Joe, I did actually not-so-gracefully stumble into this previously, so I do know the pain it can cause. I think perhaps the best behavior in this situation might be to not only prevent removal of components that would cripple the console, but also display a prompt when it is attempted saying something along the lines of "This component must be removed manually from command line, as doing so will render the admin console useless".
On 8/28/07, Joe Bohn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > GERONIMO-3401 ( https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-3401 ) > records a problem where it is possible for the user to cripple the web > console, the server or both with 1 or 2 mouse clicks. > > When stopping some system-modules such as the following from the web > console, the web console itself is also stopped due to direct and > transitive dependencies: > - activemq-broker > - connector-deployer > - geronimo-gbean-deployer > - j2ee-corba-yoko > - j2ee-deployer > - j2ee-security > - j2ee-server > - j2ee-system > - jasper > - jee-specs > - openejb > - openjpa > - rmi-naming > - server-security-config > - tomcat6 > - tomcat6-deployer > - jetty6 > - jetty6-deployer > - transaction > - webservices-common > - xmlbeans > > > The result is an error in the browser, and exception in the server, and > the web console disabled. One cheap way to help prevent this problem is > to add a challenge when any system module is stopped to ensure the user > is aware that stopping a system module might result in rendering the web > console unusable. The situation can be recovered via the CLI by > subsequently starting the web console but this might not be obvious to > the user and often a server restart is necessary before the CLI itself > can function again. > > However, there is another problem that is much more serious. If the > user selects "uninstall" on any of the modules listed above, in addition > to the web console being disabled, the server itself is corrupted. In > fact, in most cases the server cannot start once it is shutdown. AFAIK, > there is no easy recovery from this. There is a challenge already > provided to he user when uninstall is selected but it doesn't hint at > the potential severity of the consequences. > > I'm thinking we should remove the uninstall capability from the system > module view in the web console until we have more pluggable components > that can be installed/uninstalled without crippling the entire server. A > challenge (even if worded more strongly) just doesn't seem sufficient. > Of course we have this same exposure with the CLI but it isn't quite as > easy to shoot yourself in the foot there with just 2 mouse clicks. > Thoughts? > > Joe > > -- Erik B. Craig