GlassFish May Close a Connection When a HTTP Client Delays Sending Full HTTP Request

(Doc ID 1316311.1)

Last updated on FEBRUARY 24, 2017

Applies to:

Oracle GlassFish Server - Version 2.1 to 2.1.1 [Release 2.1]
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Symptoms

This problem can occur when the client sends a HTTP request where the complete HTTP request line is sent using multiple packets.

For example, if the complete HTTP request was "POST /<uri>/xxxx HTTP/1.1", and the request is received spread over multiple TCP packets instead of one packet.

1. POST <flush>
2. <space> <flush>
3. /<uri>/xxxx HTTP 1.1


Under these conditions, the GlassFish server may close the connection if the complete HTTP request does not arrive together.

We will use an example to help explain the issue. In this example, the client sends two chunked-encoded HTTP requests to a web service, using the SOAP protocol. This is what the requests look like:

POST /myApp/myWebService HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1
Host: 192.168.1.38
User-Agent: myUserAgent
SOAPAction:
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

593
<data_first_chunk>
52f
<data_second_chunk>

POST /myApp/myWebService HTTP/1.1
Host: 192.168.1.38
User-Agent:myUserAgent
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

0


If the "POST /myApp/myWebService HTTP/1.1" is sent in one TCP packet, the requests will be successfully handled, and you will see the following in the Glassfish access logs:

"yy.yy.yy.yy"  "NULL-AUTH-USER" "17/Mar/2011:10:42:07 +0000" "POST /myApp/myWebService HTTP/1.1" 200 543
"yy.yy.yy.yy"  "NULL-AUTH-USER" "17/Mar/2011:10:42:07 +0000" "POST/myApp/myWebServiceHTTP/1.1" 200 0


A TCP/IP trace, using the Wireshark packet capture utility, will look like this:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
      1 0.000000    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      56087 > http-alt [SYN] Seq=0 Win=65535 Len=0 MSS=1260 WS=3 TSV=931073790 TSER=0
      2 0.000132    yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56087 [SYN, ACK] Seq=0 Ack=1 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=967825811 TSER=931073790 MSS=1460 WS=0
      3 0.300191    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      56087 > http-alt [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1 Win=524280 Len=0 TSV=931073793 TSER=967825811
      4 0.308231    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      [TCP segment of a reassembled PDU]
      5 0.308289    yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56087 [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=5 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=967825842 TSER=931073793
      6 0.634348    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      [TCP segment of a reassembled PDU]
      7 0.634406    yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56087 [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1253 Win=48672 Len=0 TSV=967825875 TSER=931073796
      8 0.958174    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      [TCP segment of a reassembled PDU]
      9 0.964839    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        HTTP     POST /myApp/myWebService HTTP/1.1
     10 0.964906    yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56087 [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=2977 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=967825908 TSER=931073799
     11 0.969839    yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          HTTP     HTTP/1.1 200 OK
     12 1.272744    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      56087 > http-alt [ACK] Seq=2977 Ack=747 Win=524280 Len=0 TSV=931073802 TSER=967825908
     13 1.281119    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      [TCP segment of a reassembled PDU]
     14 1.390691    yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56087 [ACK] Seq=747 Ack=2981 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=967825951 TSER=931073802
     15 1.694172    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        HTTP     POST /myApp/myWebService HTTP/1.1
     16 1.697549    yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          HTTP     HTTP/1.1 200 OK
     17 2.000365    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      56087 > http-alt [ACK] Seq=3220 Ack=950 Win=524280 Len=0 TSV=931073810 TSER=967825981
     18 2.040256    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      56087 > http-alt [FIN, ACK] Seq=3220 Ack=950 Win=524280 Len=0 TSV=931073810 TSER=967825981
     19 2.040297    yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56087 [ACK] Seq=950 Ack=3221 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=967826015 TSER=931073810
     20 2.040703    yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56087 [FIN, ACK] Seq=950 Ack=3221 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=967826016 TSER=931073810
     21 2.342488    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      [TCP Dup ACK 18#1] 56087 > http-alt [ACK] Seq=3221 Ack=950 Win=524280 Len=0 TSV=931073813 TSER=967826015
     22 2.351872    xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      56087 > http-alt [ACK] Seq=3221 Ack=951 Win=524280 Len=0 TSV=931073813 TSER=967826016
Note that source and destination IP addresses have been obfuscated by using xx.xx.xx.xx as source and yy.yy.yy.yy as destination.


Now, if the client sends the "POST /myApp/myWebService HTTP/1.1" line in two (or more) TCP packets, as explained before, the issue will show up, and the GlassFish Server will close the connection before the client has completed sending the full POST request. The corresponding Wireshark capture showing this is:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
     43 46.166625   xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      56551 > http-alt [SYN] Seq=0 Win=65535 Len=0 MSS=1260 WS=3 TSV=931107033 TSER=0
     44 46.166691   yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56551 [SYN, ACK] Seq=0 Ack=1 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=968158545 TSER=931107033 MSS=1460 WS=0
     45 46.466788   xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      56551 > http-alt [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1 Win=524280 Len=0 TSV=931107036 TSER=968158545
     46 46.474842   xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      [TCP segment of a reassembled PDU]
     47 46.474902   yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56551 [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=5 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=968158576 TSER=931107036
     48 46.783374   xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      [TCP segment of a reassembled PDU]
     49 46.783433   yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56551 [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=45 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=968158607 TSER=931107039
     50 47.092160   xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        TCP      [TCP segment of a reassembled PDU]
     51 47.092604   yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56551 [FIN, ACK] Seq=1 Ack=204 Win=49920 Len=0 TSV=968158638 TSER=931107042
     52 47.417927   xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        HTTP     Continuation or non-HTTP traffic
     53 47.417986   yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56551 [RST] Seq=2 Win=49920 Len=0
     54 47.417989   xx.xx.xx.xx          yy.yy.yy.yy        HTTP     Continuation or non-HTTP traffic
     55 47.418061   yy.yy.yy.yy        xx.xx.xx.xx          TCP      http-alt > 56551 [RST] Seq=2 Win=0 Len=0


As seen above, in packet #51, GlassFish sends a FIN packet with no apparent reason, prematurely closing the connection. No access will be logged in GlassFish access logs.and the server.log show a finishConnection entry in FINEST logging.

[#|2011-03-17T11:13:30.390+0000|FINEST|sun-appserver2.1.1|javax.enterprise.system.container.web|_ThreadID=32;_ThreadName=httpSSLWorkerThread-8080-1;ClassName=com.sun.enterprise.web.connector.grizzly.DefaultReadTask;MethodName=finishConnection;_RequestID=f6c2a857-0f74-4fdd-97c8-ebdcb2a905f9;|finishConnection|#]

Cause

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