NullPointerException when starting Synchrony

Joseph C_ Sible

When I set up Confluence, Synchrony kept failing to start. I turned up logging settings until it logged the error, which was this:

2017-12-08 13:28:50,156 WARN [synchrony-interop-executor:thread-2] [plugins.synchrony.bootstrap.DefaultSynchronyProcessManager] lambda$startProcess$2 Failed to setup Synchrony, turn on debug for stack trace: null
 -- url: /confluence/rest/synchrony-interop/restart | referer: https://REDACTED/confluence/admin/confluence-collaborative-editor-plugin/configure.action | traceId: REDACTED | userName: REDACTED
2017-12-08 13:28:50,157 DEBUG [synchrony-interop-executor:thread-2] [plugins.synchrony.bootstrap.DefaultSynchronyProcessManager] lambda$startProcess$2 
 -- url: /confluence/rest/synchrony-interop/restart | referer: https://REDACTED/confluence/admin/confluence-collaborative-editor-plugin/configure.action | traceId: REDACTED | userName: REDACTED
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at java.util.Hashtable.put(Hashtable.java:460)
    at java.util.Properties.setProperty(Properties.java:166)
    at com.atlassian.confluence.plugins.synchrony.bootstrap.DefaultSynchronyProcessManager.setupEnvironment(DefaultSynchronyProcessManager.java:340)
    at com.atlassian.confluence.plugins.synchrony.bootstrap.DefaultSynchronyProcessManager.trySetup(DefaultSynchronyProcessManager.java:582)
    at com.atlassian.confluence.plugins.synchrony.bootstrap.DefaultSynchronyProcessManager.lambda$startProcess$2(DefaultSynchronyProcessManager.java:494)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.access$201(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:180)
    at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:293)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

Looking at the source code, I think I see the problem. We're using PostgreSQL with non-password-based authentication, so we're not defining hibernate.connection.password in confluence.cfg.xml, so Confluence tries to set the password property to null, which crashes since properties are stored in a Hashtable, which isn't allowed to contain nulls.

Once I figured this out, I was able to work around it (by defining a dummy value for hibernate.connection.password), but since the rest of Confluence (and every other Atlassian product that I've set up so far) all work fine without defining a database password, this seems like a bug.

AnnWorley

Our setup doc for PostgreSQL requires a user name and password so I can't really call the behavior a bug, even if you can make it work for other Atlassian products.

I definitely see the value of supporting other authentication methods, so I created this suggestion ticket: Provide support for PostgreSQL authentication other than password based

The ticket is public so you may comment and vote on it to communicate directly with the development team. That will also add you to notifications so you will see updates.