Confluence won't start

[Karthik Bonthu]

I'm trying to install confluence on my server and it doesn't seem to start

[confluence@vps82833 ~]$ /opt/atlassian/confluence/bin/start-confluence.sh -fg
executing as current user
If you encounter issues starting up Confluence, please see the Installation guide at http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+Installation+Guide
Server startup logs are located in /opt/atlassian/confluence/logs/catalina.out
Using CATALINA_BASE: /opt/atlassian/confluence
Using CATALINA_HOME: /opt/atlassian/confluence
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /opt/atlassian/confluence/temp
Using JRE_HOME: /opt/atlassian/confluence/jre/
Using CLASSPATH: /opt/atlassian/confluence/bin/bootstrap.jar:/opt/atlassian/confluence/bin/tomcat-juli.jar
Using CATALINA_PID: /opt/atlassian/confluence/work/catalina.pid
04-Jun-2016 11:30:27.510 WARNING [main] org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule.begin [SetPropertiesRule]{Server} Setting property 'debug' to '0' did not find a matching property.
04-Jun-2016 11:30:27.639 WARNING [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.SetAllPropertiesRule.begin [SetAllPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Connector} Setting property 'debug' to '0' did not find a matching property.
04-Jun-2016 11:30:27.649 WARNING [main] org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule.begin [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine} Setting property 'debug' to '0' did not find a matching property.
04-Jun-2016 11:30:27.669 WARNING [main] org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule.begin [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host} Setting property 'debug' to '0' did not find a matching property.
04-Jun-2016 11:30:27.739 WARNING [main] org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule.begin [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'debug' to '0' did not find a matching property.
04-Jun-2016 11:30:28.394 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.init Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8090"]
04-Jun-2016 11:30:28.437 INFO [main] org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool.getSharedSelector Using a shared selector for servlet write/read
04-Jun-2016 11:30:28.451 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.load Initialization processed in 1073 ms
04-Jun-2016 11:30:28.459 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal Starting service Tomcat-Standalone
04-Jun-2016 11:30:28.459 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/8.0.33
2016-06-04 11:30:42,142 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] [com.atlassian.confluence.lifecycle] contextInitialized Starting Confluence 5.9.12 [build 6220 based on commit hash de9b463eb65c5ca13c0266eed77e2bf49f4c6fe8]

I see number of postgres processes that are in idle state. 

[root@vps82833 log]# ps aux|grep conflu
root     18751  0.0  0.0 113124  1448 pts/0    S+   12:58   0:00 /bin/bash ./start-confluence.sh -fg
root     18755  0.0  0.0 144516  1556 pts/0    S+   12:58   0:00 /sbin/runuser -m confluence -c ./catalina.sh run
conflue+ 18756 68.1 36.7 3550652 1453176 ?     Ssl  12:58   2:16 /opt/atlassian/confluence/jre//bin/java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/opt/atlassian/confluence/conf/logging.properties -Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager -Xms1024m -Xmx1024m -XX:+UseG1GC -Datlassian.plugins.enable.wait=300 -Djava.awt.headless=true -Xloggc:/opt/atlassian/confluence/logs/gc-2016-06-04_12-58-40.log -XX:+UseGCLogFileRotation -XX:NumberOfGCLogFiles=5 -XX:GCLogFileSize=2M -XX:-PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps -XX:-PrintTenuringDistribution -Djava.endorsed.dirs=/opt/atlassian/confluence/endorsed -classpath /opt/atlassian/confluence/bin/bootstrap.jar:/opt/atlassian/confluence/bin/tomcat-juli.jar -Dcatalina.base=/opt/atlassian/confluence -Dcatalina.home=/opt/atlassian/confluence -Djava.io.tmpdir=/opt/atlassian/confluence/temp org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap start
postgres 18928  2.2  0.4 243044 16240 ?        Ss   13:00   0:02 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59336) idle
postgres 18965  0.0  0.1 233596  6412 ?        Ss   13:00   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59344) idle
postgres 18966  0.0  0.1 234120  6800 ?        Ss   13:00   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59345) idle
postgres 18968  0.0  0.1 234296  7688 ?        Ss   13:00   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59350) idle
postgres 18982  0.0  0.1 234340  7512 ?        Ss   13:00   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59367) idle
postgres 18983  0.0  0.1 233564  6356 ?        Ss   13:00   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59368) idle
postgres 19021  0.0  0.1 233440  4348 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59369) idle
postgres 19022  0.0  0.1 233440  4348 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59370) idle
postgres 19023  0.0  0.1 233440  4348 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59371) idle
postgres 19024  0.0  0.1 233440  4348 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59372) idle
postgres 19025  0.0  0.1 233576  5932 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59373) idle
postgres 19026  0.0  0.1 233564  6348 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59374) idle
postgres 19027  0.0  0.1 233576  5936 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59375) idle
postgres 19028  0.0  0.1 233440  4356 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59376) idle
postgres 19029  0.0  0.1 233440  4352 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59377) idle
postgres 19030  0.0  0.1 233440  4352 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59378) idle
postgres 19031  0.0  0.1 233440  4352 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59379) idle
postgres 19032  0.0  0.1 233440  4356 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59380) idle
postgres 19033  0.0  0.1 233440  4356 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59381) idle
postgres 19034  0.0  0.1 233440  4352 ?        Ss   13:01   0:00 postgres: postgres confluence 127.0.0.1(59382) idle
root     19036  0.0  0.0 112648   976 pts/1    R+   13:01   0:00 grep --color=auto conflu

[Christian Rinjes]

Just in case anyone, like me, comes by here wondering why Confluence won't start up with the logs at the same "contextInitialized Starting Confluence" state:

Don't panic immediately, wait. I figured out that at this point my Confluence installation idles for about 8 minutes with barely any noticeable activity before it properly starts up and starts accepting requests.

[Athirah Zolkefli]

Hi Karthik,

Sorry to hear the installation isn't going so well.  Is this your first attempt at the installation? Or have you already gone through the setup process for this Confluence instance and it just fails at startup?

Have you also tried checking the Confluence application logs to see what error messages were thrown? The log file is located in <Confluence-home>/logs/ and is named "atlassian-confluence.log".

Perhaps you could also let us know what you see in your browser when you attempt to access Confluence.

Regards,
Athirah Zolkefli