KB-2279 Tomcat fails to start with java.lang.NullPointerException

Symptoms

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

Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
 at com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerClobBase.length(SQLServerClob.java:388)

Cause

This can result from one or more of the following reasons:

• An unsupported driver is in use.
• An outdated driver is in use.

Action

Update the RDBMS driver to a supported version and restart the app server.

Affected Versions

This article applies to all self-managed versions of Appian.

Last Reviewed: November 2023