Problem

There have been a few other knowledge base articles that talk about this error in detail, which I will point out to further in, but this page will be a general guide on how to troubleshoot startup failures.

Diagnosis

When you try to startup your JIRA applications, they don't start. Instead, you are met with an error that states 'JIRA Startup Failed' :

JIRA Startup Failed

You cannot access JIRA at present. Look at the table below to identify the reasons:

Description

The following plugins are required by JIRA, but have not been started:

* Atlassian JIRA - Plugins - Project Config Plugin (com.atlassian.jira.jira-project-config-plugin)
* Embedded Gadgets Plugin (com.atlassian.gadgets.embedded)
* Gadget Dashboard Plugin (com.atlassian.gadgets.dashboard)
* Opensocial Plugin (com.atlassian.gadgets.opensocial)
* Gadget Directory Plugin (com.atlassian.gadgets.directory)
* Atlassian JIRA - Plugins - Gadgets Plugin (com.atlassian.jira.gadgets)

 Please note that the disabled plugins are usually random, and do not have a specific pattern to them.

Resolution

There are a variety of causes, each with its own unique resolution methods : 

• Memory Allocation
• Anti-virus
• Corrupted plugin caches
• Incompatible JAVA version
• Plugins are disabled in the database
• Plugins require more time to startup
• JIRA is Locked
• Incompatible or Obsolete Plugins
• Slow performance to load plugins from the Disk
• A customized incorrect OGSI boot delegation value is set

• Incorrect Jira Shared Home Location (Clustered Data Center Only)

Memory Allocation 

Cause

During the startup process, the bundled plugins are unpacked from the $JIRA_INSTALL/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/atlassian-bundled-plugins.zip file into $JIRA_HOME/plugins/.bundled-plugins, while the $JIRA_HOME/plugins/installed-plugins are extracted to $JIRA_HOME/plugins/.osgi-plugins. 

This process is rather resource-intensive, and if the required resources are not available, the plugins timeout during the unpacking, and cause JIRA applications to be unusable. 

Resolution

You would have to increase the memory of your JIRA applications instance. The amount to be increased depends on the size of your instance, so there really isn't a pre-determined value that you have to increase to. Depending on whether you are using JIRA applications in Linux, JIRA applications in Windows as a standalone application, or JIRA applications as a Windows service, each of them has a different method used to increase the memory. All three of those methods are described in detail in this KB - Increasing JIRA Memory.

Anti-Virus

Cause

JIRA applications and anti-virus software are known to be mortal enemies - It's hard to have both of them at the same place at the same time. During startup, JIRA applications create quite a number of temporary files that it has to read from. If an anti-virus software goes through all of these files (which are usually in the JIRA_INSTALLATION or the JIRA_HOME directory), it can hinder or stop the startup process from proceeding normally. 

Resolution

Exclude your JIRA INSTALLATION DIRECTORY and your JIRA HOME DIRECTORY from being scanned by the anti-virus. However, sometimes, even though an exception has been added, the problem might still persist, in those cases, please try disabling your anti-virus entirely. Further information regarding the correlation between anti-virus and JIRA application performance can be viewed in this KB - Common causes for Jira Server crashes and performance issues.

There are cases where you will see "com.atlassian.plugin.PluginParseException: Cannot open JAR file:" error in the the logs. In this case, please check KB on Jira Data Center node will not start due to restricted access to $SHARED_HOME for further details. 

Cause

The Jira application fails to start after java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: PanwHooks exception. This exception can be found in the atlassian-jira.log file. This is caused by a security malware scanner blocking the Jira process from starting as they found Log4j libraries as vulnerable.

Resolution

Our Security team investigated the impact of the Log4j remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) and has determined that no Atlassian on-premises products are vulnerable to CVE-2021-44228. Please check the FAQ for CVE-2021-44228 for more detail. Further information regarding this can be viewed in this KB - Jira is not starting up after java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: PanwHooks exception.

Corrupted Plugin Caches

Cause

It is possible the plugin caches of your JIRA application instance enter into a corrupted state. These corrupted caches can disrupt your JIRA application operations, as well as cause your JIRA applications to not be able to startup.

Resolution

You would have to clear and recreate your plugin caches from scratch. To do this, restart JIRA and the plugin caches will be recreated.

You can also manually clear the plugin cache by doing this:

• Stop Jira. 
• Delete the <jira_home>/plugins/.bundled-plugins directory (this will be regenerated on restart)
• Delete the <jira_home>/plugins/.osgi-plugins directory (this will be regenerated on restart)
• Start Jira.

