Basic Troubleshooting and FAQs

You can perform some tests to avoid experiencing trouble as you begin your work with ColdFusion.
Verify the following:

• Web server is running: Before you install ColdFusion, ensure that your web server is installed and running. You can do this by loading a page in your web browser using the HTTP protocol.
• ColdFusion is running: After you install ColdFusion, use the ColdFusion Administrator to ensure that ColdFusion is running.
• Change ColdFusion user account: In Windows, ColdFusion runs under the host System account by default. If ColdFusion application pages do not have access rights to interact with resources (remote data sources, other application pages, COM objects), you must run ColdFusion under a specific account that provides the necessary access rights. For details, see Change ColdFusion user account.
• Analyze activity in log files: ColdFusion log files contain valuable information that can help you identify problems with ColdFusion or with application pages in your site. For details, see Analyze server activity in log files.

Before you install ColdFusion, ensure that your web server is installed and running.

1. Open a web browser.
2. In the address line, enter the URL for a web page or site. For example, if the file myindex.htm is in your web document root directory, load the page in your browser, using the localhost URL, as follows: http://127.0.0.1/myindex.htm or http://127.0.0.1:8500/myindex.htm (built-in web server)
3. Press Enter. If the web server is running, the page appears, otherwise, an error message appears.

Verify that ColdFusion is running

1. Open a web browser.
2. In the address line, enter the appropriate URL, as follows:

• If ColdFusion is installed on a local server:http://localhost/CFIDE/administrator/index.cfm

• If ColdFusion is installed on a remote server:http://hostname/CFIDE/administrator/index.cfm}}where, hostname is the name of the server on which ColdFusion resides. If you are using the internal web server, specify {{hostname :8500.

  Note: On UNIX, the ColdFusion Administrator URL is case-sensitive. Ensure that you enter the address as shown.

1. Press Enter. If ColdFusion is running, the ColdFusion Administrator opens. If you use ColdFusion Administrator security, a password prompt appears.

Change ColdFusion user account

On a Windows platforms, ColdFusion runs under the host System account by default. However, ColdFusion application pages may not have the access rights required to interact with other resources, such as remote data sources, other application pages, and COM objects. Therefore, you must run ColdFusion under a specific account that provides the necessary access rights.

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
2. Select the ColdFusion 11 Application Server, right-click and select Properties.
3. In the Logon As frame, select the This Account option, and enter the appropriate account user name and password information.
4. Click OK to save the information.
5. Click Close to close the Services window.
6. Restart the service for the changes to take effect.

Analyze server activity in log files

Log files generated by ColdFusion can help you monitor the activity of your server and ColdFusion applications. For details about setting your logging preferences.You can use the Log Viewer to analyze information in your log files so that you can troubleshoot your ColdFusion performance or repair problem pages in your site. For example, depending on your logging preferences, you can identify pages in your applications that take longer than a specified length of time to process.

Frequently asked questions

How will I uninstall ColdFusion?

Uninstalling ColdFusion deletes all ColdFusion program files and related components from your system.

Remove ColdFusion from Windows

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > ColdFusion.
2. Click Remove. A dialog box confirms that you want to uninstall.
3. To begin uninstalling, click Yes.
4. When the program completes, restart your computer. ColdFusion is removed from your server.

Remove ColdFusion patches from ColdFusion Administrator

1. Log in to ColdFusion Administrator.
2. Go to Server Updates > Updates > Installed Updates.

3. To begin uninstalling the latest patch, click the Uninstall button.

   Note: Uninstalling ColdFusion patches from the ColdFusion Administrator is not supported for JEE deployments.

Remove ColdFusion from UNIX

1. Log in as root.
2. Enter the following command to go to the cf_root/uninstall directory: cd cf_root/uninstall
3. Enter the following command:
   {{./ uninstall.sh}}ColdFusion is removed from your server.

How will I change ColdFusion Administrator password?

You can set or change the password that restricts access to ColdFusion Administrator pages as follows:

1. Select Security > Administrator in the navigation pane.
2. Select the type of Administrator authentication. The options are:

• Use a single password only (default)
• Separate user name and password authentication (allows multiple users)
• No authentication need (not recommended)

1. In the Root Administrator Password section, specify the new password in the New Password box. The password can have a maximum of 50 characters.
2. In the Confirm Password box, confirm your new password.
3. Click Submit Changes.

