Correcting an Invalid or unreadable WAR file error on a WAR/EAR install
Symptoms
Startup failures occurring after installing a WAR instance of JIRA. The following appears in the catalina.out:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid or unreadable WAR file
Cause
This is due to a misplaced WAR file, or an incorrect file path in the jira.xml configuration file.
Resolution
The WAR file path should be in <Tomcat-Install-Dir>/conf/Catalina/localhost/jira.xml. If this file does not exist please create it along with the appropriate directory structure.
A jira.xml template file can be found in <Extracted_JIRA_WAR_file>/etc/jira.xml. You should list the WAR file path in the docBase attribute like below:
<Context path="/jira" docBase="path/to/atlassian-jira-5.x.war" debug="0" useHttpOnly="true">
<Resource name="UserTransaction" auth="Container" type="javax.transaction.UserTransaction"
factory="org.objectweb.jotm.UserTransactionFactory" jotm.timeout="60"/>
<Manager pathname=""/>
</Context>
The error should be corrected after fixing the path. For more information check out the install guide here.