Confluence won't start and leaves atlassian-confluence.log untouched
Asked by Robert G. Nadon:

G'day all,

Have a very unusual problem. I start confluence and the last thing in the catalina.out file is:  
06-Jul-2017 17:27:49.654 INFO \[main\] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start Server startup in 39133 ms

Nothing ever goes into the atlassian-confluence.log file in the $HOME diredctory.

a ps -ef show that the process is running and doing fine. It is not accessible from the web, but the main thing is thath there is nothing in the an-confluence.log file. Not even the time stamp is touched.

Does anyone know where I can go to see further what confluence is trying to do?!?

Thanks in advance,

Robert


Answers:
author: AnnWorley
body: If the last thing in the **catalina.out** is the server startup then the Tomcat part of Confluence is started. Do you see a Tomcat error or other error in the browser?

Please check the permissions on the home directory as described in[Nothing appears in the atlassian-confluence.log file](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/nothing-appears-in-the-atlassian-confluence-log-file-309133395.html). The \<confluence_home\> directory is the path defined in the following file: **\<confluence_install\>/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties**

comments: author: Robert G. Nadon
body: I have checked the permissions and ownership that was my first thought as well. The confluence.home points to where it always has. What I am trying to do is to create a sandbox to test the upgrade before production. I have done this 100 times before, I copy the database, install, and home directory, then change ownership to the confluence user. (I even made the log file 777 just to be sure). The browser shows the "No webpage was found" as if nothing is running at that address.

Any thoughts on where a tomcat log might be?


author: AnnWorley
body: The catalina.out is the Tomcat log.

Here is a strategy:

1. Create a temporary "dummy" database of the same type you use for Production.
2. So the application cannot find it, rename the home directory which is defined in: \<confluence_install\>/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties
3. Start Confluence (the home dir will be created with the old name) and run through the setup wizard, designating the dummy database.
4. After logging into Confluence, shut it down and rename the original home directory to the same name it was before. (rename the new one, too, or move it)
5. Upon restart, Confluence will connect to the "real" database based on the confluence.cfg.xml file in the root of the "real" home directory.

That will isolate the issue to the installation folder or the home folder. If Confluence won't run the setup wizard, it indicates a problem with the Install directory, so please download a new copy of Confluence to replace it.

If Confluence runs fine until step 5, we know the home directory needs more troubleshooting.


author: Robert G. Nadon
body: Thank you so much for helping with this.

I do not understand the need to do #1 as it is defined in #2 which is no longer findable. I did the top 3 and 3 had the same results, tomcat start and then nothing. It did not create a new $HOME directory.

I cannot reinstall confluence from CD as the whole reason for doing this is to make an exact copy of production and then upgrade that as a test, before upgrading production.

What I do not understand is the process is running. There are no errors in the catalina.log (even without a home directory) where else would it log errors to?


author: Robert G. Nadon
body: I went in and reinstalled from CD and it created yet another user "confluence3" and worked fine. Then I went in and remapped the original $home after doing a chown -R confluence3:confluence3 $home. That uses the original database as it is defined in the cfg.xml and it worked.

init Confluence is ready to serve

Still don't think it was a permission problem as I did also a chmod -R 777 to make everything rwx just to see and that did nothing. Not sure, possibly a server.xml problem? Well anyhow I am back and I will try to upgrade that system, though that really does not give me an exact picture as the $INSTALL is fresh, I will call it good enough.

Thank you again.


Tags: confluence-administration