Unable to start Jira while upgrading from 8.x to Jira 9. An unexpected error has occurred during startup.
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Note that this knowledge base article was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center knowledge base articles for non-Data Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. 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
After upgrading from Jira release version 8 to Jira 9, Jira is unable to start, the following post-upgrade screen is displayed with no further details on why Jira is unable to start:
Diagnosis
Looking at Jira logs, the following can be found as Jira finishes the startup process after the upgrade:
2022-09-14 10:02:06,868-0600 main ERROR [c.a.jira.upgrade.PluginSystemLauncher] A fatal error occured during initialisation. JIRA has been locked.
com.atlassian.jira.InfrastructureException: Error occurred while starting component 'com.atlassian.jira.event.diagnostics.JiraEventSystemMonitor'.
at com.atlassian.jira.component.pico.ComponentManager.startStartableComponents(ComponentManager.java:340)
at com.atlassian.jira.component.pico.ComponentManager.earlyStartPluginSystem(ComponentManager.java:253)
at com.atlassian.jira.upgrade.PluginSystemLauncher.start(PluginSystemLauncher.java:45)
at com.atlassian.jira.startup.DefaultJiraLauncher.lambda$postDbLaunch$2(DefaultJiraLauncher.java:143)
at com.atlassian.jira.config.database.DatabaseConfigurationManagerImpl.doNowOrEnqueue(DatabaseConfigurationManagerImpl.java:307)
at com.atlassian.jira.config.database.DatabaseConfigurationManagerImpl.doNowOrWhenDatabaseActivated(DatabaseConfigurationManagerImpl.java:202)
at com.atlassian.jira.startup.DefaultJiraLauncher.postDbLaunch(DefaultJiraLauncher.java:135)
at com.atlassian.jira.startup.DefaultJiraLauncher.lambda$start$0(DefaultJiraLauncher.java:102)
at com.atlassian.jira.util.devspeed.JiraDevSpeedTimer.run(JiraDevSpeedTimer.java:31)
at com.atlassian.jira.startup.DefaultJiraLauncher.start(DefaultJiraLauncher.java:100)
at com.atlassian.jira.startup.LauncherContextListener.initSlowStuff(LauncherContextListener.java:154)
at com.atlassian.jira.startup.LauncherContextListener.initSlowStuffInBackground(LauncherContextListener.java:139)
at com.atlassian.jira.startup.LauncherContextListener.contextInitialized(LauncherContextListener.java:101)
... 5 filtered
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.InlineExecutorService.execute(InlineExecutorService.java:75)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.AbstractExecutorService.submit(AbstractExecutorService.java:140)
... 5 filtered
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.InlineExecutorService.execute(InlineExecutorService.java:75)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.AbstractExecutorService.submit(AbstractExecutorService.java:140)
... 8 filtered
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:566)
... 2 filtered
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.atlassian.diagnostics.internal.platform.monitor.event.EventSystemMonitor.init(EventSystemMonitor.java:61)
at com.atlassian.jira.event.diagnostics.JiraEventSystemMonitor.start(JiraEventSystemMonitor.java:19)
at com.atlassian.jira.component.pico.ComponentManager.startStartableComponents(ComponentManager.java:336)
... 42 more
... 2 filtered
2022-09-14 10:02:08,420-0600 main ERROR [c.a.jira.startup.DefaultJiraLauncher] JIRA has failed to start because of the following errors: [(Event: Level = (EventLevel: fatal) , Key = (EventType: startup-unexpected) , Desc = We couldn't start JIRA , Exception = An error occurred while trying to start JIRA. We can't give you any more detail right now, we suggest checking the logs for more detail and contacting our support team.<br/>See our documentation for more information on contacting our support team and creating a support zip.)]
2022-09-14 10:02:08,424-0600 main INFO [c.a.jira.startup.LauncherContextListener] Startup is complete. Jira is ready to serve.Cause
Jira fails to start as it is trying to perform an upgrade task in the com.atlassian.jira.event.diagnostics plugin but a NullPointer is thrown during the task.
This happens when the Diagnostics is forced disabled in the pluginstate table, preventing the upgrade task to proceed.
Solution
Resetting the com.atlassian.jira.event.diagnostics to enable in the pluginstate can resolve this issue:
update pluginstate set pluginenabled = 'true' where 'pluginkey' = 'com.atlassian.jira.diagnostics'
You can also completely delete the rows from the pluginstate table, this will allow the Jira startup to decide which plugins should be enabled or not, with the following delete statement:
delete from pluginstateAfter that, restarting Jira should no longer fail with the same error.