Lotus Connections not starting ? LDAP OK ? Check DB2 ...

I couldn't work out why my beloved Connections 2.0.1 server was refusing to start this morning. I knew that LDAP was OK, because I was logged into Portal, which shares the same Domino 8.5 directory.

I stopped/started WAS, but to no avail. However, when I looked at SystemErr.log and SystemOut.log, the error became clear: -

[07/07/09 09:40:15:393 BST] 00000024 SystemErr     R Exception in thread "Timer-7" java.lang.RuntimeException: com.ibatis.dao.client.DaoException: com.ibm.websphere.ce.cm.StaleConnectionException: [ibm][db2][jcc][t4][2043][11550] Exception java.net.ConnectException: Error opening socket to server localhost/127.0.0.1 on port 60,000 with message: Connection refused.DSRA0010E: SQL State = null, Error Code = -4,499

In my particular case, DB2 UDB was installed on the same box, and we'd performed a shutdown/restart over the weekend, in order to take a backup.

Despite my best intentions, DB2 wasn't set to autostart ( see here ), so .... quelle surprise, it hadn't automatically started, as the error message clearly indicates.

Once I started DB2 and started WAS ( again ), all was well :-)