KB- XXXX Tomcat fails to load with "The server time zone value 'XXX ' is unrecognized or represents more than one time zone."

Symptoms

Tomcat fails with the following error in <APPIAN_HOME>/logs/tomcat-stdOut.log:

WARNING [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.naming.NamingContext.lookup Unexpected exception resolving reference java.sql.SQLException: Cannot create PoolableConnectionFactory (The server time zone value 'CEST' is unrecognized or represents more than one time zone. You must configure either the server or JDBC driver (via the serverTimezone configuration property) to use a more specifc time zone value if you want to utilize time zone support.)
...
Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: The server time zone value 'XXX' is unrecognized or represents more than one time zone. You must configure either the server or JDBC driver (via the serverTimezone configuration property) to use a more specifc time zone value if you want to utilize time zone support.

Cause

An unsupported version of the MySQL JDBC Driver is being used. This version contains a bug that raises a NPE because /com/mysql/jdbc/TimeZoneMapping.properties is never found. The connector uses useLegacyDatetimeCode=false without forcing serverTimeZone.

To check the MySQL version:

• In Windows, open cmd.exe as Administrator and run the following command: C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server x.x\bin\mysqld.exe -V.
• In Linux, open a command line and run the following command: mysql -V.

Action

Refer to the Appian System Requirements documentation to determine the supported versions of MySQL and upgrade MySQL accordingly.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.3 and later.

Last Reviewed: November 2018