KB-1737 JBoss start-up does not progress with no useful errors in the server logs

Symptoms

JBoss fails to start-up every time the standalone.bat|sh script located in the <JBOSS_HOME>/bin/ directory is executed. The following output is the last thing printed in the server.log located in the <JBOSS_HOME>/standalone/logs directory:

ERROR [stderr] (MSC service thread 1-4) SLF4J: Class path contains multiple SLF4J bindings. 
ERROR [stderr] (MSC service thread 1-4) SLF4J: Found binding in [vfs:/D:/appian/ear/suite.ear/lib/slf4j-log4j12-1.7.0.jar/org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class] 
ERROR [stderr] (MSC service thread 1-4) SLF4J: Found binding in [vfs:/D:/appian/ear/suite.ear/lib/slf4j-simple-1.7.21.jar/org/slf4j/impl/StaticLoggerBinder.class] 
ERROR [stderr] (MSC service thread 1-4) SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#multiple_bindings for an explanation. 
ERROR [stderr] (MSC service thread 1-4) SLF4J: Actual binding is of type [org.slf4j.impl.Log4jLoggerFactory]

Note: The SLF4J errors above are not directly related to this issue and can be safely disregarded. They simply display the point at which the start-up hangs.

Cause

This issue may be caused by the application server being unable to access <APPIAN_HOME>/_admin directory. This may be caused by one of the following reasons:

There is significant network latency while accessing the <APPIAN_HOME>/_admin directory.
There is heavy load on the server hosting the <APPIAN_HOME>/_admin directory.
There are improper permissions on the <APPIAN_HOME>/_admin directory.

Action

Ensure that the <APPIAN_HOME>/_admin directory is accessible by JBoss. If it's hosted in a shared drive, check the network latency and the load on the shared drive.

Affected Versions

This article applies to all versions of Appian using JBoss as an application server.

Last Reviewed: September 2018