DRAFT KB-XXXX Unable to start the application server after an upgrade due to invalid security token

Symptoms

The application server is unable to start and the following error appears on the application server log:

2018-08-28 13:06:17,248 [Appian PoolManager.CheckInvalidConnections - 4] ERROR com.appiancorp.kougar.driver.ipc.IpcConnection - Unexpected exception while handling message for personalization (localhost:5012)
com.appiancorp.kougar.driver.exceptions.TcpException: java.io.EOFException: Socket returned no more data at end of stream

...

com.appiancorp.kougar.driver.exceptions.SafeRetryException: Unable to acquire a Read connection. Safe to retry.
at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:154)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:89)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.instantiateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1147)
... 71 more

In service manager log, the following warning is present:

com.appian.komodo.gateway.handler.codec.SecurityTokenDecoder - Invalid Security Token.

Cause

This error appears when the security token has been modified or deleted during the upgrade. In particular, it happen when the security token has been changed after starting Service Manager as the engines will refuse the connection with the application server. The following documentation will provide more details about the security token.

Action

If this occurs during the upgrade, stop all the components and make sure to copy the security token from the backup folder to the new installation folder. The security token should be in the <APPIAN_HOME>/conf/ folder for Appian version 18.2 and newer or in the <APPIAN_HOME>/ear/suite.ear/conf/ for Appian version 18.1 and previous.

It's also possible to generate a new security token as per this documentation.

Affected Versions

This article applies to all versions of Appian.

Last Reviewed: November 2018