Symptoms

While accessing only specific issues the following message appears on the screen:

Error rendering 'com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira:greenhopper-epics-issue-web-panel'. Please contact your JIRA administrators.

The following appears in the atlassian-jira.log:

2013-10-29 18:11:36,513 TP-Processor2 ERROR admin 1091x126502x1 1uiw3e3 127.0.0.1 /browse/TST-4 [jira.web.component.ModuleWebComponentImpl] An exception occured while rendering the web panel:
 com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira:greenhopper-epics-issue-web-panel (null)java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: The validated object is null

Diagnosis

The following SQL query will search for any invalid epic links in your instance of JIRA:

SELECT * FROM issuelink  il
WHERE il.LINKTYPE =
  ( SELECT id FROM issuelinktype WHERE linkname = 'Epic-Story Link') 
AND
(
  il.destination IS NULL
  OR il.SOURCE IS NULL
  OR not exists (SELECT null FROM jiraissue ji where ji.id = il.destination) 
  OR not exists (SELECT null FROM jiraissue ji where ji.id = il.source) 
);

If the query above returns any results, proceed to the Resolution to remove the invalid epic links.

Cause

One or more entries for Epic links within the database are invalid/corrupted.

This situation is usually seen when having Transition Post Functions that update values. Plugins like "JIRA Suite Utilities" provide additional functionality that it may fail depending on conditions when they are executed. For example, adding an Epic Link to an Epic. This will exit the Creation process and leave an inconsistency on issues. Make sure the "Creates the issue originally." Post Function is first in the Create transition.

Resolution

Follow the instructions from Using the database integrity checker:

Through the database:

1. Shutdown JIRA;
2. Create a database backup;

3. Execute the following query to remove the corrupt entry:

   delete from issuelink  il
   WHERE il.LINKTYPE in
     ( SELECT id FROM issuelinktype WHERE linkname = 'Epic-Story Link') 
   AND
   (
     il.destination IS NULL
     OR il.SOURCE IS NULL
     OR not exists (SELECT null FROM jiraissue ji where ji.id = il.destination) 
     OR not exists (SELECT null FROM jiraissue ji where ji.id = il.source) 
   );

   If the SELECT query from Diagnosis taking too long, the DELETE query can be replaced with the correct ID returned from the SELECT query as alternative.

4. Restart JIRA.