContext.refresh(ServletWebServerApplicationContext.java:147) ~[spring-boot-2.7.1.jar!/:2.7.1]
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:734) ~[spring-boot-2.7.1.jar!/:2.7.1]
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refreshContext(SpringApplication.java:408) ~[spring-boot-2.7.1.jar!/:2.7.1]
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:308) ~[spring-boot-2.7.1.jar!/:2.7.1]
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1306) ~[spring-boot-2.7.1.jar!/:2.7.1]
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1295) ~[spring-boot-2.7.1.jar!/:2.7.1]
	at com.ing.document.signing.DocSignManagerAPIApplication.main(DocSignManagerAPIApplication.java:20) ~[classes!/:1.1.3-SNAPSHOT]
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[na:na]
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[na:na]
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[na:na]
	at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:566) ~[na:na]
	at org.springframework.boot.loader.MainMethodRunner.run(MainMethodRunner.java:49) ~[app.jar:1.1.3-SNAPSHOT]
	at org.springframework.boot.loader.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:108) ~[app.jar:1.1.3-SNAPSHOT]
	at org.springframework.boot.loader.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:58) ~[app.jar:1.1.3-SNAPSHOT]
	at org.springframework.boot.loader.PropertiesLauncher.main(PropertiesLauncher.java:467) ~[app.jar:1.1.3-SNAPSHOT]
**Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not self-attach to current VM using external process
	at co.elastic.apm.attach.bytebuddy.agent.ByteBuddyAgent.installExternal(ByteBuddyAgent.java:701) ~[apm-agent-attach-1.28.4.jar!/:na]**
	at co.elastic.apm.attach.bytebuddy.agent.ByteBuddyAgent.install(ByteBuddyAgent.java:632) ~[apm-agent-attach-1.28.4.jar!/:na]
	at co.elastic.apm.attach.bytebuddy.agent.ByteBuddyAgent.attach(ByteBuddyAgent.java:299) ~[apm-agent-attach-1.28.4.jar!/:na]
	at co.elastic.apm.attach.ElasticApmAttacher.attach(ElasticApmAttacher.java:154) ~[apm-agent-attach-1.28.4.jar!/:na]
	at co.elastic.apm.attach.ElasticApmAttacher.attach(ElasticApmAttacher.java:140) ~[apm-agent-attach-1.28.4.jar!/:na]
	at co.elastic.apm.attach.ElasticApmAttacher.attach(ElasticApmAttacher.java:105) ~[apm-agent-attach-1.28.4.jar!/:na]
	at co.elastic.apm.attach.ElasticApmAttacher.attach(ElasticApmAttacher.java:58) ~[apm-agent-attach-1.28.4.jar!/:na]
	at com.ing.document.signing.config.APMConfig.initAPM(APMConfig.java:17) ~[classes!/:1.1.3-SNAPSHOT]
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[na:na]
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[na:na]
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[na:na]
	at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:566) ~[na:na]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor$LifecycleElement.invoke(InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:389) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor$LifecycleMetadata.invokeInitMethods(InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:333) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(InitDestroyAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:157) ~[spring-beans-5.3.21.jar!/:5.3.21]
	... 26 common frames omitted

Elastic APM version : 1.28.4 Java version : 11.0.16 VM OS : Linux 3.10.0-1160.53.1.el7.x86_64

Do you have any clues of what can cause

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not self-attach to current VM using external process

Issue Analytics

State:
Created a year ago
Comments:7 (6 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

1reaction

felixbarnycommented, Sep 14, 2022

I think we should catch the exception and avoid the application from crashing if the agent can’t be attached.

Compared to 1.28.4, we’re now always attaching in a try/catch block so that exceptions on attachment don’t impact the application:

https://github.com/elastic/apm-agent-java/blob/00b682310082cbc40d3216c8cb1a48a8af6aeee4/apm-agent-attach/src/main/java/co/elastic/apm/attach/ElasticApmAttacher.java#L163-L179

0reactions

felixbarnycommented, Sep 14, 2022

I agree that logging std err is not the best way to deal with it (maybe we should even use JUL for that?). However, I do strongly believe that we should not let exceptions escape our API to avoid risking to crash the application on startup. At most, we may want to return a boolean indicating whether the attachment was successful. But it seems like an edge case to me that users would want to act on the success of attachment.

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