KB-XXXX 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. Additionally, ensure that the environment's topology has a Kafka broker on the same server as the Data Server.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last reviewed: April 2018