CF2016 will not start - "ColdFusion 2016 service error: The system cannot find the file specified"

[ACS LLC]

My CF2016 developer edition has decided it does not want to start (on Windows 10). I did do some MS Updates over the past few days but it did't stop immediately.

I am not sure if it's related to the updated, but after I did them I started to get blue screens (thanks MS), which I fixed by removing Skype, put Skype back on and no more blue screens (yet).

Nothing else has changed. This takes me to Windows version 2004 Build  19041.508

I took a look at this post (although I have enough memory), and tried a manual start

https://community.adobe.com/t5/coldfusion/windows-could-not-start-the-coldfusion-2016-application-se...

This is the result

PS C:\coldfusion2016\cfusion\bin> .\cfstart
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:04 AM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener lifecycleEvent
INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: [C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib;C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\jintegra\bin;C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\jintegra\bin\international;C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib\oosdk\classes\win;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-11.0.7\bin]
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:04 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8500"]
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:05 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool getSharedSelector
INFO: Using a shared selector for servlet write/read
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:05 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-127.0.0.1-8016"]
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:05 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool getSharedSelector
INFO: Using a shared selector for servlet write/read
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:05 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
INFO: Starting service [Catalina]
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:05 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/8.5.42
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:08 AM org.apache.jasper.servlet.TldScanner scanJars
INFO: At least one JAR was scanned for TLDs yet contained no TLDs. Enable debug logging for this logger for a complete list of JARs that were scanned but no TLDs were found in them. Skipping unneeded JARs during scanning can improve startup time and JSP compilation time.
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:08 AM org.apache.catalina.util.SessionIdGeneratorBase createSecureRandom
WARNING: Creation of SecureRandom instance for session ID generation using [SHA1PRNG] took [216] milliseconds.
02/10 10:52:10 INFO License Service: Flex 1.5 CF Edition enabled
02/10 10:52:10 INFO Starting Flex 1.5 CF Edition
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:10 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: ColdFusionStartUpServlet: ColdFusion: Starting application services
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:10 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: ColdFusionStartUpServlet: ColdFusion: VM version = 11.0.7+8-LTS
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:10 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Starting logging...
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:10 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Starting license...
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:10 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Developer Edition enabled
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:10 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Starting crypto...
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:11 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Installed JSafe JCE provider: Version 6.21 Crypto-J 6.2.1, EMC Corporation. JsafeJCE Security Provider (implements RSA, DSA, ECDSA, Diffie-Hellman, ECDH, AES, DES, Triple DES, DESX, RC2, RC4, RC5, PBE, MD2, MD5, RIPEMD160, SHA1, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512, HMAC-MD5, HMAC-RIPEMD160, HMAC-SHA1, HMAC-SHA224, HMAC-SHA256, HMAC-SHA384, HMAC-SHA512, HMACDRBG, HASHDRBG, CTRDRBG, FIPS186PRNG, SHA1PRNG, MD5PRNG; RFC 3394, RFC 5649 AES Key Wrap; X.509 CertificateFactory; PKCS12, PKCS15 KeyStore; X.509V1, PKIX, PKIX-SuiteB, PKIX-SuiteBTLS CertPathValidators; X.509V1, PKIX, PKIX-SuiteB, PKIX-SuiteBTLS CertPathBuilders; LDAP, Collection CertStores)
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:11 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Starting security...
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:11 am Error [localhost-startStop-1] - Unable to initialise Security service: coldfusion.server.ServiceException: [C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib\neo-security.xml]coldfusion.wddx.WddxDeserializationException: WDDX packet parse error at line 1, column 1. Content is not allowed in prolog..
coldfusion.server.ServiceException: [C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib\neo-security.xml]coldfusion.wddx.WddxDeserializationException: WDDX packet parse error at line 1, column 1. Content is not allowed in prolog..
at coldfusion.security.SecurityManager.loadSecurity(SecurityManager.java:1483)
at coldfusion.security.SecurityManager.load(SecurityManager.java:1440)
at coldfusion.server.ServiceBase.start(ServiceBase.java:62)
at coldfusion.security.SecurityManager.start(SecurityManager.java:1430)
at coldfusion.server.CFService.setupSecurity(CFService.java:452)
at coldfusion.server.CFService.start(CFService.java:579)
at coldfusion.server.j2ee.CFStartUpServlet.startCFService(CFStartUpServlet.java:567)
at coldfusion.server.j2ee.CFStartUpServlet.init(CFStartUpServlet.java:510)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:158)
at coldfusion.bootstrap.ClassloaderHelper.initServletClass(ClassloaderHelper.java:121)
at coldfusion.bootstrap.BootstrapServlet.init(BootstrapServlet.java:59)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1142)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1089)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:983)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:5007)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5321)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1423)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1413)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834)
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:11 am Error [localhost-startStop-1] - Unable to initialise CFStartupServlet:[C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib\neo-security.xml]coldfusion.wddx.WddxDeserializationException: WDDX packet parse error at line 1, column 1. Content is not allowed in prolog..
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:11 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Shutting down servlet container...
PS C:\coldfusion2016\cfusion\bin> .\cfstart
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:28 AM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener lifecycleEvent
INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: [C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib;C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\jintegra\bin;C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\jintegra\bin\international;C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib\oosdk\classes\win;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-11.0.7\bin]
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:29 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8500"]
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:29 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool getSharedSelector
INFO: Using a shared selector for servlet write/read
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:29 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-127.0.0.1-8016"]
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:29 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool getSharedSelector
INFO: Using a shared selector for servlet write/read
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:29 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
INFO: Starting service [Catalina]
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:29 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/8.5.42
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:32 AM org.apache.jasper.servlet.TldScanner scanJars
INFO: At least one JAR was scanned for TLDs yet contained no TLDs. Enable debug logging for this logger for a complete list of JARs that were scanned but no TLDs were found in them. Skipping unneeded JARs during scanning can improve startup time and JSP compilation time.
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:32 AM org.apache.catalina.util.SessionIdGeneratorBase createSecureRandom
WARNING: Creation of SecureRandom instance for session ID generation using [SHA1PRNG] took [207] milliseconds.
02/10 10:52:34 INFO License Service: Flex 1.5 CF Edition enabled
02/10 10:52:34 INFO Starting Flex 1.5 CF Edition
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:34 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: ColdFusionStartUpServlet: ColdFusion: Starting application services
Oct 02, 2020 10:52:34 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: ColdFusionStartUpServlet: ColdFusion: VM version = 11.0.7+8-LTS
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:34 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Starting logging...
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:34 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Starting license...
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:34 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Developer Edition enabled
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:34 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Starting crypto...
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:35 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Installed JSafe JCE provider: Version 6.21 Crypto-J 6.2.1, EMC Corporation. JsafeJCE Security Provider (implements RSA, DSA, ECDSA, Diffie-Hellman, ECDH, AES, DES, Triple DES, DESX, RC2, RC4, RC5, PBE, MD2, MD5, RIPEMD160, SHA1, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512, HMAC-MD5, HMAC-RIPEMD160, HMAC-SHA1, HMAC-SHA224, HMAC-SHA256, HMAC-SHA384, HMAC-SHA512, HMACDRBG, HASHDRBG, CTRDRBG, FIPS186PRNG, SHA1PRNG, MD5PRNG; RFC 3394, RFC 5649 AES Key Wrap; X.509 CertificateFactory; PKCS12, PKCS15 KeyStore; X.509V1, PKIX, PKIX-SuiteB, PKIX-SuiteBTLS CertPathValidators; X.509V1, PKIX, PKIX-SuiteB, PKIX-SuiteBTLS CertPathBuilders; LDAP, Collection CertStores)
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:35 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Starting security...
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:35 am Error [localhost-startStop-1] - Unable to initialise Security service: coldfusion.server.ServiceException: [C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib\neo-security.xml]coldfusion.wddx.WddxDeserializationException: WDDX packet parse error at line 1, column 1. Content is not allowed in prolog..
coldfusion.server.ServiceException: [C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib\neo-security.xml]coldfusion.wddx.WddxDeserializationException: WDDX packet parse error at line 1, column 1. Content is not allowed in prolog..
at coldfusion.security.SecurityManager.loadSecurity(SecurityManager.java:1483)
at coldfusion.security.SecurityManager.load(SecurityManager.java:1440)
at coldfusion.server.ServiceBase.start(ServiceBase.java:62)
at coldfusion.security.SecurityManager.start(SecurityManager.java:1430)
at coldfusion.server.CFService.setupSecurity(CFService.java:452)
at coldfusion.server.CFService.start(CFService.java:579)
at coldfusion.server.j2ee.CFStartUpServlet.startCFService(CFStartUpServlet.java:567)
at coldfusion.server.j2ee.CFStartUpServlet.init(CFStartUpServlet.java:510)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:158)
at coldfusion.bootstrap.ClassloaderHelper.initServletClass(ClassloaderHelper.java:121)
at coldfusion.bootstrap.BootstrapServlet.init(BootstrapServlet.java:59)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1142)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1089)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:983)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:5007)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5321)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1423)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1413)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834)
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:35 am Error [localhost-startStop-1] - Unable to initialise CFStartupServlet:[C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib\neo-security.xml]coldfusion.wddx.WddxDeserializationException: WDDX packet parse error at line 1, column 1. Content is not allowed in prolog..
Oct 2, 2020 10:52:35 am Information [localhost-startStop-1] - Shutting down servlet container...
PS C:\coldfusion2016\cfusion\bin>

