Fun and Games installing SCA Module into BPM Advanced 8.5.5 - A Few Lessons Learned

I saw a lot of this yesterday: -

ADMA5014E: The installation of application HelloWorld15 failed.

when trying/failing to install an EAR file containing a SCA module into BPM Advanced 8.5.5, using Jython - AdminApp.install.

During the process, I also saw this: -

[04/11/15 12:03:33:325 GMT] 00000058 ConfigInfoImp W   NMSV0819W: No deployments directory found for application.  Ignoring applicat
ion "Foobar101".

which proved to be very important.

Long story very short, there was a complex interlock between the application that I was trying to install ( let's call it HelloWorld15 ) and an application that had been (a) installed and not fully removed or (b) mis-installed - let's call it Foobar101.

This manifested in files being left on the Deployment Manager, but ONLY on the Deployment Manager in these locations: -

/opt/ibm/WebSphereProfiles/PSCell1Dmgr01/config/cells/PSCell1/applications/Foobar101.ear

/opt/ibm/WebSphereProfiles/PSCell1Dmgr01/config/temp/download/cells/PSCell1/applications/Foobar101.ear

/opt/ibm/WebSphereProfiles/PSCell1Dmgr01/wstemp/-1414776397/workspace/cells/PSCell1/applications/Foobar101.ear

/opt/ibm/WebSphereProfiles/PSCell1Dmgr01/wstemp/Script150cd305f5f/workspace/cells/PSCell1/applications/Foobar101.ear

Once I eliminated these, and checked that there were no remaining references to Foobar101 anywhere in the Deployment Manager's file-system ( ./config or ./wstemp ), and also that the Node had no "knowledge" of Foobar101, the installation completed without a murmur.

Which is nice.

These two IBM Technotes surely helped: -

A NullPointerException occurs when attempting to install a SCA module to a BPM server

A NullPointerException occurs with IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) when trying to install an SCA application to a Process Server

The second Technote says it oh so well: -

<snip>

When BPEL templates need to be installed for an application, the product first checks the existing installed enterprise archive (EAR) files for applications that contain a previous version of the same template. To accomplish this task, it looks for certain files in the deployments directory for the application. When this directory is missing for any application, a nullpointer exception is thrown, which causes the application installation to fail. 
It is possible to save the configuration workspace rather than discard the changes after a failed installation. However, saving the configuration workspace after a failed installation can create a application EAR directory that only contains a few files and is missing the deployments directory. The application EAR directories are located in the
profile_root\config\cells\cell_name\applications\ directory.

Note: The invalid application directory might not be related to the current application that is being installed; it might have been created a while ago.

</snip>