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To reproduce: 1. register 8.1 instance. 2. create a web app. 3. use Debug Project item from the right-click menu 4. wait for the the page to appear in the browser. 5. switch to runtime explorer 6. expand app server instance.. (notice the square/triangle badge on the instance node... means instance is running in debug mode) 7. open the properties of the JVMs subnode. The DebugEnabled properties value is false. Refreshing the server node doesn't update the value, either.
The debug flag can be overwritten by the start-domain -debug option. This does not change the flag in domaim.xml by design of the as-admin command. So bottom line: lauching the server in debug mode, just follows the asadmin convention. Closing as not a bug. If the flag is manually turned on, every start domain will be in debug mode. The IDE could attach if needed.