Troubleshooting Tip: Remediating EntityNotFoundException: Unable to find com.ph.phoenix.model.cmdb.User with id 180843976

This often happens when:

• The referenced user has been deleted.

• The data is corrupt or out of sync.

• The code assumes the user ID always exists without checking for null or absence.

Initial investigation:

1. Search for the error in phoenix.log:

cat /opt/phoenix/log/phoenix.log | grep -i 180843976

2025-05-02T01:00:03.001009-07:00 [http-listener-2(23)] ERROR com.ph.phoenix.ws.rest.h5.H5RestResource - [PH_APPSERVER_REST_H5_ERROR]:[phCustId]=1,[eventSeverity]=PHL_ERROR,[phEventCategory]=3,[procName]=AppServer,[className]=org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl$JpaEntityNotFoundDelegate,[methodName]=handleEntityNotFound,[lineNumber]=163,[errReason]=Unable to find com.ph.phoenix.model.cmdb.User with id 180843976,[phLogDetail]=HTML5 REST error

This confirms the REST API attempted to retrieve a non-existent user with ID 180843976:

2. Review the Java stack in server.log /opt/glassfish/domain/domain1/logs. The server log will include a full stack trace that ends in:

javax.persistence.EntityNotFoundException: Unable to find com.ph.phoenix.model.cmdb.User with id 180843976

This shows that the exception originated in a backend service through the EJB container and REST endpoint.

Root Cause:

The error occurs when Hibernate attempts to eagerly load a reference to a user ID that doesn’t exist in the database, typically through a @ManyToOne or @OneToOne mapping (e.g., manager_id pointing to a user that has been removed). 

Recommended Fix:

1. Check if the user exists in the DB:

 psql phoenixdb phoenix -c 'select * from ph_user;' | grep -E " id |180843976"

ph_user table

This confirms whether the user exists and where the ID might be referenced (e.g., in the manager_id field).

2. Clear references to the missing user: In Step 1 of the recommended fix,  the missing user ID is associated with the manager_id field. To resolve this, set manager_id to NULL for any records referencing the deleted user. This will prevent EntityNotFoundException errors when loading entities that reference the missing user.

psql phoenixdb phoenix -c "update ph_user set manager_id=NULL where manager_id=180843976;"
UPDATE 1

Summary:

This issue stems from a missing database record being accessed as though it exists. The fix involves:

• Identifying the reference.

• Cleaning up invalid foreign keys.

• Ensuring future code accounts for possible missing entities.