Alarm logger: First check parameters, incl. help, then start app

[kasemir]

Fixes part of #2277 where calling alarm logger with -help just to see parameters will result in trying to start tomcat, connect to ports etc., and error messages then clobber the -help that one wanted to see

[shroffk]

This makes sense.
Currently, I have a lot of changes on the elastic8 branch.... I am hoping that at next weeks monthly meeting I can get the green light for all sites and merge that into master. I will cherry pick these changes onto that branch too and hope it does not cause conflicts :)