java.net.SocketException: Connection reset by peer, socket write error

Posted Under (Java Solutions) by Ramraj Edagutti on Oct Sun, 2009

2 Comments

I am getting this socket connection error in my java web application, which was working very well for long time. I did see this behaviour when I ran huge batch of database insertions/updates. Below is the java stacktrace of this error.

ClientAbortException: java.net.SocketException: Connection reset by peer: socket write error
  1.  at org.apache.catalina.connector.OutputBuffer.doFlush(OutputBuffer.java:327)
  2.  at org.apache.catalina.connector.OutputBuffer.flush(OutputBuffer.java:293)
  3.  at org.apache.catalina.connector.Response.flushBuffer(Response.java:545)
  4.  at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.status(StandardHostValve.java:287)
  5.  at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:137)
  6.  at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:117)
  7.  at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:108)
  8.  at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:174)
  9.  at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:874)
  10.  at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:665)
  11.  at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:528)
  12.  at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:81)
  13.  at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:689)
  14.  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)

Usually, this kind of behaviour occurs when one of the following happens

  1. When user make a request, and suddenly browser get closed by user accidentally or due to browser crash
  2. When user make a request, and browser closes the http connection automatically due to exceeded content length size
  3. When user make a request, and presses the stop button

But surprisingly, there is one more reason which may cause this  problem. This is more unpredictable and very difficult to identify as well, that is problem with firewall.  When googled, I founded people complaining about firewall closing database connection automatically.  On top of this I am also not getting proper java exception stacktrace to track the error and fix.

To elaborate more on firewall issue, the error is more TCP/IP connection level error where database is closed by the firewall after database connection are idle for certain time or certain db connection length. Possibility is that there is a statefull firewall which is closing database connections after certain time limit. I am still in the process of identifying what could be the real problem. Once I found real probelm and solution, I will post it in here. If any one know the solutions, please post it in the comments section. Thank you.


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    Leave a Comment Comments(2)
    • Seema Gandhi

      Hello Ramraj

      Did u find any solutions to above problem. If yes please post it. I appriciate your help

    • Ramraj Edagutti

      Hey Seema,

      In your case, it’s look like a web service encoding issue. Try to found out what encoding style(document literal or RPC) that the web services server is using, and If it is using ‘document’ style, then try setting operation.setStyle(org.apache.axis.constants.Style.DOCUMENT) after every operation.setReturnClass(java.lang.String.class);

      If above hint does not work then it could be large attachments were being exchanged through web services….

      Let me know If this help you.