Failed loading main org/apache/catalina/startup/Bootstrap class in tomcat 7 [closed]

Question

While trying to start the Tomcat 7 process, the following logging is reported and the service does not start.

[2014-02-03 11:31:57] [info]  Commons Daemon procrun (1.0.10.0 32-bit) started
[2014-02-03 11:31:57] [info]  Running 'BOE120Tomcat7' Service...
[2014-02-03 11:31:57] [info]  Starting service...
[2014-02-03 11:31:57] [error] FindClass org/apache/catalina/startup/Bootstrap failed
[2014-02-03 11:31:57] [error] Failed to start Java
[2014-02-03 11:31:57] [error] ServiceStart returned 4
[2014-02-03 11:31:57] [info]  Run service finished.
[2014-02-03 11:31:57] [info]  Commons Daemon procrun finished

JRE 5 (1.5.0_05) is referenced in the Tomcat Java Setup "Java Virtual Machine":

Answer 1

Apache Tomcat 7.0.x requires Java 6. .

Java 5 is old and no longer supported by Sun/Oracle, and will not work at all with Tomcat 7. You need to upgrade.

Answer 2

My Tomcat 7.0.39 Windows 64bit would fail to start before it encountered the Findclass error described above. Increasing the log level verbosity revealed the JVM Tomcat was using on startup. In my case, it was using the default which incidentally was only a JRE install, not the JDK I had installed separately.

I aslo encountered the 'FindClass org/apache/catalina/startup/Bootstrap failed' error when running the Tomcat7 Windows service. However, Tomcat was able to start with no errors using the startup.bat file. Also, it's important to verify no other web server is listening on the default port, 8080. Reviewing the logging information associated with the startup.bat will reveal the classpath Tomcat is using with this startup approach.

Adding the tomcat-juli.jar to the Tomcat 7.0.39 Windows 64bit allowed the Windows service to startup fine (not required here: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/windows-service-howto.html). The classpath is a file system root derived reference so remember to use fully qualified paths when referencing jar files.