Unable to start Confluence using an Ansible Tower job
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
Atlassian applications allow the use of automation tools with our products; however, Atlassian Support does not provide assistance for configuring them, and consequently, Atlassian cannot guarantee to provide any support for them.
If assistance with configuration is required, please raise a question on the Atlassian Community.
While attempting to automate the Confluence startup using an Ansible Tower job, the application can't be reached and the process is not running after the job is executed.
Environment
The Ansible playbook has a task like this:
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- name: Run Confluence startup script
shell: sh <CONFLUENCE-INSTALL>/bin/start-confluence.shDiagnosis
Standard Out screen on Ansible Tower shows Tomcat has started
No errors in Standard Error
catalina.out and atlassian-confluence.log are not updated after the job is executed
The Confluence process is not running on the host and not responding to browser requests after the job is executed
Cause
As covered in this forum discussion, running the startup scripts through an Ansible job can lead to this behavior. Although the topic is focused on Tomcat, the Confluence startup uses the same scripts:
Solution
Create the Confluence service on the host as follows:
Then, edit the Ansible playbook to use the systemd module to start the service:
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- name: Start the Confluence service if stopped
systemd: name=confluence state=startedMore details on this module can be found here:
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