IGNITE-11406 NullPointerException may occur on client start

modules/core/src/main/java/org/apache/ignite/internal/processors/cache/GridCacheProcessor.java

@@ -4416,6 +4416,13 @@ public <K, V> IgniteInternalCache<K, V> utilityCache() {
      * @return Cache.
      */
     private <K, V> IgniteInternalCache<K, V> internalCacheEx(String name) {
+        try {
+            awaitStarted();
+        }
+        catch (IgniteCheckedException e) {
+            throw U.convertException(e);
+        }
+
         if (ctx.discovery().localNode().isClient()) {
             IgniteCacheProxy<K, V> proxy = (IgniteCacheProxy<K, V>)jcacheProxy(name, true);
 

modules/core/src/test/java/org/apache/ignite/internal/processors/cache/CacheReadBeforeActivationTest.java

@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.ignite.internal.processors.cache;
+
+import java.io.Serializable;
+import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import org.apache.ignite.IgniteCheckedException;
+import org.apache.ignite.Ignition;
+import org.apache.ignite.cluster.ClusterNode;
+import org.apache.ignite.configuration.IgniteConfiguration;
+import org.apache.ignite.internal.GridKernalContext;
+import org.apache.ignite.internal.IgniteEx;
+import org.apache.ignite.internal.processors.cluster.IgniteChangeGlobalStateSupport;
+import org.apache.ignite.internal.util.typedef.internal.U;
+import org.apache.ignite.lang.IgniteCallable;
+import org.apache.ignite.plugin.AbstractTestPluginProvider;
+import org.apache.ignite.testframework.junits.common.GridCommonAbstractTest;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+/**
+ * Tests that caches could not be accessed before activation.
+ */
+public class CacheReadBeforeActivationTest extends GridCommonAbstractTest {
+    /** Activation latch.*/
+    private CountDownLatch latch;
+
+    /** {@inheritDoc} */
+    @Override protected IgniteConfiguration getConfiguration(String igniteInstanceName) throws Exception {
+        final IgniteConfiguration cfg = super.getConfiguration(igniteInstanceName);
+
+        cfg.setPluginProviders(new DelayedActivationPluginProvider());
+
+        return cfg;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Tests that reading from the utility system cache waits until activation finished.
+     * Scenario:
+     *  <ul>
+     *      <li>Start a server node.</li>
+     *      <li>Start a client node with the plugin provider delaying activation.</li>
+     *      <li>Run a job on the client node that reads from the utility cache.</li>
+     *  </ul>
+     *
+     * @throws Exception If failed.
+     */
+    @Test
+    public void readUtilityCacheBeforeActivationFinished() throws Exception {
+        IgniteEx ignite = startGrid(0);
+
+        latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
+
+        multithreadedAsync(() -> startClientGrid(1), 1);
+
+        latch.await(1, TimeUnit.MINUTES);
+
+        // try to access the utility cache before activation finished and starting exchange on the client node.
+        ignite.compute(ignite.cluster().forClients()).call(new IgniteCallable<Object>() {
+            @Override public Object call() throws Exception {
+                return ((IgniteEx)Ignition.localIgnite()).context().cache().utilityCache().get("1");
+            }
+        });
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Plugin provider delaying activation.
+     */
+    private class DelayedActivationPluginProvider extends AbstractTestPluginProvider implements IgniteChangeGlobalStateSupport {
+        /** {@inheritDoc} */
+        @Override public String name() {
+            return "testPlugin";
+        }
+
+        /** {@inheritDoc} */
+        @Override public void validateNewNode(ClusterNode node, Serializable data) {
+        }
+
+        /** {@inheritDoc} */
+        @Override public void onActivate(GridKernalContext kctx) throws IgniteCheckedException {
+            if (latch != null)
+                latch.countDown();
+
+            U.sleep(2_000);
+        }
+
+        /** {@inheritDoc} */
+        @Override public void onDeActivate(GridKernalContext kctx) {
+        }
+    }
+}

modules/core/src/test/java/org/apache/ignite/testsuites/IgniteCacheTestSuite9.java

@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 import org.apache.ignite.internal.metric.SystemViewComputeJobTest;
 import org.apache.ignite.internal.metric.SystemViewSelfTest;
 import org.apache.ignite.internal.processors.cache.CachePutIfAbsentTest;
+import org.apache.ignite.internal.processors.cache.CacheReadBeforeActivationTest;
 import org.apache.ignite.internal.processors.cache.GridCacheDataTypesCoverageTest;
 import org.apache.ignite.internal.processors.cache.GridCacheLongRunningTransactionDiagnosticsTest;
 import org.apache.ignite.internal.processors.cache.GridCacheVersionGenerationWithCacheStorageTest;
@@ -141,6 +142,8 @@ public static List<Class<?>> suite(Collection<Class> ignoredTests) {
 
         GridTestUtils.addTestIfNeeded(suite, RebalanceStatisticsTest.class, ignoredTests);
 
+        GridTestUtils.addTestIfNeeded(suite, CacheReadBeforeActivationTest.class, ignoredTests);
+
         return suite;
     }
 }