What will I do if I forget Administrator password or Administrator component password

1. Go to the folder cfusion\bin.
2. Do the following:
   • On Windows: Run passwordreset.bat
   • On Mac/Linux: Run passwordrest.sh
3. At prompt, specify the details.

How will I start and stop ColdFusion?

During installation, you typically start ColdFusion services and processes, and configure them to start and run whenever you start your system. After you perform any of the following actions in the ColdFusion Administrator, stop and restart ColdFusion services:

• Enable or disable security.
• Change any option in the Java and JVM Settings page.
• Enable performance monitoring options, which enable you to use the native Windows performance monitor.
  During setup, ColdFusion is installed as a set of system services, which typically start automatically at system startup.

Stop or start ColdFusion server services manually

1. Open the Services control panel window. If a service is running, its status is Started. If it is not running, no status appears.
2. To stop a service, select it and click Stop. A prompt asks you to verify that you want to stop the service; click Yes. The status of the service is no longer Started.
3. To start a service, select it and click Start. Its status is Started.
4. To restart a service: select it and click Restart. This is identical to stopping and starting a service.
5. Click Close. The Services window closes.

Configure ColdFusion server to start automatically or manually

1. In the Services control panel window, double-click a service. The window for the service opens.
2. For Startup Type, select Automatic or Manual.
3. Click OK. The configuration is saved.
4. Click Close. The Services window closes.

How do I configure Windows performance monitor?

Performance Monitor overview

If you install ColdFusion in Windows, you can use the Windows Performance Monitor utility to track the performance of your server. This utility installs automatically as part of the ColdFusion installation, and works with a set of counters to monitor server performance. The following are the available ColdFusion counters: that you can enable in the Windows Performance Monitor:

• Average database transaction time
• Average queue time
• Average request time
• Bytes incoming per second
• Bytes outgoing per second
• Database hits per second
• Page hits per second
• Cache pops per second
• Number of queued requests
• Number of running requests
• Number of timed out requests
  To use performance monitoring,

1. Select the Enable Performance Monitoring option on the Debug Output Settings page. For quick details, see Enable performance monitoring.
2. Configure the Performance Monitor.

Enable performance monitoring

If you install ColdFusion in Windows, you can use the Debugging Output Settings page to enable performance monitoring through the Windows Performance Monitor utility. To enable performance monitoring,

1. In the Debug Output Settings page, select the Enable Performance Monitoring option.
2. Click Submit Changes.
3. Restart ColdFusion for your changes to take effect.
   After you enable performance monitoring, you can configure the Performance Monitor.

Configuration

After you enable performance monitoring, you can configure the Performance Monitor.

1. Open the Performance Monitor window by selecting Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Performance.
2. Click the Add  button. The Add Counters window appears.
3. In the Performance Object drop-down list box, select ColdFusion Server. In the Counter list, select the counters that you want to use. To select multiple counters, hold down the Control key as you click.
4. Click Add. The Performance Monitor begins to run. The display attributes apply to all counters.
5. Click Close.

How will I use Multiserver Monitor?

The ColdFusion Multiserver Monitor lets you keep track of activities on multiple ColdFusion servers. You can quickly see the status of several servers, and view detailed information about each server.
To add a server to those you are monitoring,

1. Click the Launch Multiserver Monitor button.
2. Click Add Server.
3. Enter the following:
   • The server name or IP address
   • The port through which you communicate with the server
   • The context root, if any
   • The user name and password to access the server

4. Click OK.
   To quickly see the status of all the servers you are monitoring, click Quick View. For each server you are monitoring, the Multiserver Monitor displays the server name, port, how long the server has been running, and whether there are any alerts.
   To see a detailed status of all the servers you are monitoring, click Detailed View.
   The detailed view lists each server. To see details about a server in the list, highlight it. The details appear at the bottom of the page. To see information about any server errors, click Errors.

   Note: The errors listed on this page include only server errors. Application errors appear in the individual Server Monitor on the Summary page.

