KB-2005 Appian URL uses a database schema, server, or port different than what is defined in custom.properties

Symptoms

Symptom 1

The login page loads via HTTPS but static content does not load. Inspecting the page through a network capture reveals that static content response is coming from an undesired port.

Symptom 2

Setting a default User Start Page on the 'User Start Pages' tab of the Admin Console yields the following error:

The URL is invalid or has an incorrect base URL. The base URL must be https://FQDN:<INCORRECT_PORT>

Symptom 3

Logging in yields a 401 error when hitting:

https://<FQDN>/suite

Symptom 4

JBoss or Tomcat fail to start with errors that point to data sources that do not exist in custom.properties, appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml/tomcatResources.xml.

Cause

A custom.properties file exists somewhere else on the server other than the expected location. This file is expected to be under <APPIAN_HOME>/conf for Appian 18.3 and later, and in <APPIAN_HOME>/ear/suite.ear/conf for 18.2 and earlier.

If a custom.properties file is found in one of the following directories:

Directly from the URL
Base directory
User's home directory (if it exists)

Appian will use that file rather than the expected custom.properties file in the conf directory and the application server will fail to start due to a mismatch between custom.properties and the appian-ds.xml, standalone.xml, or tomcatResources.xml files.

Action

Find and remove any custom.properties files extraneous to the classpath.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.4 and earlier.

Last Reviewed: October 2019