KB-1554 Data Server warns about missing appian-topology.xml during startup

Symptoms

When starting the Appian Data Server, the following warning about missing appian-topology.xml appears in the script output of start.sh|bat and in the data-server.log file:

0 [main] INFO com.appian.data.TopologyFactory - Could not find /appian/data-server/conf/appian-topology.xml. The default topology configuration will be used.

The Appian Data Server may subsequently fail to start with log messages indicating it is unable to reach Zookeeper:

2018-04-12 19:55:55,467 wd-5400 [main] INFO com.appian.data.server.replication.TopicManager - Connecting to Zookeeper: localhost:2181
2018-04-12 19:56:25,646 wd-5400 [main] ERROR com.appian.data.server.Watchdog - Shutting down with exit code 1...
org.I0Itec.zkclient.exception.ZkTimeoutException: Unable to connect to zookeeper server within timeout: 30000
 at org.I0Itec.zkclient.ZkClient.connect(ZkClient.java:1232)
 at org.I0Itec.zkclient.ZkClient.<init>(ZkClient.java:156)
 at org.I0Itec.zkclient.ZkClient.<init>(ZkClient.java:130)
 at org.I0Itec.zkclient.ZkClient.<init>(ZkClient.java:97)
 at kafka.utils.ZkUtils$.createZkClient(ZkUtils.scala:70)
 at kafka.utils.ZkUtils.createZkClient(ZkUtils.scala)
 at com.appian.data.server.replication.TopicManager.<init>(TopicManager.java:115)
 at com.appian.data.server.Watchdog.<init>(Watchdog.java:109)
 at com.appian.data.server.Watchdog.main(Watchdog.java:690)

Cause

The appian-topology.xml file was not copied from <APPIAN_HOME>/ear/suite.ear/conf to <APPIAN_HOME>/data-server/conf. The file is not in the directory by default and must be copied as part of configuring the Appian Data Server for versions 18.1 and later.

Action

Copy the appian-topology.xml file from <APPIAN_HOME>/ear/suite.ear/conf to <APPIAN_HOME>/data-server/conf and restart the Appian Data Server.

If copying the file does not resolve startup issues, ensure that the environment's topology has a Kafka broker on the same server as the Data Server. As indicated in the Appian 18.1 documentation, this is required for the Appian Data Server to operate as expected due to the Data Server's dependency on Kafka.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last reviewed: April 2018