Getting HTTP Status 503 on glassfish after deployment - jsf

Question

Here's the scanario... i have a glassfish server runnung my app on EC2, i configured a virtual server on glassfish for one of my domains (lets say mydomain.com) and this same virtual server has a default web module (lets say "myapp").
it works like a charm, when i access www.mydomain.com i get the login screen for my app, as it should be... no need to access www.mydomain.com/myapp (/myapp is the default context path for myapp).
But here's the thing; after i do a new deployment of my WAR file i can't access my app. if i type www.mydomain.com on the browser and press ENTER, the server gives me an "HTTP Status 503" however, if a access www.mydomain.com/myapp y can see my login page.
this problem goes away after i do a "sudo service glassfish restart" but as you might think, restarting the app server after every deployment is a pain, and btw, this is not the only app i'm running here, so... restarting glassfish just shuts down all apps and pisses off all users.
I'm deploying from Netbeans but i get the same result deploying from command line (asadmin).
i tried google but the notes i found didn't help.
is this a glassfish config problem?
am i missing a step after deployment?
for reference, i'm using: jsf 2.1, primefaces 3.2, jasper reports 4.6 (with required dependencies), mysql connector, glassfish server ose 3.1.2.2
i'll appreciate any help.
thanks.

Answer 1

Looks like Im shooting in the dark but here it goes.
In most cases, HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable indicates that the App Server / Tomcat Server was not communicating well with the Web server, normally Apache.
Whats interesting is that when you sudo restart, it works, ITs a good indication of permissions of the filesystems. If you have deployed as a normal user but you have set up the server as root, this might just be the problem.
Yes, its a config problem & more. Try checking the file permissions & assign users to each process & make them play well.
Let me know if you could share some errors / logs, it would be helpful.