Cannot register Confluence due to 'License you Entered was not Valid' error

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Symptoms

If this happens, please check your logs. The following message may appear in atlassian-confluence.log:

2006-03-19 16:32:05,969 ERROR [atlassian.license.decoder.LicenseDecoder] String) Exception looking up public key: null java.security.spec.InvalidKeySpecException at gnu.java.security.provider.DSAKeyFactory.engineGeneratePublic(java.security.spec.KeySpec) (/usr/lib/libgcj.so.6.0.0) at java.security.KeyFactory.generatePublic(java.security.spec.KeySpec) (/usr/lib/libgcj.so.6.0.0) at com.atlassian.license.decoder.LicenseDecoder.getPublicKey(java.lang.String) (Unknown Source) at com.atlassian.license.decoder.LicenseDecoder.getLicense(com.atlassian.license.LicensePair, java.lang.String) (Unknown Source) at com.atlassian.license.LicenseManager.setLicense(java.lang.String, java.lang.String) (Unknown Source) at com.atlassian.confluence.setup.actions.SetupLicenseAction.validateLicense() (Unknown Source) at com.atlassian.confluence.setup.actions.SetupLicenseAction.validate() (Unknown Source)

Cause

You are most likely using GCJ/Kaffe or another unsupported JDK/JRE, which sometimes has problems running Confluence.

Resolution

  • Use Oracle's JDK distribution.

Updated on September 25, 2025

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