The application runs fine on a server with internet access, but in production I have block all sites using firewall and only allowed some internal domains. Thus there is no internet access.
Following is the error which shows it was not able to connect struts.apache.org on port 80
javax.servlet.ServletException: org.apache.struts.tiles.DefinitionsFactoryException: IO Error while parsing file '/WEB-INF/tiles-defs.xml'. Tried all: '2' addresses, but could not connect over HTTP to server: 'struts.apache.org', port: '80'
at org.apache.struts.tiles.TilesPlugin.initDefinitionsFactory(TilesPlugin.java:233)
at org.apache.struts.tiles.TilesPlugin.init(TilesPlugin.java:137)
at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.initModulePlugIns(ActionServlet.java:871)
at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.init(ActionServlet.java:359)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:240)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletInitAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:337)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletInitAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:288)
at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321)
at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(SecurityManager.java:120)
at weblogic.servlet.provider.WlsSubjectHandle.run(WlsSubjectHandle.java:57)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.initServletInstance(StubSecurityHelper.java:98)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.createServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:86)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubLifecycleHelper.createOneInstance(StubLifecycleHelper.java:71)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubLifecycleHelper.<init>(StubLifecycleHelper.java:57)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubLifecycleHelper.<init>(StubLifecycleHelper.java:31)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.initStubLifecycleHelper(ServletStubImpl.java:660)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.prepareServlet(ServletStubImpl.java:600)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadServlet(WebAppServletContext.java:1979)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.loadServletsOnStartup(WebAppServletContext.java:1956)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadResources(WebAppServletContext.java:1846)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.start(WebAppServletContext.java:2876)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.startContexts(WebAppModule.java:1661)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.start(WebAppModule.java:823)
at weblogic.application.internal.ExtensibleModuleWrapper$StartStateChange.next(ExtensibleModuleWrapper.java:360)
at weblogic.application.internal.ExtensibleModuleWrapper$StartStateChange.next(ExtensibleModuleWrapper.java:356)
at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:42)
at weblogic.application.internal.ExtensibleModuleWrapper.start(ExtensibleModuleWrapper.java:138)
at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleListenerInvoker.start(ModuleListenerInvoker.java:124)
at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver$3.next(ModuleStateDriver.java:216)
at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver$3.next(ModuleStateDriver.java:211)
at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:42)
at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver.start(ModuleStateDriver.java:73)
at weblogic.application.internal.flow.StartModulesFlow.activate(StartModulesFlow.java:24)
at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment$2.next(BaseDeployment.java:729)
at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:42)
at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment.activate(BaseDeployment.java:258)
at weblogic.application.internal.SingleModuleDeployment.activate(SingleModuleDeployment.java:48)
at weblogic.application.internal.DeploymentStateChecker.activate(DeploymentStateChecker.java:165)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.AppContainerInvoker.activate(AppContainerInvoker.java:80)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.AbstractOperation.activate(AbstractOperation.java:587)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.ActivateOperation.activateDeployment(ActivateOperation.java:150)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.ActivateOperation.doCommit(ActivateOperation.java:116)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.StartOperation.doCommit(StartOperation.java:151)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.AbstractOperation.commit(AbstractOperation.java:339)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentManager.handleDeploymentCommit(DeploymentManager.java:846)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentManager.activateDeploymentList(DeploymentManager.java:1275)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentManager.handleCommit(DeploymentManager.java:442)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentServiceDispatcher.commit(DeploymentServiceDispatcher.java:176)
at weblogic.deploy.service.internal.targetserver.DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.doCommitCallback(DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.java:195)
at weblogic.deploy.service.internal.targetserver.DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.access$100(DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.java:13)
at weblogic.deploy.service.internal.targetserver.DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer$2.run(DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.java:68)
at weblogic.work.SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl$WorkAdapterImpl.run(SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl.java:548)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:311)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:263)
Caused by: org.apache.struts.tiles.DefinitionsFactoryException: IO Error while parsing file '/WEB-INF/tiles-defs.xml'. Tried all: '2' addresses, but could not connect over HTTP to server: 'struts.apache.org', port: '80'
at org.apache.struts.tiles.xmlDefinition.I18nFactorySet.parseXmlFile(I18nFactorySet.java:523)
at org.apache.struts.tiles.xmlDefinition.I18nFactorySet.parseXmlFiles(I18nFactorySet.java:446)
at org.apache.struts.tiles.xmlDefinition.I18nFactorySet.createDefaultFactory(I18nFactorySet.java:263)
at org.apache.struts.tiles.xmlDefinition.I18nFactorySet.initFactory(I18nFactorySet.java:238)
at org.apache.struts.tiles.xmlDefinition.I18nFactorySet.initFactory(I18nFactorySet.java:188)
at org.apache.struts.tiles.definition.ComponentDefinitionsFactoryWrapper.init(ComponentDefinitionsFactoryWrapper.java:102)
at org.apache.struts.tiles.TilesUtilImpl.createDefinitionsFactory(TilesUtilImpl.java:136)
at org.apache.struts.tiles.TilesUtil.createDefinitionsFactory(TilesUtil.java:165)
at org.apache.struts.tiles.TilesPlugin.initDefinitionsFactory(TilesPlugin.java:222)
... 53 more
<Dec 9, 2015 3:42:17 PM EST> <Error> <HTTP> <BEA-101216> <Servlet: "action" failed to preload on startup in Web application: "application.3.3.0.war".
javax.servlet.UnavailableException: org.apache.struts.tiles.DefinitionsFactoryException: IO Error while parsing file '/WEB-INF/tiles-defs.xml'. Tried all: '2' addresses, but could not connect over HTTP to server: 'struts.apache.org', port: '80'
at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.init(ActionServlet.java:402)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:240)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletInitAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:337)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletInitAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:288)
at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321)
Truncated. see log file for complete stacktrace>
Also I was not experienceing this issue before updating JDK version from 1.6 to 1.8, but after updating I am having this error while deployment.
If this is anyhow related I would like to add that weblogic instance was also updated to 12.1.3.
Here the problem was that while deployment there was no internet connection available on the server (actually the site struts.apache.org was blocked in the firewall).
Thus during deployment I got this error. Please try to do this on a server with active internet connection to these sites or include these files in the build (obviously update the reference to refer to the included file).