When running the QA tests in automation, the first test in the test suite fails because of an HTTP error 500 (see also attachment):
HTTP Status 500 -
type Exception report
message
description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.
exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot$ViewMap.clear(UIViewRoot.java:1779)
com.sun.faces.config.InitFacesContext.release(InitFacesContext.java:239)
javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:577)
note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/6.0.26 logs.
In tomcat log, the error is:
17-Dec-2012 4:14:08 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet Faces Servlet threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
at javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot$ViewMap.clear(UIViewRoot.java:1779)
at com.sun.faces.config.InitFacesContext.release(InitFacesContext.java:239)
at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:577)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:298)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:852)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:588)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:489)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

This error is not an issue when deploying/testing manually.