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

Parmida Borhani — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 06:54:37 GMT

Current Revision posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 10/4/2019 6:54:37 AM

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

Tags: database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 15:39:01 GMT

Revision 17 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 10/3/2019 3:39:01 PM

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

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)

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

Tags: database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 22:44:21 GMT

Revision 16 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 10/2/2019 10:44:21 PM

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: September 2019

Tags: database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Parmida Borhani — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:03:04 GMT

Revision 15 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 9/25/2019 12:03:04 AM

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.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

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

Note: The conf directory referenced below has a different location depending on the Appian version. In versions 18.3 and later, it is <APPIAN_HOME>/conf. In 18.2 and earlier, it is <APPIAN_HOME>/ear/suite.ear/conf.

The conf directory is on the classpath, so Appian expects to use the custom.properties file on step 4. However, if a custom.properties file is found in one of the directories before step 4, Appian will use that file rather than the expected custom.properties file in the conf directory.

Hence, if stale versions of custom.properties exist in a user's home directory and this user attempts to start the application server, Appian will pick-up the wrong file and the application server will fail to start.

A custom.properties file with stale values exists in the user’s home directory. Hence, JBoss/Tomcat overwrites updates made to the custom.properties in step 4 with the stale values from the rogue custom.properties file
The application server could not start because the data sources defined in the stale custom.properties file are not present in the appian-ds.xml, standalone.xml, or tomcatResources.xml files. Given that Apache found a stale custom.properties file, it will utilize its configurations. This causes 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: September 2019

Tags: database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 14:45:26 GMT

Revision 14 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 9/24/2019 2:45:26 PM

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.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

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

The /conf/ directory is on the classpath, so Appian expects to use the custom.properties file on step 4. However, if a custom.properties file is found in one of the directories before step 4, Appian will use that file rather than the expected custom.properties file in the /conf/ directory.

A custom.properties file with stale values exists in the user’s home directory. Hence, JBoss/Tomcat overwrites updates made to the custom.properties in step 4 with the stale values from the rogue custom.properties file
The application server could not start because the data sources defined in the stale custom.properties file are not present in the appian-ds.xml, standalone.xml, or tomcatResources.xml files. Given that Apache found a stale custom.properties file, it will utilize its configurations. This causes 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: September 2019

Tags: database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 14:44:53 GMT

Revision 13 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 9/24/2019 2:44:53 PM

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.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

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

A custom.properties file with stale values exists in the user’s home directory. Hence, JBoss/Tomcat overwrites updates made to the custom.properties in step 4 with the stale values from the rogue custom.properties file
The application server could not start because the data sources defined in the stale custom.properties file are not present in the appian-ds.xml, standalone.xml, or tomcatResources.xml files.Given that Apache found a stale custom.properties file, it will utilize its configurations. This causes 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: September 2019

Tags: database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Parmida Borhani — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 02:28:34 GMT

Revision 12 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 8/28/2019 2:28:34 AM

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.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

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

The /conf/ directory is on the classpath, so Appian expects to use the custom.properties file on step 4. However, if a custom.properties file is found before step 4, Appian will use that file rather than the expected custom.properties file in the /conf/ directory. Hence, if stale versions of custom.properties exist in a user's home directory and this user attempts to start the application server, Appian willl pick up the wrong file and the application server will fail to start.

A custom.properties file with stale values exists in the user’s home directory. Hence, JBoss/Tomcat overwrites the customer’s updates to the custom.properties in the expected location with the values from the stale custom.properties
JBoss/Tomcat could not start because the data sources defined in the custom.properties file in the user's home directory no longer exist in the appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml/tomcatResources.xml files after updates were made to the files and the custom.properties located in the expected location

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: August 2019

Tags: database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Parmida Borhani — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 02:27:21 GMT

Revision 11 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 8/28/2019 2:27:21 AM

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.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

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

A custom.properties file with stale values exists in the user’s home directory. Hence, JBoss/Tomcat overwrites the customer’s updates to the custom.properties in the expected location with the values from the stale custom.properties
JBoss/Tomcat could not start because the data sources defined in the custom.properties file in the user's home directory no longer exist in the appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml/tomcatResources.xml files after updates were made to the files and the custom.properties located in the expected location

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: August 2019

Tags: known issues, database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Parmida Borhani — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 02:26:51 GMT

Revision 10 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 8/28/2019 2:26:51 AM

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.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

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

A custom.properties file with stale values exists in the user’s home directory. Hence, JBoss/Tomcat overwrites the customer’s updates to the custom.properties in the expected location with the values from the stale custom.properties
JBoss/Tomcat could not start because the data sources defined in the custom.properties file in the user's home directory no longer exist in the appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml/tomcatResources.xml files after updates were made to the files and the custom.properties located in the expected location

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: August 2019

Tags: known issues, database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 22:21:33 GMT

Revision 8 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 8/27/2019 10:21:33 PM

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 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.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

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

The /conf/ directory is on the classpath, so Appian expects to use the custom.properties file on step 4. However, if a custom.properties file is found before step 4, Appian will use that file rather than the expected custom.properties file in the /conf/ directory. Hence, if stale versions of custom.properties exist in a user's home directory and this user attempts to start the Application Server, Appian willl pick-up the wrong file and the Application Server will fail to start.

