Jira does not start after modifying the web.xml files
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
JIRA is not starting even after displaying the following messages in the application and catalina.out log
catalina.out
1
17-Apr-2019 13:18:17.236 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start Server startup in 131668 msDiagnosis
Diagnostic Steps
After verifying the application log, we can notice that the web.xml file is modified with the message Modified Files: WEB-INF/web.xml. While we know that the file has been modified, to troubleshoot further we can add the following logging to gather additional information
Modify the logging.properties file in <jira_home>/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/ and add the following. This would enable catalina to log additional information while parsing the web.xml file
1
2
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].level = TRACE
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].handlers = java.util.logging.ConsoleHandlerCause
We noticed after enabling the above logging that web.xml file had some additional filters from older JIRA version added which did not have the corresponding class files in the newer version. An error message similar to below would be seen. Then those filters identified by the log can be removed from the web.xml file.
1
2
17-Apr-2019 13:17:53.129 SEVERE [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.filterStart Exception starting filter [prevent-ie-accept-css-vulnerability]
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Solution
Resolution
Do not modify the web.xml file under <jira_installation>/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/ unless there is a need for it or replace it from a different version of JIRA.
Was this helpful?