JIRA Will not Start Due to The BASEDIR environment variable is not defined 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 will not start and the the following appears on the command line:
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root@server1]# /opt/atlassian/jira/bin/start-jira.sh
To run JIRA in the foreground, start the server with start-jira.sh -fg
executing using dedicated user: jira1
The BASEDIR environment variable is not defined
This environment variable is needed to run this programCause
The CATALINA_HOME environment variable is defined for the user running JIRA.
Resolution
Unset the CATALINA_HOME environment variable and remove it from any profile scripts (e.g. ~/.profile, ~/.bashrc) and start JIRA again.
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