Incompatible JAVA version

Cause

JIRA applications require JAVA to run, and earlier versions of JIRA applications are not compatible with JAVA 7 (JDK 1.7) such as JIRA 5.1.x. Running JIRA 5.0.x with JAVA 7 will cause some issues with the plugins.

Resolution

Please ensure that you are running on the supported version of JAVA. You may refer to JIRA Supported Platforms page and choose the JIRA application version you are on accordingly.

Plugins disabled in database

Cause

In some cases, the plugins are unable to be started up as it is actually disabled in the database. To enable and subsequently use them, some SQL manipulation would have to be done.

Resolution

Some SQL queries are required here to enable the plugins, which are documented in detail in this KB - JIRA Does Not Start Due to Disabled Plugin

Please note that if the query in step 2 does not return any results, then this solution does not apply to your current situation.

Plugins require more time to startup

Cause

As the extraction of the plugins are a rather resource-intensive process, sometimes a shortage of resources can cause the process of the extraction to take longer (but there are still enough resources to startup the instance instead of shutting it down completely). 

Resolution

Increase the value for the parameter below so that JIRA provides more time for the plugins to be extracted, instead of cutting it off and assuming that it failed to startup. Use one of the methods mentioned in Setting Properties and Options on Startup:

-Datlassian.plugins.enable.wait=600

JIRA applications are locked

Cause

As the extraction of the plugins are a rather resource-intensive process, sometimes a shortage of resources can cause the process of the extraction to take longer (but there are still enough resources to startup the instance instead of shutting it down completely). 

1.  JIRA applications were shut down incorrectly, or failed to shut down.
2. A second instance of JIRA applications, pointing to the same database, was started. This can happen in the case of a test instance of JIRA applications pointing to the production database.
3. In rarer circumstances, especially after a plugin installation, JIRA applications can run out of PermGen memory on startup. See JIRA Crashes Due to 'java.lang.OutOfMemoryError PermGen Space Error.

Resolution

Delete the JIRA application lock file. See How do I unlock my JIRA home directory? for instructions.

Obsolete or incompatible plugins

Cause

Incompatible or obsolete plugins could cause start up issues. The logs might show an error as below:

2 plugins are unaccounted for.
    Unaccounted for plugins load as artifacts but fail to resolve into full plugins.

Resolution

Remove incompatible plugins jar files from  Jira Home Directory/plugins/installed-plugins folder. 

Slow performance to load from Disk

Cause

The I/O is slow thus Jira is not able to load plugins in a timely fashion

Resolution

Perform a Disk Speed Test to check the IO performance. Some of the common solutions include:

• A remote disk or shared drive.
• Anti Virus or another scanning application
• Synchronization to another machine over a slow network.
• A virtualized OS, such as VMWare (see Run Jira server in a virtualized environment for further information).
• A disk defragments job may be running.
• Hardware issues such as disk failure.
• File system encryption.
• Automated compression of files controlled by the OS.
• Specific issues with the Java version and OS. This is a rare occurrence, however, a bug or known issue within the JVM may cause it to perform poorly on a specific OS.
• Other applications or operations that are currently using the disk.
• The disk capacity may be nearing full, which on some OS can slow the performance of the disk (in this particular example, it was on Solaris).
• Lucene has some issues with file deletion in Windows.

A customized incorrect OGSI boot delegation value is set

Cause

If the startup parameter -Datlassian.org.osgi.framework.bootdelegation is defined, it may conflict with Jira's required defaults when using Java 11. This parameter may have been set to support a monitoring agent. 

Resolution

See Jira fails to start on Java 11 with plugin load errors when integrated with a monitoring agent for instructions. 

A customized incorrect OGSI boot delegation value is set

Cause

If the startup parameter -Datlassian.org.osgi.framework.bootdelegation is defined, it may conflict with Jira's required defaults when using Java 11. This parameter may have been set to support a monitoring agent. 

Resolution

See Jira fails to start on Java 11 with plugin load errors when integrated with a monitoring agent for instructions. 

Incorrect Jira Shared Home Location (Clustered Data Center Only)

Cause

Jira Data Center will initialize plugins from the cluster's configured Jira shared home location.  If the shared home location is incorrect or inaccessible Jira will fail to start.  

Resolution

Update the cluster.properties file within each node to point to the correct shared home location for the cluster.  Additional details around configuring the shared home location can found within Set up a Jira Data Center Cluster (steps 2 and 3).