Unable to create Jira Software projects

[CHRIS POWELL]

Hello All,

I seem to be unable to create Jira Software projects. I'm running Jira Core 7.12.1 on CentOS 7.5 with the Jira Software 7.12.1 OBR installed on top of it. I'm able to create projects using any of the business templates, but all of the software templates (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) fail with "Hmm. We could not create your project due to an unknown error."

When this happens, I see the following in the audit log:
- Permission Scheme removed from project
- Project deleted

I also notice that the following items are created in the "Issues" section of the admin page:
- Scrum type issue scheme
- Screen
- Screen Scheme
- Issue type screen scheme

I also see the following error in catalina.out:
https-jsse-nio-8443-exec /rest/project-templates/1.0/templates [c.a.p.r.c.error.jersey.ThrowableExceptionMapper] error uncaught exception thrown by REST service: an error occurred while notifying that a project was created.

Unfortunately, this is on a disconnected system, so I am unable to paste the entirety of the error message.

I came across the following links:
https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/hmm-we-couldn-t-create-your-project-due-to-an-unknown-error-818580338.html
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Desk-questions/Couldn-t-create-your-project-due-to-an-unknown-error-Try/qaq-p/719447
https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/hmm-we-couldn-t-create-your-project-due-to-an-unknown-error-try-refreshing-the-page-to-start-again-849170381.html

Which suggest to do the following:
- Verify database collation
- Verify that the default language is English
- Run an SQL query to find bad database entries and delete them

Unfortunately, none of these solve my problem.

Any idea what the issue could be?

Thanks!

[Andy Heinzer · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the support zip.  I found a couple of problems.   First the logs note you're running jira 7.12.1, but with a Postgres 9.2 database:

2018-10-29 09:42:25,451 JIRA-Bootstrap WARN      [c.a.jira.health.HealthChecks] Supported database
2018-10-29 09:42:25,451 JIRA-Bootstrap WARN      [c.a.jira.health.HealthChecks] Postgres 9.2.24 is not supported. You should migrate to a supported database version.
    Supported versions are: 9.6, 9.5, 9.4, 9.3

Please see the Jira 7.12.x supported platforms doc to see which database types/versions are compatible.  While I don't believe this is the only problem here, it is something worth addressing here.

But I also found this error in the logs:

2018-10-29 10:38:34,573 https-jsse-nio-8443-exec-12 ERROR User1.adm 638x246x1 z5jerg 10.0.10.10 /rest/jira-importers-plugin/1.0/demo/create [c.a.jira.project.ProjectCreateRegistrarImpl] The handler with id com.atlassian.jira.project-templates-plugin:apply-project-template-handler threw an exception while handling a notification about a project being created
java.lang.IllegalStateException: An issue type with the name 'Epic' exists already.

Which looks like it is this documented bug https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-13456

In that case, if your existing Jira site has an issue type called Epic, but this is something like a subtask type, instead of a standard issue type, this kind of error message can occur.  You should be able to follow the work-around from that bug ticket to get past this:

Workaround

Remove (or rename if in use by other custom project) issue types "Story" and "Epic" and create a new project. The issue types will be recreated automatically.

In your case, I'm only seeing this error in the logs for the Epic issue type, and not for Story or other issue types yet.   So you should be able to rename that issue type to some other name, and in turn I believe you can restart Jira in order for the Jira Software plugin to load again.  At which point I believe this should create the Epic issue type again correctly in Jira.

[CHRIS POWELL]

Thank you so much for looking through the logs for me! Deleting the Epic and Story issue types solved my issue!

I will get the database upgraded and then I'll be good to go.

Thank you again for your help!

[Andy Heinzer]

The fact you can create business projects, but not software projects is telling.   It sounds like the jira software plugin might not be loaded currently, or perhaps it found an error during startup.   SQL errors are another possibility, but if you are not seeing those in the logs, it must be something else.

You mentioned looking at the catalina.out file, but you can also go into the $JIRAHOME/log/atlassian-jira.log file to find much of the same logged information.  I tend to prefer this file, the formatting is slightly different.  

I would try to create a new software project again, note the time of the failure, and then look for corresponding errors/warning in the atlassian-jira.log at that time.

I would also be interested to see if you can generate a support zip.  Our community site does not have a way to upload this file to us, but you could use a service like google drive or dropbox and then post the link here.   I'd be happy to take a closer look at your logs.  We should be able to learn more this way.

If that option does not sound agreeable, just let me know.  Perhaps we can create a support ticket on your behalf.

[CHRIS POWELL]

Thank you for your reply! I will take a look at the atlassian-jira.log file and work on getting you that support ZIP. 

I would love to open a ticket, but I purchased a starter license. My understanding is that that does not entitle me to personal support. If that's not the case, though, then I'd love to open one!

[CHRIS POWELL]

I've looked through the log you suggested, and I see the following errors in addition to the one described in my question:

[GC (Allocation Failure) [PSYoungGen 206368K->6391K (232960K)] 688332K->488354K (757248K) 0.0566304 secs]

https-jsse-nio-8443-exec-7 /rest/templates/1.0/templates [c.a.j.i.f.config.manager.FieldConfigSchemeManagerImpl] ConfigScheme: Scrum Issue Type Scheme (10616). Created with no associated contexts

https-jsse-nio-8443-exec-7 /rest/project-templates/1.0/templates [c.a.jira.ProjectCreateRegistrarImpl] The handler with id com.atlassian.jira.project-templates-plugin:apply-project-template-handler threw an exception while handling a notification about a project being created
java.lang.IllegalStateException: An issue type with the name 'Epic' exists already

[CHRIS POWELL]

I have uploaded the support zip to google drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19ZGr2bXQpdcPQ6edzmlJSKrvZ3hVj1ey/view?usp=sharing