Confluence fails to setup

[Deleted user]

I am running Confluence on RedHat 7.4
Everything I try to get it running is failing because of various Java errors.
The most common one is, that whilst Confluence is preparing the database (postgreSQL with fitting database connector and supported version) it crashes and gives an error, regarding decorators.

The error is as follows:

All of the files and folders are there and have the right permissions.
I set the JAVA_HOME and JRE_HOME right and checked ../../WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties for maybe wrong pathes.

The decorators folder is there and the files are not empty and accessable by the owner of the file confluence. 

I tried nearly everything, said by the troubleshooting and am now pretty hopeless, that confluence would run anytimes on this machine

Anyone else with this problem?

[SMS]

Hi Lukas,

It seems like you might be running into this issue:

• Confluence does not start due to Spring Application context has not been set

We can't tell for sure because the message you sent us seems to be missing the error message, and we're only seeing the cause. However, there are 10 causes and resolutions listed on that page that tend to resolve issues similar to this.

I would recommend reviewing the article throughly and let us know if it helps you.

If not, can you let me know what the error message is before the "caused by" section? You can check your Confluence server application logs in order to get the full stack trace.

If you run through all 10 resolutions and it doesn't help, can you confirm your Confluence, JAVA, and Postgres versions? It will help us to troubleshoot.

Thank you!
Regards,

Shannon

[Deleted user]

Now I've run all 10 resolutions and I'm still facing the exact same problem. 

I am using the bundled JRE, Confluence 6.12.2 and Postgres 9.6 (tested with bundled driver and with manually installed driver).

My OS is a RedHat 7.5 machine with SELinux disabled. 

[SMS]

Thank you for confirming, Lukas,

Were you able to find the error log messages from my previous response? That way we can see what specifically is causing this issue.

Also, can you let us know what might have been done on your Confluence instance prior to the last time you started it up? Is this a new installation?

Regards,

Shannon

[Deleted user]

Hello Shannon,

after restarting Confluence the error message, you said was popping up, accessing the base URL.

At first. This is a new installation of Confluence for evaluation purposes. We have an installation on Windows that is working but we want to move on to Linux so I tried to install a fresh Linux maschine, booted it up, got the Installer and installed Confluence. I did not yet start it, because the rights of the folders where not properly set. I did according to the Link as you sent it to me and started Confluence. The Setup Wizard came up as it has to be. I clicked through, putting in our Corporate License and moved to database setup. Connection an drivers for our postgres instance are properly setup and Confluence creates all the necessary tables. After that the error occurs and the installer breaks down into the decorator not set up error, which is featured in the "cause" section of the error screen. 

[SMS]

Lukas, 

Is it possible that you can send me the lines from your error logs? That will help me to determine what the cause is for the error. I thank you for your description but I will want to see those error messages.

You can go ahead and enter in your Postgres details, and then tail the logs from when you click through. Send the details here, and then I can take a look.

Thank you!

Shannon

[Deleted user]

Atlassian Logs for the instance until the error occured (Pastebin Link)

I tailed the atlassian-confluence.log from where i started configuring the database to where the error happened. 

[SMS]

Lukas,

Thank you for sharing that with me.

I have a few suggestions we can try.

1. Drop the PostgreSQL database, and create a brand-new one. Be sure to follow the instructions from this article exactly. 
2. Make sure to completely delete the existing home directory. Since this is a brand-new installation, the data there could be interfering with the setup. If you don't want to delete it, then I would recommend just changing the path of the home directly entirely. Edit the <confluence-install-directory>/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties file by changing the confluence.home property to point to the new location. Be sure that the user you're running Confluence with has full permissions to this directory.
3. You might also want to try testing the setup using a version of Linux that's easier to manage, such as Ubuntu, or Mint. You can always migrate your data back to RedHat at a later date.
4. If you were using the installer, consider trying with the installation from archive file. This article is a bit more step-by-step.
5. You could also try the installation with the embedded database, just to get Confluence up and running. We can then help to change it to the Postgres database afterwards.

I hope this helps, but do let me know if you have any issues.

Regards,

Shannon

[Deleted user]

Hello Shannon,

1. Didn't work. Sticked closely to the tutorial and assured, that it was set-up correct.
2. Deleted the Home-Folder, tried installing again. Defining another homefolder doesn't work either, doing the same. The rights are correctly assigned and triple-checked.
3. Because of our corporate standards, we are unable to test on other systems, so ich will test on a private Server, that I own.
4. Installation from archive resulted in the same error message as before, not showing any differences between installer nor archive.
5. Embedded database creating results in the same error, but it happens much faster that he displays the error

Regards, 

Lukas