This is something that was encountered in IPA when pviktorin attempted to clone an instance where the diectory manager password had been removed from password.conf. Because IPA uses a client cert to connect to the DB, the password is not needed. The clone attempts to contact the master to get config entries from CS.cfg etc. If the password is missing, it adds a null value to the XML structure it returns, resulting in a NPE when the XML Object is serialized. This exception is sadly swallowed up. Needs a null check for the values .. Please review, Ade