JIRA Won't Start or Fail To Shutdown Due to org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester fatalError
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 fails to start due to org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester fatalError
The following appears in the atlassian-jira.log:
1
JIRA fails to start due to org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester fatalErrorSome example of the logs:
1
2
3
org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester fatalError
SEVERE: Parse Fatal Error at line 133 column 53: The reference to entity "e" must end with the ';' delimiter.
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The reference to entity "e" must end with the ';' delimiter.
1
2
3
org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester fatalError
严重: Parse Fatal Error at line 129 column 22: The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data or markup.
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data or markup.
Cause
This happen because the server.xml is broken. Some possibility are:
invalid character
reserved character like "&" is used in the password and not escape properly
lines not closed properly
Resolution
check the server.xml for the specific line thrown by the logs
fix the server.xml
ℹ️ info is good
Was this helpful?