Jira instance is not starting due to malformed server.xml
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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
Summary
Accessing Jira after restart shows page stating Jira home directory is locked.
Diagnosis
Logs show Jira starting again after 5 seconds in the middle of original start up.
Second start complains about Jira home already being locked and jira is unaccessible
2021-01-28 15:14:42,021+0000 JIRA-Bootstrap ERROR [c.a.jira.health.HealthChecks] The jira.home directory is locked
2021-01-28 15:14:42,021+0000 JIRA-Bootstrap ERROR [c.a.jira.health.HealthChecks] The jira.home directory C:\Atlassian\Application Data\JIRA is locked by another running instance of JIRA. Your jira.home directory can only be used by one running JIRA instance.
Review our documentation for more information on setting your JIRA home.
Cause
server.xml file contains 2 Contexts inside the Engine tag.
Solution
Remove one of the Contexts from the server.xml file and restart the application