Servlet: "Spy" failed to preload on startup in Web application: "dms.war"

Strange case today:

Newly created domain, Admin starting with "DMS Application" in failed state, logs show:

<29.May.2013 11:48:26 AM CEST> <Error> <HTTP> <BEA-101216> <Servlet: "Spy" failed to preload on startup in Web application: "dms.war".
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: config=oracle.dms.config.DumpConfig@41755a16 logDir=null agency=oracle.dms.reporter.SpyAgency@7f6d7bec dmsTimer=java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor@6ce3044f
 at oracle.dms.impl.producer.Dumper.<init>(Dumper.java:100)
 at oracle.dms.app.DomainInitializer.init(DomainInitializer.java:151)
 at oracle.dms.app.BaseInitializer.getInitializer(BaseInitializer.java:360)
 at oracle.dms.app.DmsSpy.init(DmsSpy.java:210)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletInitAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:283)
 at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321)
 at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(SecurityManager.java:120)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.createServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:64)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubLifecycleHelper.createOneInstance(StubLifecycleHelper.java:58)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubLifecycleHelper.<init>(StubLifecycleHelper.java:48)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.prepareServlet(ServletStubImpl.java:539)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadServlet(WebAppServletContext.java:1985)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.loadServletsOnStartup(WebAppServletContext.java:1959)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadResources(WebAppServletContext.java:1878)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.start(WebAppServletContext.java:3153)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.startContexts(WebAppModule.java:1508)
 at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.start(WebAppModule.java:482)
 at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver$3.next(ModuleStateDriver.java:425)
 at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:52)
 at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver.start(ModuleStateDriver.java:119)
 at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ScopedModuleDriver.start(ScopedModuleDriver.java:200)
 at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleListenerInvoker.start(ModuleListenerInvoker.java:247)
 at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver$3.next(ModuleStateDriver.java:425)
 at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:52)
 at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver.start(ModuleStateDriver.java:119)
 at weblogic.application.internal.flow.StartModulesFlow.activate(StartModulesFlow.java:27)
 at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment$2.next(BaseDeployment.java:636)
 at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:52)
 at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment.activate(BaseDeployment.java:205)
 at weblogic.application.internal.SingleModuleDeployment.activate(SingleModuleDeployment.java:43)
 at weblogic.application.internal.DeploymentStateChecker.activate(DeploymentStateChecker.java:161)
 at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.AppContainerInvoker.activate(AppContainerInvoker.java:79)
 at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.BasicDeployment.activate(BasicDeployment.java:184)
 at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.BasicDeployment.activateFromServerLifecycle(BasicDeployment.java:361)
 at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentAdapter$1.doActivate(DeploymentAdapter.java:51)
 at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentAdapter.activate(DeploymentAdapter.java:200)
 at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.AppTransition$2.transitionApp(AppTransition.java:30)
 at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.ConfiguredDeployments.transitionApps(ConfiguredDeployments.java:240)
 at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.ConfiguredDeployments.activate(ConfiguredDeployments.java:169)
 at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.ConfiguredDeployments.deploy(ConfiguredDeployments.java:123)
 at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentServerService.resume(DeploymentServerService.java:180)
 at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentServerService.start(DeploymentServerService.java:96)
 at weblogic.t3.srvr.SubsystemRequest.run(SubsystemRequest.java:64)
 at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:209)
 at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:178)
> 

After digging into the code, we discovered that setting in the Java properties a -Doracle.server.log.dir=/path/to/a/valid/directory fixed the issue.

Still investigating what is the trouble. We checked that -Doracle.server.config.dir and -Doracle.domain.config.dir are present, /opt/oracle/fmw11_1_1_5/oracle_common/modules/oracle.dms_11.1.1/dms.war is OK, and that dms_config.xml is OK