A custom.properties file with stale values exists in the user’s home directory. Hence, JBoss/Tomcat overwrites the customer’s updates to the custom.properties in the expected location with the values from the stale custom.properties
JBoss/Tomcat could not start because the data sources defined in the custom.properties file in the user's home directory no longer exist in the appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml/tomcatResources.xml files after updates were made to the files and the custom.properties located in the expected location

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: August 2019

Tags: known issues, database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 22:21:33 GMT

Revision 8 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 8/27/2019 10:21:33 PM

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 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.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

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

A custom.properties file with stale values exists in the user’s home directory. Hence, JBoss/Tomcat overwrites the customer’s updates to the custom.properties in the expected location with the values from the stale custom.properties
JBoss/Tomcat could not start because the data sources defined in the custom.properties file in the user's home directory no longer exist in the appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml/tomcatResources.xml files after updates were made to the files and the custom.properties located in the expected location

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: August 2019

Tags: known issues, database, installation, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 14:51:07 GMT

Revision 7 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 8/20/2019 2:51:07 PM

Symptoms

Symptom 1

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 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/tempo

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 <APPIAN_HOME>/conf.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

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

<APPIAN_HOME>/conf/ is on the classpath, so Appian expects to use the custom.properties file on setep 4. However, if a custom.properties file is found before step 4, Appian will use that file rather than the expected custom.properties file in <APPIAN_HOME>/conf. Hence, if stale versions of custom.properties exist in a user's home directory and this user attempts to start the Application Server, Appian willl pick-up the wrong file and the Application Server will fail to start.

A custom.properties file with stale values exists in the user’s home directory. Hence, JBoss/Tomcat overwrites the customer’s updates to the custom.properties located in <APPIAN_HOME>/conf/ with the values from the stale custom.properties
JBoss/Tomcat could not start because the data sources defined in the custom.properties file in the user's home directory no longer exist in the appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml/tomcatResources.xml files after updates were made to the files and the custom.properties located in <APPIAN_HOME>/conf/

Action

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

Linux

Possibility to run grep at the user level to find all custom.properties files that exist on the server.

Windows

Possibility to use Windows File Explorer to search for all custom.properties files that exist on the server.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.4 and earlier.

Tags: known issues, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 14:24:48 GMT

Revision 6 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 8/20/2019 2:24:48 PM

Symptoms

Symptom 1

- 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 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 suite/tempo

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 <APPIAN_HOME>/conf.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

directly from the URL
base directory
user's home directory (if it exists)
classpath

<APPIAN_HOME>/conf/conf is on the classpath, so Appian expects to use the custom.properties file on setep 4. However, if a custom.properties file is found before step 4, Appian will use that file rather than the expected custom.propoerties file in <APPIAN_HOME>/conf. Hence, if stale versions of custom.properties exist in a user's home directory and this user attempts to start the Application Server, Appian willl pick-up the wrong file and the Application Server will fail to start.

Jboss could not start because the data sources defined in the custom.properties file in the user's home directory no longer existed in the ds.xml after updates were made to the ds.xml and the APPIAN_HOME custom.properties.

custom.properties with stale values in the user’s home directory. Jboss was overwriting the customer’s updates to the custom.properties in the APPIAN_HOME directory with these, so their expected changes were not taking affect.

Action

Find and remove/rename any custom.properties files extraneous to the classpath
1. Linux
  1. Possibility to run grep at the user level to find all custom.properties files that exist on the server
2. Windows
  1. Possibility to use Windows File Explorer to search for all custom.properties files that exist on the server

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.4 and earlier.

Tag Patty Phonemany and Gabe Hollies

Tags: known issues, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 13:54:44 GMT

Revision 5 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 8/20/2019 1:54:44 PM

Symptoms

Symptom 1

- 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 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 suite/tempo

Symptom 4

JBOSS fails to start with errors that point to data sources that do not exist in custom.properties, appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml.

