Jira server fails to start with Could not create necessary subdirectory error
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
Symptoms
JIRA is unable to startup. You may see a message like the following in the browser:
JIRA Startup Failed
Unable to create and acquire lock file for jira.home directory '/var/atlassian/application-data/jira'.
The following appears in the atlassian-jira.log:
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2012-12-20 00:58:11,503 localhost-startStop-1 INFO [atlassian.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger] Running JIRA startup checks.
2012-12-20 00:58:11,576 localhost-startStop-1 FATAL [atlassian.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger]
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Could not create necessary subdirectory 'caches/indexes' of jira.home.
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2012-12-20 00:58:11,584 localhost-startStop-1 FATAL [atlassian.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger] Startup check failed. JIRA will be locked.
2012-12-20 00:58:13,185 localhost-startStop-1 ERROR [jira.web.dispatcher.JiraWebworkActionDispatcher]
ℹ️ The directory name may be different the above, however it is still the same cause.
OR
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2014-06-11 23:03:02,590 localhost-startStop-1 FATAL [atlassian.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger]
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Could not create jira.home directory 'S:\Captain Planet\JIRA\Application Data\JIRA6.2.3'. Please see https://docs.atlassian.com/jira/docs-062/Setting+your+JIRA+Home+Directory for more information on how to set up your JIRA home directory.
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2014-06-11 23:03:02,595 localhost-startStop-1 WARN [atlassian.jira.startup.ChecklistLauncher] Setting an unset default variable "plugin.webresource.batching.off" to: false
2014-06-11 23:03:02,596 localhost-startStop-1 INFO [atlassian.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger] Running JIRA startup checks.
2014-06-11 23:03:02,596 localhost-startStop-1 FATAL [atlassian.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger] Startup check failed. JIRA will be locked.
Cause
The user that is running JIRA does not have the appropriate file system permissions to create the specified directory.
Resolution
Stop JIRA.
Ensure that the user running JIRA has the appropriate permissions (read/write/execute) to the specified directory. They can be fixed with the following (this assumes the user running JIRA is the default
jirauser).Expand for Linux instructions...
These instructions refer to the default user, group & installation paths for JIRA, as if it were installed using the bundled installer. If you're unsure of what these permissions should be, please consult with your System Administrator and the user who installed JIRA.
1 2mkdir /<JIRA-home-path>/caches/indexes sudo chown -R jira:jira /<JIRA-home-path>/caches/indexesExpand for Windows instructions...
Create the <JIRA-home-path>/
caches/indexesdirectory and then refer to this Techotopia documentation for further information on how to configure the permissions.Start JIRA. This process may need to be repeated for any other directories.
If this is a new installation of JIRA, ensure it is being installed with an Administration user and the installer is also run as an Administrator.
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