JCI Fails to Start After Upgrade Due to Liquibase Changelog Lock

Published Date: November 25, 2025

Validated: Yes

Audience: Everyone

Products and Versions Covered:

• Jama Connect Interchange™ version(s)
• Self-hosted
• JCI Module: ReqIF, Excel Functions, Jira Cloud, Jira Data Center

Summary

After upgrading JCI, Tomcat fails to start and reports a Liquibase changelog lock error:

Error creating bean with name 'liquibase': Could not acquire change log lock.
Currently locked by <hostname> (<IP>) since <timestamp>

This error prevents schema migration from completing, causing the entire JCI stack to fail to initialize.

The issue is caused by a stale Liquibase lock. During upgrades, Liquibase acquires a lock to prevent concurrent schema changes. If Tomcat or the container is interrupted, or a migration fails unexpectedly, the lock may never be released.

As a result:

• Liquibase believes an active migration is still running
• Startup halts while waiting for a lock that will never clear
• JCI Tomcat fails to start

Additional Information

Clearing the lock is safe only when JCI is fully stopped. Ensure the JCI stack is completely stopped before running queries on the Liquibase DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.

Resolution

• First of all, confirm whether the migration has actually terminated by checking JCI logs; if migration is still running, this article does not apply: clearing the lock during migration can result in DB corruption.

• Stop all JCI services/containers: It is critical that no JCI service attempts to start up during the fix.

• Ask the customer to inspect the Liquibase lock: SELECT * FROM DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK;
  They will see something like:

• Safely release the lock: run the following after confirming JCI is fully stopped:

USE configDB;

UPDATE DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK
SET LOCKED = 0,
    LOCKGRANTED = NULL,
    LOCKEDBY = NULL
WHERE ID = 1;

• Verify that LOCKED is now 0 with: SELECT * FROM DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK;
• Restart JCI: it should now start normally and complete schema initialization.

Cause

The cause is a Stale Liquibase Lock. During upgrade, Liquibase acquires a lock to prevent concurrent schema changes.
If Tomcat or the container is interrupted, or a migration fails unexpectedly, this lock may never be released.

As a result:

• Liquibase believes an active migration is still running

• Startup halts while waiting for a lock that will never clear

• JCI Tomcat fails to start

Additional Information

Clearing the lock is safe only when JCI is fully stopped. Please make sure that it's the case before proceeding to run queries in the Liquibase lock table.

Additional Resources

• Liquibase Lock Table Documentation
• Release Locks Command
• Success Programs
• Success Catalog
• Datasheets
• Request a Solution Offering or Training from the Success Catalog

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