Cause

A custom.properties file exists somewhere else on the server other than <APPIAN_HOME>/conf.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate() which resolves in the following order:

directly from the URL
base directory
user's home directory (if it exists)
classpath

Action

Find and remove/rename any custom.properties files extraneous to the classpath
1. Linux
  1. Possibility to run grep at the user level to find all custom.properties files that exist on the server
2. Windows
  1. Possibility to use Windows File Explorer to search for all custom.properties files that exist on the server

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.4 and earlier.

Tag Patty Phonemany and Gabe Hollies

Tags: known issues, application server, infrastructure

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

Daniel Castegnaro — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 14:32:34 GMT

Revision 4 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 8/18/2019 2:32:34 PM

Symptoms

Symptom 1

- 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 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 suite/tempo

Symptom 4

JBOSS fails to start with errors that point to data sources that do not exist in custom.properties, appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml.

Cause

A custom.properties file exists somewhere else on the server other than <APPIAN_HOME>/conf.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate which resolves in the following order:

directly from the URL
base directory
user's home directory if it can find one
classpath

AE_HOME/conf is on the classpath, so up until now we've been relying on getting to step #4. But both customers had stale versions of custom.properties laying around in the home directory of the user who started the appserver, so their sites were picking up the wrong file and quietly breaking.

Looking in the apache commons configuration code, when custom.properties is loaded we're just providing a file name, not a path. org.apache.commons.configuration.ConfigurationUtils.locate() is called to try to find the URL where that file exists. It searches in the following order:

1) directly from the URL (which it doesn't have)

2) base directory (which it doesn't have)

3) user's home directory if it can find one (which is what I think is getting picked up in both tickets I've seen)

4) classpath (which is what we want...will find it under AE_HOME/conf)

This is why when the file found in the user home directory is deleted and the appserver restarted things work fine...it gets to the classpath part of the search and finds it in conf.

Action

Find and remove the other custom.properties files.
Rename the custom.properties in the user’s home directory
Find and remove the other custom.properties files. Possibility to run grep at the user level to find all custom.properties files that exist on the server.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.4 and earlier.

Tag Patty Phonemany

Tags: known issues, application server, infrastructure

DRAFT KB-XXXX Appian URL is using a scheme, server or port different than what is defined in custom.properties

Daniel Castegnaro — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 21:52:14 GMT

Revision 3 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel Castegnaro on 7/16/2019 9:52:14 PM

Symptoms

Symptom 1

- Login Page loads via https but static content does not load. Inspecting the page through a network capture reveals that content is coming from another location.

Symptom 2

- Logging in gives 401 blank page at url https://jango-wnv-01/suite/auth?appian_environment=tempo

Symptom 3

JBOSS fails to start with errors that point to data sources that do not exist (were removed) in custom.properties, appian-ds.xml, nor standalone.xml.

Cause

A custom.properties file exists somewhere else on the server other than <APPIAN_HOME>/conf, the being picked up.

Apache commons-configuration PropertiesConfiguration will attempt to find a file specified by just the name with a call to ConfigurationUtils.locate which resolves in the following order:

directly from the URL
base directory
user's home directory if it can find one
classpath

1) directly from the URL (which it doesn't have)

2) base directory (which it doesn't have)

3) user's home directory if it can find one (which is what I think is getting picked up in both tickets I've seen)

4) classpath (which is what we want...will find it under AE_HOME/conf)

This is why when the file found in the user home directory is deleted and the appserver restarted things work fine...it gets to the classpath part of the search and finds it in conf.

Action

find and remove the other custom.properties files.

Rename the custom.properties in the user’s home directory

Find and remove the other custom.properties files. Possibility to run grep at the user level to find all custom.properties files that exist on the server.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 16.2 and earlier.

Tags: known issues, application server, infrastructure

DRAFT KB-XXXX Appian URL is using a scheme, server or port different than what is defined in custom.properties

Daniel DeVeau — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 17:34:03 GMT

Revision 2 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel DeVeau on 2/14/2019 5:34:03 PM

Symptoms

- Login Page loads via https but static content not loading and inspecting the page reveals content coming from other location
- Logging in gives 401 blank page at url https://jango-wnv-01/suite/auth?appian_environment=tempo

Cause

custom.properties file exists somewhere else on the server that is being picked up.

Action

find and remove the other custom.properties files.

This is fixed after versions:

Workaround

Tags: known issues, application server, infrastructure

DRAFT KB-XXXX Appian URL is using a scheme, server or port different than what is defined in custom.properties

Daniel DeVeau — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 20:26:13 GMT

Revision 1 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Daniel DeVeau on 12/14/2018 8:26:13 PM