[spring] ApplicationContextException: Unable to start ServletWebServerApplicationContext due to missing ServletWebServerFactory bean

I have written a spring batch application using Spring boot. When I am trying to run that application using command line and classpath on my local system it is running fine. However, when I tried to run it on linux server it is giving me following exception

Unable to start web server; nested exception is
org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextException: 
Unable to start ServletWebServerApplicationContext due to missing ServletWebServerFactory bean.

Below is the way I am running it:

java -cp jarFileName.jar; lib\* -Dlogging.level.org.springframework=DEBUG -Dspring.profiles.active=dev -Dspring.batch.job.names=abcBatchJob com.aa.bb.StartSpringBatch > somelogs.log

I was trying to create a web application with spring boot and I got the same error. After inspecting I found that I was missing a dependency. So, be sure to add following dependency to your pom.xml file.

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency> 

I encountered this problem when attempint to run my web application as a fat jar rather than from within my IDE (IntelliJ).

This is what worked for me. Simply adding a default profile to the application.properties file.

spring.profiles.active=default

You don't have to use default if you have already set up other specific profiles (dev/test/prod). But if you haven't this is necessary to run the application as a fat jar.

Similar to the solution of making sure org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-tomcat was installed, I was missing org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server from my build.gradle

org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web needs a server be it Tomcat, Jetty or something else - it will compile but not run without one.

Apart from the possible solutions in other answers, it is also possible that somehow Maven dependency corruption has occurred on your machine. I was facing the same error on trying to run my (Web) Spring boot application, and it got resolved by running the following -

mvn dependency:purge-local-repository -DreResolve=true

followed by

mvn package

I came onto this solution looking into another issue where Eclipse wouldn't let me run the main application class from the IDE, due to a different error, similar to one on this SO thread -> The type org.springframework.context.ConfigurableApplicationContext cannot be resolved. It is indirectly referenced from required .class files

Adding following bean worked for me.

    @Bean
    public ServletWebServerFactory servletWebServerFactory() {
        return new TomcatServletWebServerFactory();
    }

I was running non web spring application using SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class, args); without @SpringBootApplication annotation.

My problem was the same as that in the original question, only that I was running via Eclipse and not cmd. Tried all the solutions listed, but didn't work. The final working solution for me, however, was while running via cmd (or can be run similarly via Eclipse). Used a modified command appended with spring config from cmd:

start java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m <and the usual parameters as needed, like PrintGC etc> -Dspring.config.location=<propertiesfiles> -jar <jar>

I guess my issue was the spring configurations not being loaded correctly.

In my case, I was using an TOMCAT 8 and updating to TOMCAT 9 fixed it:

  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>spring-boot-app</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-app</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <packaging>war</packaging>

  <parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.1.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
  </parent>

  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
      <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
        <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.1</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <goals>
              <goal>java</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
        <configuration>
          <mainClass>com.example.Application</mainClass>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

  <properties>
    <tomcat.version>9.0.37</tomcat.version>
  </properties>

Related issues:

1. https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/issues?q=missing+ServletWebServerFactory+bean
2. https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/issues/22013 - Spring Boot app as a module
3. https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/issues/19141 - Application fails to load when main class extends a base class annotated with @SpringBootApplication when spring-boot-starter-web is included as a dependency

I had this problem during migration to Spring Boot. I've found a advice to remove dependencies and it helped. So, I removed dependency for jsp-api Project had. Also, servlet-api dependency has to be removed as well.

compileOnly group: 'javax.servlet.jsp', name: 'jsp-api', version: '2.2' 

My solution had to do with a bad dependency. I had:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
  <exclusions>
    <exclusion>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
    </exclusion>
  </exclusions>
</dependency>

In my pom and I had to comment out the exclusion to get it working. It must look for this tomcat package for some reason.

As for me, I removed the provided scope in tomcat dependency.

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
  <scope>provided</scope> // remove this scope
</dependency>

Probably you missing @SpringBootApplication in your spring boot starter class.

@SpringBootApplication
public class LoginSecurityAppApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(LoginSecurityAppApplication.class, args);
    }

}

Annotate class public static void main with, for example: @SpringBootApplication

Case 1:

@SpringBootApplication annotation missing in your spring boot starter class.

Case 2:

For non web application, disable web application type in properties file:

In application.properties:

spring.main.web-application-type=none

If you use application.yml then add:

  spring:
    main:
      web-application-type: none

For web applications, extends *SpringBootServletInitializer* in main class.

@SpringBootApplication
public class YourAppliationName extends SpringBootServletInitializer{
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(YourAppliationName.class, args);
    }
}

Case 3:

If you use spring-boot-starter-webflux then also add spring-boot-starter-web as dependency.

In case you're using IntelliJ and this is happening to you (like it did to my noob-self), ensure the Run setting has Spring Boot Application and NOT plain Application.

You probably use this in your project:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webflux</artifactId>
</dependency>

in which case you'll have to also add:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>

and the magic happens :)

PS: that's because Spring will use by default web-MVC instead of web-flux when both are available

I did right click on my project in IntelliJ IDEA then Maven -> Reload project, problem solved.

Upgrading spring-boot-starter-parent in pom.xml to the latest version fixed it for me.

1. @SpringBootApplication: checked, didn't work.
2. spring-boot-starter-web in Pom file: checked, didn't work.
3. Switch from IntelliJ CE to IntelliJ Ultimate, problem solved.

In my case the issue resolved on commenting the tomcat dependencies exclusion from spring-boot-starte-web

     <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        <!-- <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions> -->
    </dependency> 

In my case, the problem was I didn't had a Tomcat server separately installed in my eclipse. I assumed my Springboot will start the server automatically within itself.

Since my main class extends SpringBootServletInitializer and override configure method, I definitely need a Tomcat server installed in my IDE.

To install, first download Apachce Tomcat (version 9 in my case) and create server using Servers tab.

After installation, run the main class on server.

Run As -> Run on Server