I also checked the JVM.CONFIG and I have this for the JVM

java.home=C:/Program Files/Java/jdk-11.0.7

This path does exist.

Anybody have any ideas? I am somewhat lost

[ACS LLC · Accepted solution]

I may have found the problem, I see Charlie talked about the same issue https://community.adobe.com/t5/coldfusion/coldfusion-server-cf-2016-suddenly-will-not-start/td-p/901...

My neo-security is indeed empty, so something must be corrupt, maybe the countless blue screens and hard shut downs that I had to make corrupted something. I'm going to pull a saved image of the computer from a backup drive and reimage it, then update, I think it'll be quicker!

[Charlie Arehart]

Yep, that would be my suspicion, but especially since the first error within that set of log lines did indicate this :

Unable to initialise Security service: coldfusion.server.ServiceException: [C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib\neo-security.xml]

I've bolded the key part of the line, though of course cf does not. 🙂 more specifically, the rest of the line indicates:

WDDX packet parse error at line 1, column 1. Content is not allowed in prolog

And that would indeed mean some thing's wrong with the file. And yep, it would have been corrupted sometime between then and the previous time cf had been restarted, most likely if cf was killed rather than stopped (or it didn't stop gracefully when told to, like on a box reboot). 

Getting a working file from a backup should work. Copying one from another cf instance is less likely to, but one can open the file and vee the contemts to see if any values might somehow be specific to a given instance or file locations. 

I do so wish that Adobe kept more than one .bak file, for each xml. I suppose your one did not work, right? If they kept more than one, it could help in cases like this. 

Let us know how it goes.