Release Notes › Policy Server Release Notes › General Considerations › Policy Server Limitations › Policy Server Fails to Initialize Java Virtual Machine on Red Hat AS 3.0 (44649) (44971)

Policy Server Fails to Initialize Java Virtual Machine on Red Hat AS 3.0 (44649) (44971)

On Red Hat Linux Enterprise AS 3.0 with Update 5, the Policy Server may fail to initialize the Java Virtual Machine when running on a multi-processor machine. As a result, the following SiteMinder functionality does not work:

• Java authentication schemes
• Java active rules, policies, and responses
• SAML federation

This problem is caused by an incompatibility between the Sun JDK on Linux and Red Hat's ExecShield, a kernel-based security feature. A work-around is to disable the ExecShield in the Linux SMP kernel only.

To decide if you want to disable the ExecShield, see Red Hat's "New Security Enhancements in Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.3, update 3" at http://www.redhat.com/f/pdf/rhel/WHP0006US_Execshield.pdf.

To disable ExecShield in the Linux SMP kernel only

1. In the /etc/grub.conf file, set the noexec=off kernel parameter in the SMP kernel only, as noted in the following example:

   title Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.4.21-32.ELsmp)

   root (hd0,0)

   kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-32.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/noexec=off

   initrd /initrd-2.4.21-32.ELsmp.img

2. Reboot the machine.