Symptoms

1. Upon logging into a Jira application, users encounter errors such as the following:

   ERROR
   
   The Gadget Dashboard bundled plugin is not available. Please contact
   an administrator to ensure the Gadget Dashboard plugin is enabled!
   
   If you think this message is wrong, please consult your administrators
   about getting the necessary permissions.

2. The following or similar errors may be found within atlassian-jira.log:

   2012-06-13 16:21:19,887 Timer-0 ERROR      [internal.dependencies.startup.DependencyWaiterApplicationContextExecutor] Unable to create application context for [com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira], unsatisfied dependencies: Dependency on [(objectClass=com.atlassian.gadgets.view.GadgetViewFactory)] (from bean [&gadgetViewFactory])
   org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextException: Application context initialization for 'com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira' has timed out
   	at org.springframework.osgi.extender.internal.dependencies.startup.DependencyWaiterApplicationContextExecutor.timeout(DependencyWaiterApplicationContextExecutor.java:454)
   	at org.springframework.osgi.extender.internal.dependencies.startup.DependencyWaiterApplicationContextExecutor.access$000(DependencyWaiterApplicationContextExecutor.java:50)
   	at org.springframework.osgi.extender.internal.dependencies.startup.DependencyWaiterApplicationContextExecutor$WatchDogTask.run(DependencyWaiterApplicationContextExecutor.java:105)
   	at java.util.TimerThread.mainLoop(Timer.java:512)
   	at java.util.TimerThread.run(Timer.java:462)

   2015-05-04 02:13:00,945 localhost-startStop-1 INFO      [atlassian.plugin.util.WaitUntil] Plugins that have yet to be enabled: [com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira], 2 seconds remaining
   2015-05-04 02:13:01,959 localhost-startStop-1 INFO      [atlassian.plugin.util.WaitUntil] Plugins that have yet to be enabled: [com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira], 1 seconds remaining
   2015-05-04 02:13:02,973 localhost-startStop-1 INFO      [atlassian.plugin.util.WaitUntil] Plugins that have yet to be enabled: [com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira], 0 seconds remaining
   2015-05-04 02:13:03,987 localhost-startStop-1 INFO      [atlassian.plugin.manager.DefaultPluginManager] Disabling com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira
   2015-05-04 02:13:07,044 localhost-startStop-1 ERROR      [atlassian.plugin.manager.PluginEnabler] Unable to start the following plugins due to timeout while waiting for plugin to enable: com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira
   2015-05-04 02:13:07,263 ThreadPoolAsyncTaskExecutor::Thread 24 ERROR      [internal.dependencies.startup.DependencyWaiterApplicationContextExecutor] Unable to create application context for [com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira], unsatisfied dependencies: none
   java.lang.IllegalStateException: Invalid BundleContext.
       at org.apache.felix.framework.BundleContextImpl.checkValidity(BundleContextImpl.java:365)
       at org.apache.felix.framework.BundleContextImpl.getServiceReferences(BundleContextImpl.java:307)
       (...)
       at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
       at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Cause

As the Jira application starts up, it goes through the following steps when starting the Plugin System:

1. $JIRA_INSTALL/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/atlassian-bundled-plugins.zip is extracted to $JIRA_HOME/plugins/.bundled-plugins.
2. $JIRA_HOME/plugins/installed-plugins is extracted to $JIRA_HOME/plugins/.osgi-plugins.

This is a fairly resource intensive process and can place a sizeable load on the I/O of the disk and CPU of the machine that is hosting the Jira application instance. If the required resources aren't available, the plugins may timeout and cause the application to be left in an unusable state.

Workaround

It is possible to increase the plugin timeout period by adding the -Datlassian.plugins.enable.wait=300 argument to the Jira application startup arguments, as in Setting Properties and Options on Startup.

Resolution

1. Ensure the machine meets minimum requirements and has enough memory, CPU, and disk I/O available as outlined in Jira applications requirements.
2. Test your disk speed, as per our Testing Disk Access Speed KB. A slow disk or network mount can indicate problems with a Jira application startup as it will not be able to write to the disk in time.
3. Check if any Antivirus is running on the host. Jira application and Antivirus are known to be mortal enemies - even if an exception is set in the Jira application directory, it may not be respected. Try disabling the Antivirus altogether and starting Jira application up.