Article - CS361318
"SEVERE: Parse fatal error at line [<Line>] column [<Line Position>] org.xml.sax.SAXParseException" is logged in thingworx-foundation-stderr/tomcat9-stderr when starting Apache Tomcat for ThingWorx Platform
Modified: 10-Jun-2025
Applies To
- ThingWorx Platform 8.5 to 9.5
Description
- ThingWorx Platform will not start
- Updated an Apache Tomcat configuration file such as web.xml or server.xml and now ThingWorx Platform will not start
- Apache Tomcat starts and then immediately stops
- Possible syntax error within an Apache Tomcat configuration file, how to determine which file is causing this issue?
- After renewing the SSL certificate, Tomcat is not starting in Windows Services
- ThingWorx Platform is not starting and no logs are being generated within <ThingworxStorage>\logs
- One of the following Apache Tomcat configuration files has a syntax error:
- <Apache Tomcat>\conf\server.xml
- <Apache Tomcat>\conf\tomcat-users.xml
- <Apache Tomcat>\conf\web.xml
- <Apache Tomcat>\webapps\Thingworx\WEB-INF\web.xml
- The following error is logged in thingworx-foundation-stderr or tomcat9-stderr located within <Apache Tomcat>\logs:
[DATE TIME] Apache Commons Daemon procrun stderr initialized.
[DATE TIME] org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester fatalError
SEVERE: Parse fatal error at line [<Line>] column [<Line Position>]
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; systemId: file:<Path to Configuration File>; lineNumber: <Line>; columnNumber: <Line Position>; Element type "<Tag>" must be followed by either attribute specifications, ">" or "/>".
at java.xml/com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(ErrorHandlerWrapper.java:204)
at java.xml/com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.fatalError(ErrorHandlerWrapper.java:178)
at java.xml/com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(XMLErrorReporter.java:400)
...
[DATE TIME] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina parseServerXml
WARNING: Unable to load server configuration from [<Path to Configuration File>]
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; systemId: file:<Path to Configuration File>; lineNumber: <Line>; columnNumber: <Line Position>; Element type "<Tag>" must be followed by either attribute specifications, ">" or "/>".
at java.xml/com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(AbstractSAXParser.java:1243)
at java.xml/com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(SAXParserImpl.java:635)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1535)
...
[DATE TIME] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
SEVERE: Cannot start server, server instance is not configured
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; systemId: file:<Path to Configuration File>; lineNumber: <Line>; columnNumber: <Line Position>; The value of attribute
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