Confluence Not Able to Startup Due to Windows Read-only Filesystem Attribute
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products 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
Summary
Problem
Even with the full permission on both <Confluence-Home> and <Confluence-Installation> directories, Confluence is not able to be started up with the startup script (start-confluence.bat) on a Windows machine.
The following errors shown in the Tomcat console and nothing is logged in the atlassian-confluence.log
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2015-07-29 23:35:04,131 ERROR [localhost-startStop-1] [atlassian.confluence.setup.DefaultSetupPersister] saveApplicationConfig Error writing state to confluence.cfg.xml
com.atlassian.config.ConfigurationException: Couldn't save confluence.cfg.xml to H:\Atlassian\Application Data\Confluence directory.
at com.atlassian.config.xml.AbstractDom4jXmlConfigurationPersister.saveDocument(AbstractDom4jXmlConfigurationPersister.java:85)
...
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: H:\Atlassian\Application Data\Confluence\confluence.cfg.xml (Access is denied)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open0(Native Method)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Unknown Source)
...
log4j:ERROR setFile(null,true) call failed.java.io.FileNotFoundException: H:\Atlassian\Application Data\Confluence\logs\atlassian-confluence.log (Access is denied)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open0(Native Method)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Unknown Source)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)
...
29-Jul-2015 23:35:19.053 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.start Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8091"]
29-Jul-2015 23:35:22.381 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start Server startup in 30650 ms
...
29-Jul-2015 23:36:34.490 SEVERE [http-nio-8091-exec-1] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.custom Exception Processing ErrorPage[errorCode=500, location=/500page.jsp]
com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference$InitializationException: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference.getInterruptibly(LazyReference.java:149)
at com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference.get(LazyReference.java:112)
at com.atlassian.confluence.plugin.servlet.filter.ServletFilterModuleContainerFilter.getServletModuleManager(ServletFilterModuleContainerFilter.java:23)
...
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.atlassian.spring.container.ContainerManager.getComponent(ContainerManager.java:33)
at com.atlassian.confluence.util.LazyComponentReference$Accessor.get(LazyComponentReference.java:46)Diagnosis
Environment
Windows 7, Windows 8.1
Diagnostic Steps
Navigate to the <Confluence-Home> directory.
Right click on the folder and select Properties and check if the Read-only attributes has been enabled for the <Confluence-Home> directory itself as well as its sub-folders and files.
Cause
This issue occurs due to Windows Read-only filesystem attribute that has been enabled for <Confluence-Home> directory.
Solution
Resolution
Navigate to the <Confluence-Home> directory.
Right click on the folder and select Properties.
Ensure that the Read-only attributes is not ticked and click Apply, then OK to save the changes.
Then try to restart Confluence.
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