SpringBoot Catalina LifeCycle Exception

Question

I have a SpringBoot Application for a simple web service which connects to Postgres DB. But when I run the application it does not start and throws following exception:

    2016-09-08 11:26:15 INFO  c.t.i.c.Main:659 - No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default
2016-09-08 11:26:20 ERROR o.a.c.c.ContainerBase:181 - A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[]]
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.report(FutureTask.java:122)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:192)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:911)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:890)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1403)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1393)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:158)
    ... 6 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [Pipeline[StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[]]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5088)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    ... 6 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [org.apache.catalina.authenticator.NonLoginAuthenticator[]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.startInternal(StandardPipeline.java:170)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    ... 8 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.servlet.ServletContext.getVirtualServerName()Ljava/lang/String;
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.startInternal(AuthenticatorBase.java:1085)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    ... 10 common frames omitted
2016-09-08 11:26:20 ERROR o.a.c.c.ContainerBase:181 - A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[localhost]]
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.report(FutureTask.java:122)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:192)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:911)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal(StandardEngine.java:262)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal(StandardService.java:422)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.startInternal(StandardServer.java:791)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Tomcat.start(Tomcat.java:356)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.initialize(TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.java:97)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.<init>(TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.java:83)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.getTomcatEmbeddedServletContainer(TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java:530)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.getEmbeddedServletContainer(TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java:176)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.createEmbeddedServletContainer(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:164)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.onRefresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:134)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:535)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.refresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:122)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:759)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refreshContext(SpringApplication.java:369)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:313)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1185)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1174)
    at com.demo.item.classification.Main.main(Main.java:12)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[localhost]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1403)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1393)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: A child container failed during start
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:919)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:890)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    ... 6 common frames omitted
2016-09-08 11:26:20 ERROR o.s.b.SpringApplication:838 - Application startup failed
org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextException: Unable to start embedded container; nested exception is org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedServletContainerException: Unable to start embedded Tomcat
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.onRefresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:137)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:535)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.refresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:122)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:759)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refreshContext(SpringApplication.java:369)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:313)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1185)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1174)
    at com.demo.item.classification.Main.main(Main.java:12)
Caused by: org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedServletContainerException: Unable to start embedded Tomcat
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.initialize(TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.java:116)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.<init>(TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.java:83)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.getTomcatEmbeddedServletContainer(TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java:530)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.getEmbeddedServletContainer(TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java:176)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.createEmbeddedServletContainer(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:164)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.onRefresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:134)
    ... 8 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardServer[-1]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Tomcat.start(Tomcat.java:356)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.initialize(TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer.java:97)
    ... 13 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardService[Tomcat]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.startInternal(StandardServer.java:791)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    ... 15 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Tomcat]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal(StandardService.java:422)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    ... 17 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: A child container failed during start
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:919)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal(StandardEngine.java:262)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    ... 19 common frames omitted

My Main Class:

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableAutoConfiguration
public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Main.class);
    }

}

Build.gradle

dependencies {
     classpath("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-gradle-plugin:1.4.0.RELEASE")
  }    
dependencies {
      compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web")
      compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator")
      testCompile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test")
      compile 'com.github.alaisi.pgasync:postgres-async-driver:0.9'
      compile "org.postgresql:postgresql:9.4.1208"
      testCompile "org.mockito:mockito-core:1.+"
      testCompile "junit:junit:4.11"
      runtime "org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:1.7.10"
    }

The troubleshoots that I already tried:

1. Looked for multiple jar/ version issues
2. Tomcat & Java compatibility issue
3. Cleaned/Restarted/Reimported the project
4. All build.gradle permutation and combinations
5. Checked whether any other application is running on 8080, also changed the port to 9090, still no help.

Please tell me any other reason and fix for the problem.

Answer 1

springboot depends on servlet3 or higher, so you should remove servlet-api-2.5:jar and other lower than 3.0 versions.

I haven done this successfully, through exclude servlet-api-2.5:jar.

Answer 2

Added following dependencies in the classpath:

compile("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-tomcat")
compile ("org.springframework:spring-jdbc:4.2.5.RELEASE")

Removed following dependencies in the classpath:

runtime "org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:1.7.10"