   If you register some servers in the Multiserver Monitor served by 127.0.0.1, and then open a Multiserver Monitor served by localhost, the servers are not considered to be the same servers. This is because Flash creates different shared objects for these IP addresses. The information that is stored in these shared objects is saved using XOR encryption. The master password for the Multiserver Monitor is stored using SHA1 encryption.

How to set per application settings

You can set the following on a per-application basis:

• Mappings

• Custom tag paths
  These settings override the server-side settings in the ColdFusion Administrator for the specified application only. Specifying per application settings does not change the server-wide settings. To set per application settings, you must first enable per application settings on the Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator. You then set the mappings or custom tag paths in the Application.cfc file.
  Custom Tags in per application settings override those defined in the ColdFusion Administrator. For example, if you have two custom tags of the same name and they are in different locations in the Administrator and per-application settings, the one in the per application settings is taken first.

  Note: Per application settings are supported in applications that use an Application.cfc file only, not in applications that use an Application.cfm file. The per application settings do not work if you have disabled application variables on the Memory Variables page of the Administrator.

  To set the mappings per application,

1. Select the Enable Per App Settings option on the Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator.

2. Include code similar to the following in your Application.cfc file:

   <cfset THIS.mappings["MyMap"]="c:\inetpub\myStuff">

   or

   <cfset StructInsert(THIS.mappings, "MyMap", "c:\inetpub\myStuff")>

   To set the custom tag paths per application,

3. Select the Enable Per App Settings option on the Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator.

4. Include code similar to the following in your Application.cfc file:

   <cfset customtagpaths = ListAppend(customtagpaths,"c:\mapped3")> <cfset This.customtagpaths = customtagpaths>

How will I manage undevlivered mails?

You can view a list of undelivered mails in the Server Settings > Mail > Undelivered Mail page. To access this page and manage your undelivered mails:

1. Click the View Undelivered Mail button from the Server Settings > Mails page.
2. In the Server Settings > Mail > Undelivered Mail page, you can perform the following tasks:
   • Sort mails
   • Select to view specific columns
   • Delete mails
3. Respool mails
   1. To sort the mails by Subject, Sender, To, File Size, and Date columns in ascending or descending order:
   2. Point to the column by which you want to sort the mails
4. Click the down arrow and select the sorting order.
5. To view selected columns on the Undelivered Mails page:
6. Point to any column and click the down arrow.
7. Click columns and deselect the columns that you do not want to view on the page.
   To delete or respool a mail, select the mail from the list and click Delete or Respool.

How will I view and search log content?

You can view and search log content using the Log Viewer page. This page identifies the content for each log file that you specified to view on the Log Files page.
Use the Log Viewer

1. On the Log Files page, click the name of the log file. The Log Viewer page appears.
2. To filter the content on the Log Viewer page, click the Launch Filter button. The following table describes the areas on the Log Viewer page:

How do I deploy an archive?

1. Select Packaging and Deployment > ColdFusion Archives in the left navigation pane of the ColdFusion Administrator. The ColdFusion Archives page appears.
2. In the Deploy an Existing Archive panel, specify the path to the CAR file to deploy:
3. Provide the full path of the archived filename (CAR file) to restore. Click the Browse Server button to select the full path of the archived filename (CAR).
4. Click Deploy. The Archive Summary Panel appears.
5. In the Archive Summary panel, review the archived content.

6. Click Next to proceed with restoring the archive. The Deploy Location panel appears (see step 5).

   Note: (For UNIX users only) If you must run the deploy process as a privileged user, select the Run This Deployment As A Specific User option. Then enter any system account name in the User name text box, and the corresponding account password in the Password text box. The user name and password must match the existing user name and password for this system; the deployment process runs as that user. If the user name and password do not match the existing user name and password for this system account, the deployment procedure fails.

7. Specify a location, and click Deploy to restore the selected CAR file.
   One of the following archive messages appears:

• Deploy Successful The selected CAR file was successfully restored in the specified Web Application directory. Click Close to exit from the Archive wizard.
• Failed The deploy procedure was not successful. To determine the cause of the problem, review the information appearing on the page. To further analyze why a problem occurred, click the links located on the panel. Click Close to exit from the Archive wizard.
  If the deploy operation failed, verify that the restore Web Application directory was not corrupted during the restore operation. To restore archives to another system, the target system must have ColdFusion installed.