• RSA Governance & Lifecycle 8.0.0 P09
  • AFX Server on Microsoft Windows Server 2022

AFX Server installs on Microsoft Windows Server 2022 in a non-functional state with the following symptoms when the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to a folder path ending with a backslash character (\):

Note: An automatic upgrade of the AFX Server, upon upgrade of ACM to v8.0.0 P09 from an older patch level, may also exhibit the same symptoms.

• Windows advanced system settings > Advanced tab > Environment Variables > JAVA_HOME under System variables shows a folder path ending with a backslash character (\). The JAVA_HOME environment variable is automatically set by the Adoptium OpenJDK installer.
  
  
  
• During a new installation of the AFX Server, right-clicking on InstallAFXServer.bat and selecting 'Run as administrator' starts the process to install the AFX Server including the creation of Windows services for the AFX Server.  This process starts a command line window, which appears to hang indefinitely showing the message 'install Task Begin'. <screenshot: afx-install-task-begin.jpg>
  
  
  
• While the above command line window appears to hang, the AFX Server installation proceeds and starts the AFX services. However, the following Windows services for the AFX Server are NOT created and missing in the Windows Services list:
   -- SecurID_GL_ActiveMQ
   -- SecurID_GL_ESB
  
  
  
• The RSA Governance & Lifecycle UI shows the AFX Server in 'Running' state. However, the connectors associated with the AFX Server show in 'Not Deployed' state.
  
  
• The log file AFX/bin/afx_server.log shows the following warning:

  WARNING: The JAVA_HOME path ends with a backslash, which may impact AFX startup. If any AFX startup issues occur, please remove the trailing backslash from the JAVA_HOME path.

• The log file AFX/bin/afx_server.log shows the following message about a 30-day "evaluation" license instead of installing a non-evaluation license:

  Valid license key --> Evaluation = true, Expiration Date = Fri Mar 06 00:00:00 EST 2026, Contact Name = MuleSoft Support...

• The log file AFX/esb/logs/esb.AFX-MAIN.log may show errors like:

  java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect

The MuleSoft component of the AFX Server is unable to gracefully handle JAVA_HOME variable that is set to a folder path ending with a backslash character (\) on Microsoft Windows Server 2022.

(This issue is not observed on Microsoft Windows Server 2019.)

A partial remediation is available in the following versions/patches where the AFX server installation process will gracefully abort (to avoid installing a non-functional AFX Server) on ALL supported versions of Microsoft Windows Server when a JAVA_HOME variable is encountered with a folder path ending with a backslash character.

• RSA Governance & Lifecycle 8.0.0 P10
• RSA Governance & Lifecycle 8.0.0 P09 HF01

A full remediation for this issue is under investigation (which may rely on a fix for the underlying MuleSoft component).

RSA recommends that customers proactively inspect and verify JAVA_HOME environment variable configuration on all Remote AFX Server Windows hosts PRIOR to RSA Governance & Lifecycle Cloud upgrade to v8.0.0 P09 / P09 HF01 / P10.

• If JAVA_HOME includes a path ending with a backslash character, update the JAVA_HOME environment variable and remove the ending backslash character from the folder path.
• If an AFX Server has already been installed in a non-functional state due to this issue, then reinstall the AFX Server (after JAVA_HOME has been updated).

• The JAVA_HOME environment variable may reset upon installing or upgrading to a newer version of JDK.  If JAVA/JDK is upgraded on an AFX Server host, ensure to update JAVA_HOME and remove the ending backslash character soon after upgrading JAVA.
• AFX Server on Microsoft Windows Server is only supported for RSA Governance & Lifecycle Cloud deployments.
• A reinstallation of AFX Server on Microsoft Windows Server includes the following high-level steps:
  • Stop AFX services (if the AFX installation script window is still open, as noted in the symptoms, close the window to stop the AFX services)
  • Remove or rename the AFX installation folder, and also remove the AFX Maven repository folder, e.g., C:\Users\Administrator\.m2
  • Download a new/fresh AFX Server archive, AFXServer.zip, from the RSA Governance & Lifecycle UI
  • Follow the documentation to install AFX Server