`AnnotationConfigNonEmbeddedWebApplicationContext` has not been refreshed yet

Question

Installing a SpringBoot Legacy (web.xml) WAR application with filters (DelegatingFilterProxy), I was given the following error/stacktrace:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: org.springframework.boot.legacy.context.web.AnnotationConfigNonEmbeddedWebApplicationContext@fff88888 has not been refreshed yet

The supplied logs...

[ERROR] 2016-01-11 11:11:11,265 org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet - Context initialization failed
java.lang.IllegalStateException: org.springframework.boot.legacy.context.web.AnnotationConfigNonEmbeddedWebApplicationContext@fff88888 has not been refreshed yet
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.assertBeanFactoryActive(AbstractApplicationContext.java:1041)
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getBean(AbstractApplicationContext.java:1059)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.initMultipartResolver(DispatcherServlet.java:497)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.initStrategies(DispatcherServlet.java:479)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.onRefresh(DispatcherServlet.java:471)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:559)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:493)
        at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:136)
        at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:161)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.init(ServletWrapper.java:342)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapperImpl.init(ServletWrapperImpl.java:168)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.load(ServletWrapper.java:1375)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.invokeFilters(WebAppFilterManager.java:1024)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.handleRequest(WebApp.java:3815)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebGroup.handleRequest(WebGroup.java:304)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WebContainer.handleRequest(WebContainer.java:981)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.handleRequest(WSWebContainer.java:1662)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.channel.WCChannelLink.ready(WCChannelLink.java:200)
        at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleDiscrimination(HttpInboundLink.java:456)
        at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleNewRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:518)
        at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.processRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:309)
        at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.ready(HttpInboundLink.java:280)
        at com.ibm.ws.ssl.channel.impl.SSLConnectionLink.determineNextChannel(SSLConnectionLink.java:1049)
        at com.ibm.ws.ssl.channel.impl.SSLConnectionLink$MyReadCompletedCallback.complete(SSLConnectionLink.java:643)
        at com.ibm.ws.ssl.channel.impl.SSLReadServiceContext$SSLReadCompletedCallback.complete(SSLReadServiceContext.java:1818)
        at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.AioReadCompletionListener.futureCompleted(AioReadCompletionListener.java:175)
        at com.ibm.io.async.AbstractAsyncFuture.invokeCallback(AbstractAsyncFuture.java:217)
        at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncChannelFuture.fireCompletionActions(AsyncChannelFuture.java:161)
        at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture.java:138)
        at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHandler.java:204)
        at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingLoop(ResultHandler.java:775)
        at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler.java:905)
        at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1720)
[ERROR] 2016-01-11 11:11:11,266 com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper - Uncaught.init.exception.thrown.by.servlet
[ERROR] 2016-01-11 11:11:11,267 com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp - SRVE0293E: [Servlet Error]-[appServlet]: java.lang.IllegalStateException: org.springframework.boot.legacy.context.web.AnnotationConfigNonEmbeddedWebApplicationContext@fff88888 has not been refreshed yet
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.assertBeanFactoryActive(AbstractApplicationContext.java:1041)
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getBean(AbstractApplicationContext.java:1059)
        at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.initDelegate(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:326)
        at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.initFilterBean(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:235)
        at org.springframework.web.filter.GenericFilterBean.init(GenericFilterBean.java:199)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.init(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:145)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager._loadFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:604)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.loadFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:511)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.getFilterInstanceWrapper(WebAppFilterManager.java:316)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.getFilterChain(WebAppFilterManager.java:389)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:928)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.invokeFilters(WebAppFilterManager.java:1104)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.handleRequest(WebApp.java:3815)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebGroup.handleRequest(WebGroup.java:304)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WebContainer.handleRequest(WebContainer.java:981)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.handleRequest(WSWebContainer.java:1662)
        at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.channel.WCChannelLink.ready(WCChannelLink.java:200)
        at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleDiscrimination(HttpInboundLink.java:456)
        at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleNewRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:518)
        at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.processRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:309)
        at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.ready(HttpInboundLink.java:280)
        at com.ibm.ws.ssl.channel.impl.SSLConnectionLink.determineNextChannel(SSLConnectionLink.java:1049)
        at com.ibm.ws.ssl.channel.impl.SSLConnectionLink$MyReadCompletedCallback.complete(SSLConnectionLink.java:643)
        at com.ibm.ws.ssl.channel.impl.SSLReadServiceContext$SSLReadCompletedCallback.complete(SSLReadServiceContext.java:1818)
        at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.AioReadCompletionListener.futureCompleted(AioReadCompletionListener.java:175)
        at com.ibm.io.async.AbstractAsyncFuture.invokeCallback(AbstractAsyncFuture.java:217)
        at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncChannelFuture.fireCompletionActions(AsyncChannelFuture.java:161)
        at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture.java:138)
        at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHandler.java:204)
        at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingLoop(ResultHandler.java:775)
        at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler.java:905)
        at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1720)

Applications versions:

• Websphere Application Server: 8.0.0.10
• SpringBoot: 1.3.3.RELEASE

Similar issues (their fixes were unrelated):

• AnnotationConfigApplicationContext has not been refreshed yet - what's wrong?
• Spring 4 upgrade now junit tests fails on "GenericApplicationContext has not been refreshed yet"?
• AnnotationConfigApplicationContext has not been refreshed yet

Answer 1

Sorry to do the question+answer thing. Hopefully this is helpful to someone else...

Looking at (only) the stacktrace provided, it looks like the issue occurred when the DelegatingFilterProxy asserted if the BeanFactory was active (this is a good start, sounded like the application context had an issue initialising...).

Upon getting access to the FULL logs, I found out the application context had failed much earlier on (issue with creating a bean - a missing file), and that this message was just the "ripples" from that original issue.

Moral of the story ( tl;dr ):

• this stacktrace is a symptom, look for the root cause (& check the full logs)