"An unknown error occurred" when installing JIRA license

Question

I am running through the initial installation for JIRA server and can't get past entering the license information. I've found posts where the error returned is "An unexpected error has occurred" but I'm getting "An unknown error occurred". I have restarted Jira, restarted my server, run through the installer several times but yet it always fails in the same place.

I tried to use the license i bought as well as a trial license but both fail in the same way.

I've referred to this post with no luck.

I looked at the log and it seems this entry is where things go wrong:

2018-06-29 14:51:05,914 http-nio-8080-exec-7 ERROR anonymous 891x6x1 2piv1i 76.190.209.32 /secure/SetupDatabase!default.jspa [c.a.j.bc.dataimport.DefaultDataImportService] Error importing data: com.atlassian.cache.CacheException: java.lang.NullPointerException

This is my first time stalling JIRA so I'm not sure where to go or what to do.

Andy Heinzer · Answer

Hi Adam, 
I would like to try to gather more logs from your system so that we can better understand what might cause this.  Please see https://getsupport.atlassian.com/servicedesk/customer/portal/20/GHS-122059 for more details.

Thanks

Andy

Adam Greenwell · Answer

I am using the Jira 7.10.2 standalone for macOS. I'm running macOS 10.3.5 and using Postgres for my database server.

I got Bamboo as well as Confluence running with no problems and those are also using Postgres with the same db user. I will check the permissions again but I have tried running with the root user as well as a specific user named "atlassian" created specifically for Jira, Confluence and Bamboo.

For testing purposes, I Alsop tried using MySQL for the db server and am getting the same generic error in response. This was also after a clean install of Jira.

Andy Heinzer · Answer

The UPM should still be installed, even if not in the user directory for plugins, there are also a group of system plugins that can be defaulted to.

What installation package are you using to install Jira?

Is this in a Linux or Windows environment?

I would also be interested to learn what database you are using with Jira?

I have seen instances in the setup wizard where the database is not actually configured correctly, or does not have permissions and in turn this license data is something that cannot be stored to the database.  But if this happens we should see more exception in the logs such as a SQL Exception error and not just the error you mentioned.