org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component

Question

i am getting this error when starting my tomcat server with my application.

I don't really understand it but if i "clean" in eclipse a few times or if i stop start the tomcat server a few times it somehow works, but then it happens over again if i stop.

any ideas?

WARNING: [SetContextPropertiesRule]{Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.server:datalinx-backend' did not find a matching property.
May 27, 2014 11:23:36 AM org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader validateJarFile
INFO: validateJarFile(D:\Applications\STS\vfabric-tc-server-developer- 2.9.2.RELEASE\base-instance\wtpwebapps\datalinx-backend\WEB-INF\lib\javax.el-api-2.2.4.jar)    - jar not loaded. See Servlet Spec 2.3, section 9.7.2. Offending class: javax/el/Expression.class
May 27, 2014 11:23:36 AM org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader validateJarFile
INFO: validateJarFile(D:\Applications\STS\vfabric-tc-server-developer-2.9.2.RELEASE\base-instance\wtpwebapps\datalinx-backend\WEB-INF\lib\javax.servlet-api-3.0.1.jar) - jar not loaded. See Servlet Spec 2.3, section 9.7.2. Offending class: javax/servlet/Servlet.class
May 27, 2014 11:23:36 AM org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader validateJarFile
INFO: validateJarFile(D:\Applications\STS\vfabric-tc-server-developer-2.9.2.RELEASE\base-instance\wtpwebapps\datalinx-backend\WEB-INF\lib\tomcat-embed-core-7.0.52.jar) - jar not loaded. See Servlet Spec 2.3, section 9.7.2. Offending class: javax/servlet/Servlet.class      May 27, 2014 11:23:36 AM org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader validateJarFile
INFO: validateJarFile(D:\Applications\STS\vfabric-tc-server-developer-2.9.2.RELEASE\base-instance\wtpwebapps\datalinx-backend\WEB-INF\lib\tomcat-embed-el-7.0.52.jar) - jar not loaded. See Servlet Spec 2.3, section 9.7.2. Offending class: javax/el/Expression.class
May 27, 2014 11:23:39 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase addChildInternal
SEVERE: ContainerBase.addChild: start: 
org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/backend]]
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:901)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:633)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:657)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDescriptor.run(HostConfig.java:1637)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:471)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to complete the scan for annotations for web application [/backend] due to a StackOverflowError. Possible root causes include a too low setting for -Xss and illegal cyclic inheritance dependencies. The class hierarchy being processed was [org.bouncycastle.asn1.ASN1EncodableVector->org.bouncycastle.asn1.DEREncodableVector->org.bouncycastle.asn1.ASN1EncodableVector]
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.checkHandlesTypes(ContextConfig.java:2179)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsStream(ContextConfig.java:2126)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsJar(ContextConfig.java:2001)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsUrl(ContextConfig.java:1967)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotations(ContextConfig.java:1952)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1326)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:878)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:369)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5269)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
... 11 more

 May 27, 2014 11:23:39 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployDescriptor
 SEVERE: Error deploying configuration descriptor D:\Applications\STS\vfabric-tc-server-developer-2.9.2.RELEASE\base-instance\conf\Catalina\localhost\backend.xml
 java.lang.IllegalStateException: ContainerBase.addChild: start: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/backend]]
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:904)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:633)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:657)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDescriptor.run(HostConfig.java:1637)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:471)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724)

  May 27, 2014 11:23:39 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployDirectory

Answer 1

First of all, that looks like Pivotal's tc Server rather than Apache Tomcat. tc Server is based on Apache Tomcat but they are not exactlt the same and it always helps to provide the most accurrate information you can.

There is something seriously wrong with your dependencies. Tomcat is detecting the following class heirarchy:

org.bouncycastle.asn1.ASN1EncodableVector ->org.bouncycastle.asn1.DEREncodableVector ->org.bouncycastle.asn1.ASN1EncodableVector

This is a cyclic dependency. In Java it is illegal for A to extend B if B extends A.

Cleaning out your dependencies and ensuring you are using only using one version of the bouncy castle JAR should fix this.

If the problem persists and can be reproduced on a clean install of the latest stable Tomcat 7 release then please do open a bug against Apache Tomcat and provide the web application that demonstrates the issue.