diff --git a/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/bdb/BdbModule.java b/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/bdb/BdbModule.java
index 8d6ca0c4..ddb4591a 100644
--- a/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/bdb/BdbModule.java
+++ b/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/bdb/BdbModule.java
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ Serializable, Closeable {
         
     }
 
-    protected ConfigPath dir = new ConfigPath("state subdirectory","state");
+    protected ConfigPath dir = new ConfigPath("bdbmodule subdirectory","state");
     public ConfigPath getDir() {
         return dir;
     }
@@ -315,7 +315,12 @@ Serializable, Closeable {
     
     public Database openDatabase(String name, BdbConfig config, 
             boolean recycle) 
-    throws DatabaseException {        
+    throws DatabaseException {
+        if(!isRunning()) {
+            // proper initialization hasn't occurred
+            throw new IllegalStateException(
+                    "BdbModule not started; as a Lifecycle bean it must not be an inner bean.");
+        }
         if (databases.containsKey(name)) {
             throw new IllegalStateException("Database already exists: " +name);
         }
@@ -584,8 +589,10 @@ Serializable, Closeable {
     
     public void close() {
         close2();
-        Runtime.getRuntime().removeShutdownHook(shutdownHook);
-        shutdownHook = null; 
+        if(shutdownHook!=null) {
+            Runtime.getRuntime().removeShutdownHook(shutdownHook);
+            shutdownHook = null; 
+        }
     }
     
     @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlController.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlController.java
index 0b3e07a0..00faad22 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlController.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlController.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import java.io.PrintWriter;
 import java.io.Serializable;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.util.LinkedList;
+import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
 
 import org.archive.crawler.event.CrawlStateEvent;
@@ -368,7 +369,11 @@ implements Serializable,
 
         LOGGER.fine("Finished crawl.");
 
-        appCtx.stop(); 
+        try {
+            appCtx.stop(); 
+        } catch (RuntimeException re) {
+            LOGGER.log(Level.SEVERE,re.getMessage(),re);
+        }
         // Ok, now we are ready to exit.
         sendCrawlStateChangeEvent(State.FINISHED, this.sExit);
     }
diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlJob.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlJob.java
index 8b0f8c51..136c6d03 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlJob.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlJob.java
@@ -76,7 +76,10 @@ import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
  * 
  * @contributor gojomo
  */
-public class CrawlJob implements Comparable<CrawlJob>, ApplicationListener{
+public class CrawlJob implements Comparable<CrawlJob>, ApplicationListener {
+    private final static Logger LOGGER =
+        Logger.getLogger(CrawlJob.class.getName());
+
     File primaryConfig; 
     PathSharingContext ac; 
     int launchCount; 
@@ -401,7 +404,10 @@ public class CrawlJob implements Comparable<CrawlJob>, ApplicationListener{
         Thread launcher = new Thread(alertThreadGroup, getShortName()+" launchthread") {
             public void run() {
                 startContext();
-                getCrawlController().requestCrawlStart();
+                CrawlController cc = getCrawlController();
+                if(cc!=null) {
+                    cc.requestCrawlStart();
+                }
             }
         };
         getJobLogger().log(Level.INFO,"Job launched");
@@ -426,8 +432,7 @@ public class CrawlJob implements Comparable<CrawlJob>, ApplicationListener{
             ac = null; 
             beansException(be);
         } catch (Exception e) {
-            e.printStackTrace(System.err);
-            getJobLogger().log(Level.SEVERE,e.getMessage(),e);
+            LOGGER.log(Level.SEVERE,e.getClass().getSimpleName()+": "+e.getMessage(),e);
             try {
                 ac.close();
             } catch (Exception e2) {
diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/AbstractFrontier.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/AbstractFrontier.java
index 487469c2..e3b0155e 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/AbstractFrontier.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/AbstractFrontier.java
@@ -566,7 +566,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractFrontier
                 } catch (RuntimeException e) {
                     // log, try to pause, continue
                     logger.log(Level.SEVERE,"",e);
-                    if(targetState!=State.PAUSE) {
+                    if(targetState!=State.PAUSE && targetState!=State.FINISH) {
                         requestState(State.PAUSE);
                     }
                 }
diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/reporting/StatisticsTracker.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/reporting/StatisticsTracker.java
index da3a88b1..c766edc7 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/reporting/StatisticsTracker.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/reporting/StatisticsTracker.java
@@ -896,7 +896,11 @@ public class StatisticsTracker
         //controller.addOrderToManifest();
         
         for(Class<Report> reportClass : END_REPORTS) {
-            writeReportFile(reportClass);
+            try {
+                writeReportFile(reportClass);
+            } catch (RuntimeException re) {
+                logger.log(Level.SEVERE, re.getMessage(), re);
+            }
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/recrawl/PersistOnlineProcessor.java b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/recrawl/PersistOnlineProcessor.java
index 72449571..590c6261 100644
--- a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/recrawl/PersistOnlineProcessor.java
+++ b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/recrawl/PersistOnlineProcessor.java
@@ -98,15 +98,8 @@ implements Lifecycle {
         if (!isRunning()) {
             return;
         }
-        try {
-            historyDb.sync();
-            historyDb.close();
-        } catch (DatabaseException e) {
-            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
-            throw new RuntimeException(e);
-        } finally {
-            historyDb = null; 
-        }
+        bdb.closeDatabase(historyDb);
+        historyDb = null;
     }
 
 }
\ No newline at end of file