JIRA Fails to Start with Error parsing database configuration file

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Symptoms

Upon trying to startup JIRA, your browser shows a 404 error.

The following appears in the tomcat server logs:

2012-12-28 09:54:47 Commons Daemon procrun stdout initialized2012-12-28 09:55:10,636 main INFO      [jira.config.database.SystemTenantDatabaseConfigurationLoader] Reading database configuration from C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Application Data\JIRA\dbconfig.xml
2012-12-28 09:55:11,948 main ERROR      [atlassian.jira.startup.LauncherContextListener] Unable to start JIRA.
java.lang.RuntimeException: Error parsing database configuration file.
	at com.atlassian.jira.config.database.AbstractJiraHomeDatabaseConfigurationLoader.loadDatabaseConfiguration(AbstractJiraHomeDatabaseConfigurationLoader.java:61)
	at com.atlassian.jira.startup.SystemTenantProvider.getSystemDatabaseConfig(SystemTenantProvider.java:52)
	at com.atlassian.jira.startup.SystemTenantProvider.getSystemTenant(SystemTenantProvider.java:36)
	at com.atlassian.multitenant.MultiTenantContext.getSystemTenant(MultiTenantContext.java:473)
	at com.atlassian.multitenant.MultiTenantContext.defaultInit(MultiTenantContext.java:112)
	at com.atlassian.jira.startup.LauncherContextListener.initMultiTenantSystem(LauncherContextListener.java:129)
	at com.atlassian.jira.startup.LauncherContextListener.contextInitialized(LauncherContextListener.java:59)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4205)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4704)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:840)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:463)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:525)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:754)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:595)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:289)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:414)
Caused by: org.dom4j.DocumentException: Error on line 1 of document  : Content is not allowed in prolog. Nested exception: Content is not allowed in prolog.
	at org.dom4j.io.SAXReader.read(SAXReader.java:355)
	at org.dom4j.io.SAXReader.read(SAXReader.java:271)
	at com.atlassian.jira.config.database.AbstractJiraHomeDatabaseConfigurationLoader.loadDatabaseConfiguration(AbstractJiraHomeDatabaseConfigurationLoader.java:56)
	... 21 more

Cause

JIRA is unable to properly read/parse the database configuration file.  This is either due to file corruption or modification to the file.

Resolution

  • Shutdown JIRA
  • Navigate to the location of the database configuration (dbconfig.xml)
    • In the above stacktrace, we see the path as C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Application Data\JIRA\dbconfig.xml
  • Open the file within a text editor and check for any odd characters
Last modified on Mar 30, 2016

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