Tomcat Fails to Start
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
Tomcat fails to start with the following error: "The system could not find the environment option that was entered."
Symptoms
The following appears in Tomcat logs (commons-daemon*.log):
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[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [info] Commons Daemon procrun (1.0.5.0 32-bit) started
[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [info] Running 'Confluence' Service...
[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [info] Starting service...
[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [error] CreateJavaVM Failed
[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [error] The system could not find the environment option that was entered.
Diagnosis
The error most probably occurs upon startup in a Windows environment with Tomcat application server, after modifying JAVA_OPTS (system properties).
Cause
In most cases, the root cause is having a Java System Property that is not recognized by Tomcat.
Solution
Resolution
Please review the Recognized System Properties page for more information about accepted properties, and fix your startup configuration accordingly.
The issue can happen when you try to specify the
-serverproperty when the<JAVA-HOME>/jre/bin/server/jvm.dllis being used as the JVM. Technically these two settings are redundant, thus the-serverparameter is rejected and startup fails.
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