[LON-CAPA-admin] will not initialize role

[James Mueller]

This year, I have had a lot of instructors complaining that they log  
into our loncapa server but when they select a role (course  
coordinator, instructor, etc) for their course, it is unable to  
initialize the role.  I have occasionally noticed this myself this  
term.  Sometimes, if I select a role from a previous course and then  
logout and login again it is fine.  Sometimes I just go away and get a  
cup of coffee and later it is fine.  Sometimes I just say the hell  
with it and reboot the server.  Of course, now that it is behind a  
firewall, I have to be physically present to do that.  As you can tell  
from this, it is an intermittent problem and solutions are not  
reproducible.  Has anybody seen anything like his before?

We are running 2.8.1

-Jim