JIRA WAR Fails to Start due to Invalid or Unreadable WAR File
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
Running startup.bat / startup.sh in Tomcat/bin to start JIRA, the startup window shows up and disappears quickly.
The following appears in the Tomcat/logs/catalina.YYYY-MM-dd.log:
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SEVERE: Exception fixing docBase for context [/jira621]
java.io.FileNotFoundException: <path/to/WAR/file> (The system cannot find the path specified)
at java.util.zip.ZipFile.open(Native Method)
at java.util.zip.ZipFile.<init>(Unknown Source)
at java.util.jar.JarFile.<init>(Unknown Source)
at java.util.jar.JarFile.<init>(Unknown Source)
...
SEVERE: Error starting static Resources
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid or unreadable WAR file : <path/to/WAR/file>
...
SEVERE: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/jira621]]
...
SEVERE: The required Server component failed to start so Tomcat is unable to start.
org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardServer[2345]]
...
WARNING: Failed to retrieve JNDI naming context for container [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/jira621]] so no cleanup was performed for that container
javax.naming.NamingException: No naming context bound to this class loader
Cause
The WAR file might not have been built.
The WAR file might have become corrupted.
The WAR file might have been moved to somewhere else and the docBase attribute in
Tomcat/conf/server.xmlis pointing to an invalid path.
Resolution
Build the WAR file by running
JIRA_WAR/build.bat(Windows) orJIRA_WAR/build.sh(Linux).Rebuild the WAR file by following these steps:
Delete the folders
dist-generic, dist-tomcat, tmpfromJIRA_WARdirectoryRun
JIRA_WAR/build.bat(Windows) orJIRA_WAR/build.sh(Linux)
Check
Tomcat/conf/server.xmland make sure the docBase attribute (insideContexttag) is pointing to a valid path (usuallyJIRA_WAR/dist-generic/atlassian-jira-x.y.z.war).
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