Crowd is not starting
Asked by Dana Shankar:

crowd version is 2.9.1. crowd was accidentally started as root, so stopped crowd logging in as root, then tried to start crowd as crowdadm and it is not starting now.


Answers:
author: AnnWorley
body: Hi Dana,

Please check the logs from:

* \<crowd-home\>/logs
* \<crowd-install\>/apache-tomcat/logs

Startup errors are usually pretty self explanatory, hopefully you can find a helpful entry. If you see a message indicating a port is already in use, make sure Crowd has shut down completely before restarting.

Since you started Crowd as root, please double check that the crowdadm user still has full permissions on the Crowd Home and Crowd Install folders.

comments: author: Dana Shankar
body: Hi Ann,

Thanks for the prompt reply. The logs are not getting updated. I have checked the permissions and owners, it is good. I changed the owner to crowdadm for files that were owned by root.


author: AnnWorley
body: Are you starting Crowd using the start_crowd script from the Install folder? If not, please try that method and see if the logs do update. The logs start with the Tomcat log and then when the web server is up, the application (Crowd) starts and that's when the atlassian-crowd.log starts updating in the home folder.

When Crowd fails to start, is there an error in the terminal window?


author: Dana Shankar
body: Yes start_crowd.sh script is being for the starting crowd. Tomcat log or the atlassian-crowd log is getting updated. In the terminal window the message says Tomcat started.

output from the terminal window:

bash-4.1$ ./start_crowd.sh  
Using CATALINA_BASE: /apps/atlassian/crowd/2.9.1/apache-tomcat  
Using CATALINA_HOME: /apps/atlassian/crowd/2.9.1/apache-tomcat  
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /apps/atlassian/crowd/2.9.1/apache-tomcat/temp  
Using JRE_HOME: /apps/atlassian/jira/7.5.1/  
Using CLASSPATH: /apps/atlassian/crowd/2.9.1/apache-tomcat/bin/bootstrap.jar:/apps/atlassian/crowd/2.9.1/apache-tomcat/bin/tomcat-juli.jar  
Using CATALINA_PID: /apps/atlassian/crowd/2.9.1/apache-tomcat/work/catalina.pid  
Existing PID file found during start.  
Removing/clearing stale PID file.  
Tomcat started.

None of the log files are getting updated.


author: AnnWorley
body: I think the issue may be:

```
Using JRE_HOME:? ? ? ? /apps/atlassian/jira/7.5.1/
```

According to the [supported platforms for Crowd 2.9](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CROWD029/Supported+Platforms) the JAVA_HOME variable has to point to a full JDK, we shouldn't be using JRE_HOME:
> It is not enough to have the JRE only. Please ensure that you have the full JDK. You can download the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) from the Oracle website.  
> Once the JDK is installed, you will need to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable, pointing to the root directory of the JDK. Some JDK installers set this automatically (check by typing 'echo %JAVA_HOME%' in a DOS prompt, or 'echo $JAVA_HOME' in a shell). If it is not set, please see [Setting JAVA_HOME.](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CROWD029/Setting+JAVA_HOME)


author: Dana Shankar
body: Thanks Ann. The issue is resolved after setting JAVA_HOME.


author: AnnWorley
body: That's a great relief, Dana, thanks for letting me know!

Cheers,

Ann