A child container failed during start java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException

zzz2991 picture zzz2991 · Jan 23, 2015 · Viewed 250.5k times · Source

I tried to create/run a basic JSP and ran into the following error. I saw that other people have had similar problems, however, I haven't been able to find (or properly implement) a solution to the problem at hand yet. Any help would be appreciated!

    SEVERE: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/SimpleServletProject]]
    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:1123)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:816)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1575)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1565)
    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[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/SimpleServletProject]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: HttpServletRequest
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredMethods(Class.java:2693)
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java:1967)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.Introspection.getDeclaredMethods(Introspection.java:127)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadMethodsAnnotation(WebAnnotationSet.java:287)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadApplicationServletAnnotations(WebAnnotationSet.java:140)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadApplicationAnnotations(WebAnnotationSet.java:65)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.applicationAnnotationsConfig(ContextConfig.java:415)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:892)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:386)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:117)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5380)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: HttpServletRequest
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1720)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1571)
    ... 20 more

Jan 22, 2015 9:04:06 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase startInternal
SEVERE: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].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:1123)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal(StandardEngine.java:300)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal(StandardService.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.startInternal(StandardServer.java:739)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:689)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:483)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:321)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:455)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1575)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1565)
    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:1131)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:816)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 6 more

Jan 22, 2015 9:04:06 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
SEVERE: The required Server component failed to start so Tomcat is unable to start.
org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardServer[8005]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:689)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:483)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:321)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:455)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardService[Catalina]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.startInternal(StandardServer.java:739)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 7 more
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal(StandardService.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 9 more
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: A child container failed during start
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1131)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal(StandardEngine.java:300)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 11 more

Jan 22, 2015 9:04:06 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol pause
INFO: Pausing ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"]
Jan 22, 2015 9:04:06 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol pause
INFO: Pausing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-bio-8009"]
Jan 22, 2015 9:04:06 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService stopInternal
INFO: Stopping service Catalina
Jan 22, 2015 9:04:06 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol destroy
INFO: Destroying ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"]
Jan 22, 2015 9:04:06 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol destroy
INFO: Destroying ProtocolHandler ["ajp-bio-8009"]

Answer

Saif Asif picture Saif Asif · Jan 28, 2015

You must have packaged the servlet-api.jar along with the other libraries in your war file. You can verify this by opening up your war file and navigating to the WEB-INF/lib folder.

Ideally, you should not provide the servlet-api jar. The container, in your case Tomcat, is responsible for providing it at deploy time to your application. If you try to provide it as well, then issues arise due to version mismatch etc. Best practise is to just avoid packaging it. Remove it from the WEB-INF/lib.

Additional Information

If you are using maven for your packaging, then simply add the provided tag with the dependency and maven will make sure not to package it in the final war file. Something like

<dependency>
    <artifact>..
    <group> ...
    <version> ...
    <scope>provided</scope>
</<dependency>