Problem

Confluence will not start up or it will not be able to connect to the database and struggle to start up.

The following appears in the atlassian-confluence.log:

2016-04-28 04:20:00,754 WARN [com.mchange.v2.async.ThreadPoolAsynchronousRunner$PoolThread-#1] [mchange.v2.resourcepool.BasicResourcePool] run com.mchange.v2.resourcepool.BasicResourcePool$AcquireTask@686d06e1 -- Acquisition Attempt Failed!!! Clearing pending acquires. While trying to acquire a needed new resource, we failed to succeed more than the maximum number of allowed acquisition attempts (30). Last acquisition attempt exception: 
java.sql.SQLException: ORA-28000: the account is locked

Diagnosis

Environment

• Confluence is running on an Oracle database

Diagnostic Steps

• Log into the Oracle database with the following commands to look at the account's status: sqlplus sys as sysdba

• Run the following to print the status for all of your accounts:

  SELECT username, account_status FROM dba_users;

• Search for the user that Confluence uses to connect to the database. In the following example, the confuser and confluence accounts are open and accessible, but the user scott is locked and would throw the error above:

  USERNAME
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  ACCOUNT_STATUS
  --------------------------------
  CONFUSER
  OPEN
  
  CONFLUENCE
  OPEN
  
  SCOTT
  EXPIRED & LOCKED

Cause

The Oracle database account was locked. This often happens when someone tries to log into that account repeatedly with an incorrect password.

Resolution

• Shutdown Confluence
• Log into Oracle as follows: sqlplus sys as sysdba

• Run the following to unlock the account:

  alter user scott account unlock;
  grant connect, resource to scott;

• Ensure the password you are using to connect to that account is up to date and accurate.
• Restart Confluence