Create Page/Space/Templates Loads Forever Due To WST Timezone Set In Server Installation Date

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

Users are unable to create new pages or spaces in Confluence.

Diagnosis

The following appears in the atlassian-confluence.log at the time when the user tries to create a page or space:

atlassian-confluence.log

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 2015-06-30 13:46:47,543 WARN [http-nio-8090-exec-6] [confluence.setup.bandana.ConfluenceDaoBandanaPersister] getObjectFromValue Configuration could not be loaded because class could not be found (context: _GLOBAL, key: confluence.server.installation.date). com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.ConversionException: Cannot parse date 2014-08-19 10:55:33.956 WST ---- Debugging information ---- path : /date required-type : java.util.Date line number : 1 class : java.util.Date ------------------------------- -- referer: http:/URL/dashboard.action | url: /rest/create-dialog/1.0/blueprints/web-items | userName: user com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.ConversionException: Cannot parse date 2014-08-19 10:55:33.956 WST ---- Debugging information ---- path : /date required-type : java.util.Date line number : 1 class : java.util.Date ------------------------------- at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.basic.DateConverter.fromString(DateConverter.java:48) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.basic.AbstractBasicConverter.unmarshal(AbstractBasicConverter.java:33) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:38) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.convertAnother(ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.java:39) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.start(TreeUnmarshaller.java:99) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.ReferenceByXPathMarshallingStrategy.unmarshal(ReferenceByXPathMarshallingStrategy.java:12) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.unmarshal(XStream.java:549) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.unmarshal(XStream.java:537) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.fromXML(XStream.java:505) at com.atlassian.confluence.setup.bandana.XStreamBandanaSerializer.deserialize(XStreamBandanaSerializer.java:29) at com.atlassian.confluence.setup.bandana.ConfluenceDaoBandanaPersister.getObjectFromValue(ConfluenceDaoBandanaPersister.java:116) at com.atlassian.confluence.setup.bandana.ConfluenceDaoBandanaPersister.retrieve(ConfluenceDaoBandanaPersister.java:32) at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor186.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ................. at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:88) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:518) at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1091) at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:668) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1521) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1478) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Or, after a startup of Confluence, we see the following in the application log:

atlassian-confluence.log

1 2 3 4 -------------------------- Build Information -------------------------- installationDate = null

To diagnose further, run the following query to check whether the installation date value is set in the database:

1  SELECT * FROM BANDANA WHERE BANDANAKEY LIKE 'confluence.server.installation.date';

If a result like the following returns, then we'll need to correct the timezone reference:

1 <date>YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.sss WST</date>

Otherwise, if confluence.server.installation.date is not set and we see a null value ( sample screenshot attached ) , then we'll need to set a date

(Auto-migrated image: description temporarily unavailable)

Cause

If WST is used, it causes a parse error since it is no longer recognized as a valid timezone (See Timezone Data Versions in the JRE Software). If the installation date field is not set, then it wasn't initialized correctly.

Solution

Resolution

Always back up your data before making any database modifications. If possible, test any alter, insert, update, or delete SQL commands on a staging server first.

  1. Stop Confluence.

  2. Run the following query to see your installation date in database:

    1 SELECT * FROM BANDANA WHERE BANDANAKEY LIKE 'confluence.server.installation.date';
  3. If a result similar to <date>YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.sss WST</date> is returned, change the timezone from WST to AWST with the following query:

    1 UPDATE BANDANA SET BANDANAVALUE = '<date>YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.sss AWST</date>' WHERE BANDANAKEY = 'confluence.server.installation.date';

    ℹ️ Replace <date>YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.sss WST</date> with the installation date from the first query and only replace WST to AWST or whichever timezone is applicable.

  4. If no result is returned from the above query, then insert a value into the BANDANA table via the following query:

    1 INSERT INTO bandana(BANDANAID, BANDANACONTEXT, BANDANAKEY, BANDANAVALUE) VALUES (99999, '_GLOBAL', 'confluence.server.installation.date', '<date>2013-10-01 15:45:01.493 SGT</date>');

    ℹ️Modify the date, time, and timezone accordingly

  5. Start Confluence.

Updated on April 2, 2025

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