Tomcat Fails to Start

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Tomcat fails to start with the following error: "The system could not find the environment option that was entered."

Symptoms

The following appears in Tomcat logs (commons-daemon*.log):

[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [info] Commons Daemon procrun (1.0.5.0 32-bit) started
[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [info] Running 'Confluence' Service...
[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [info] Starting service...
[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [error] CreateJavaVM Failed
[2012-11-23 11:48:25] [error] The system could not find the environment option that was entered.

Diagnosis

The error most probably occurs upon startup in a Windows environment with Tomcat application server, after modifying JAVA_OPTS (system properties).

Cause

In most cases, the root cause is having a Java System Property that is not recognized by Tomcat.

Resolution

  • Please review the Recognized System Properties page for more information about accepted properties, and fix your startup configuration accordingly.
  • The issue can happen when you try to specify the -server property when the <JAVA-HOME>/jre/bin/server/jvm.dll is being used as the JVM. Technically these two settings are redundant, thus the -server parameter is rejected and startup fails.

Last modified on Mar 30, 2016

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