I'm running 2 tomcat (5.0.18) instances with Simple TCP Clustering on the same Solaris 9 server, there are multiple web applications need to be clustered. When starting up the secondary tomcat, there is only one webapp receives the session state while all others wait 60 seconds and time out. The strange thing is which web app can successfully receive the session state seems to be random, I have seen different web app reports receiving session state, but never more than one of them at one time . Once tomcat is started, the session replication just works fine even for those application reports time out during startup. I can always kill the tomcat which is serving the user session, the other tomcat takes control without losing any user input. It's very annoying that because each instance time out 60s the secondary tomcat always takes a few minutes to start up. I have been looking into this for a whole week without any clue :( Any help is appreciated

All web app needs to be clustered has <distributable /> in their web.xml
Here's the cluster configuration in server.xml

        <Cluster className="org.apache.catalina.cluster.tcp.SimpleT cpCluster"
                  name="FilipsCluster"
                  debug="10"
                  serviceclass="org.apache.catalina.cluster.mcast.Mc astService"
                  mcastAddr="228.0.0.8" ##same mcastAddr on the other tomcat
                  mcastPort="45565" ##same mcastPort on the other tomcat
                  mcastFrequency="500"
                  mcastDropTime="3000"
                  tcpThreadCount="6"
                  tcpListenAddress="auto"
                  tcpListenPort="4001" ##Using port 4002 on the other tomcat since both instance on the same server
                  tcpSelectorTimeout="100"
                  printToScreen="false"
                  expireSessionsOnShutdown="false"
                  useDirtyFlag="true"
                  replicationMode="pooled"
        />

The following is the start up log from catalina.out
... ( following seems telling multicast works fine, tomcat joins the cluster member ship )
INFO: Cluster is about to start
Oct 24, 2005 5:01:57 PM org.apache.catalina.cluster.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster start
INFO: Sleeping for 2000 secs to establish cluster membership
Oct 24, 2005 5:01:57 PM org.apache.catalina.cluster.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster memberAdded
INFO: Replication member added:org.apache.catalina.cluster.mcast.McastMembe r[tcp://206.47.63.195:4001,206.47.63.195,4001, alive=38841]

.... ( following is a webapp /comstg which fails to receive session state in 60s)
INFO: Processing Context configuration file URL file:/app/ufs2/UfsServer/tomcat/conf/Catalina/localhost/comstg.xml
Oct 24, 2005 5:02:09 PM org.apache.catalina.cluster.session.DeltaManager start
INFO: Starting clustering manager...:/comstg
Oct 24, 2005 5:02:09 PM org.apache.catalina.cluster.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster messageDataReceived
WARNING: Context manager doesn't exist:/comqa
Oct 24, 2005 5:02:09 PM org.apache.catalina.cluster.session.DeltaManager start
WARNING: Manager[/comstg], requesting session state from org.apache.catalina.cluster.mcast.McastMember[tcp://206.47.63.195:4001,206.47.63.195,4001, alive=38841]. This operation will timeout if no session state has been received within 60 seconds
Oct 24, 2005 5:03:10 PM org.apache.catalina.cluster.session.DeltaManager start
SEVERE: Manager[/comstg], No session state received, timing out.

... ( following is a webapp /comqa which successfully receives session state in 106ms)
INFO: Processing Context configuration file URL file:/app/ufs2/UfsServer/tomcat/conf/Catalina/localhost/comqa.xml
Oct 24, 2005 5:03:17 PM org.apache.catalina.cluster.session.DeltaManager start
INFO: Starting clustering manager...:/comqa
Oct 24, 2005 5:03:17 PM org.apache.catalina.cluster.session.DeltaManager start
WARNING: Manager[/comqa], requesting session state from org.apache.catalina.cluster.mcast.McastMember[tcp://206.47.63.195:4001,206.47.63.195,4001, alive=38841]. This operation will timeout if no session state has been received within 60 seconds
Oct 24, 2005 5:03:17 PM org.apache.catalina.cluster.session.DeltaManager start
INFO: Manager[/comqa], session state received in 106 ms.