Permission denied server.xml
Asked by Steve Boydon:

Hi

I have just upgraded to server 7.6. on my Linux box.

The start.confluence.sh batchfile is throwing access denied errors to server.xml and other files and folders. I have done a chown - R to assign all folders to confluence user and all chmod 755 to change the rights.

To run Confluence in the foreground, start the server with start-confluence.sh -fg  
executing using dedicated user: confluence  
If you encounter issues starting up Confluence, please see the Installation guide at <http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+Ins>  
tallation+Guide  

error as below

===============================================================  
Server startup logs are located in /opt/atlassian/confluence/logs/catalina.out  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Using Java: /opt/atlassian/confluence/jre//bin/java  
log4j:ERROR setFile(null,true) call failed.  
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /opt/atlassian/confluence/logs/synchrony-proxy-watchdog.log (Permission denied)  
at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.open0(Native Method)  
at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Unknown Source)  
at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.\<init\>(Unknown Source)  
at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.\<init\>(Unknown Source)  
at org.apache.log4j.FileAppender.setFile(FileAppender.java:294)  
at org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender.setFile(RollingFileAppender.java:207)  
at org.apache.log4j.FileAppender.activateOptions(FileAppender.java:165)  
at com.atlassian.confluence.bootstrap.SynchronyProxyWatchdog.addLogFileAppender(SynchronyProxyWatchdog.java:106)  
at com.atlassian.confluence.bootstrap.SynchronyProxyWatchdog.main(SynchronyProxyWatchdog.java:47)  
/opt/atlassian/confluence/conf/server.xml (Permission denied)  
/opt/atlassian/confluence/conf/server.xml (Permission denied)  
2020-08-11 10:01:47,446 INFO \[main\] \[atlassian.confluence.bootstrap.SynchronyProxyWatchdog\] The Confluence context path is empty. No further ac  
tion is required.  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Using CATALINA_BASE: /opt/atlassian/confluence  
Using CATALINA_HOME: /opt/atlassian/confluence  
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /opt/atlassian/confluence/temp  
Using JRE_HOME: /opt/atlassian/confluence/jre/  
Using CLASSPATH: /opt/atlassian/confluence/bin/bootstrap.jar:/opt/atlassian/confluence/bin/tomcat-juli.jar  
Using CATALINA_PID: /opt/atlassian/confluence/work/catalina.pid  
touch: cannot touch '/opt/atlassian/confluence/logs/catalina.out': Permission denied  
./catalina.sh: 471: ./catalina.sh: cannot create /opt/atlassian/confluence/logs/catalina.out: Permission denied  
root@ip-xxxxxxxxxx:/opt/atlassian/confluence/bin#  

=====================================================

Confluence on a ls -a is showing as the owner and also having rights.

Are their any other rights needed apart from /opt/atlassian and /var/atlassian folders.,

Catalina.out is showing no output for current commands.

Concern is that you do an upgrade and it never quite works

Regards

Steve


Answers:
author: Joshua Sneed Contegix
body: Hi Steve,

The error is showing that the confluence user does not have ownership of the Confluence installation directory (/opt/atlassian/confluence/..) per the 'permission denied' and 'cannot create' errors. If directory ownership is not a problem, look into the extra slash in the java path (/opt/atlassian/confluence/jre//bin/java). it may be causing a problem. Cheers!