title: Deploy SpringBoot app to Websphere 8.5.5.8
body: <p>I'm trying to deploy a very basic spring boot app to Websphere 8.5.5.8 (with IBM J6 VM, on Java 1.6.0). The same app works on Glassfish but throws exception on Websphere. I've been trying to follow every guide on the net to get it working but still no avail, could someone please shed some light on what I've got wrong?</p>
  
  <p><strong>The exception log is as below:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>[8/4/16 9:36:52:031 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R   com.ibm.ws.exception.RuntimeWarning: com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.exception.WebAppNotLoadedException: Failed to load webapp: Failed to load webapp: Unable to load configuration filesnull
  [8/4/16 9:36:52:032 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R       at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.install(WebContainerImpl.java:433)null
  [8/4/16 9:36:52:032 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R       at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.start(WebContainerImpl.java:719)null
  [8/4/16 9:36:52:032 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R       at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.start(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1177)null
  [8/4/16 9:36:52:032 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R       at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedApplicationImpl.fireDeployedObjectStart(DeployedApplicationImpl.java:1382)null
  [8/4/16 9:36:52:032 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R       at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedModuleImpl.start(DeployedModuleImpl.java:639)null
  [8/4/16 9:36:52:032 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R       at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedApplicationImpl.start(DeployedApplicationImpl.java:971)null
  [8/4/16 9:36:52:032 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R       at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.startApplication(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:776)null
  [8/4/16 9:36:52:032 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R       at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.startApplicationDynamically(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1379)null
  [8/4/16 9:36:52:032 HKT] 00000094 SystemErr     R       at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.start(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:2189)null
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Websphere version info below:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>Installation
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Product Directory        /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer
  Version Directory        /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/properties/version
  DTD Directory            /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/properties/version/dtd
  Log Directory            /var/ibm/InstallationManager/logs
  
  Product List
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  ND                       installed
  
  Installed Product
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Name                  IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
  Version               8.5.5.8
  ID                    ND
  Build Level           cf081545.03
  Build Date            11/12/15
  Package               com.ibm.websphere.ND.v85_8.5.5008.20151112_0939
  Architecture          x86-64 (64 bit)
  Installed Features    IBM 64-bit WebSphere SDK for Java
                        WebSphere Application Server Full Profile
                        EJBDeploy tool for pre-EJB 3.0 modules
                        Embeddable EJB container
                        Stand-alone thin clients and resource adapters
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>My POM file:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;packaging&gt;war&lt;/packaging&gt;
  
  &lt;name&gt;test-server&lt;/name&gt;
  
  &lt;parent&gt;
      &lt;groupId&gt;org.springframework.boot&lt;/groupId&gt;
      &lt;artifactId&gt;spring-boot-starter-parent&lt;/artifactId&gt;
      &lt;version&gt;1.3.3.RELEASE&lt;/version&gt;
      &lt;relativePath/&gt; &lt;!-- lookup parent from repository --&gt;
  &lt;/parent&gt;
  
  &lt;properties&gt;
      &lt;start-class&gt;com.test.ServletInitializer&lt;/start-class&gt;
      &lt;project.build.sourceEncoding&gt;UTF-8&lt;/project.build.sourceEncoding&gt;
      &lt;java.version&gt;1.6&lt;/java.version&gt;
  &lt;/properties&gt;
  
  &lt;dependencies&gt;
      &lt;dependency&gt;
          &lt;groupId&gt;javax&lt;/groupId&gt;
          &lt;artifactId&gt;javaee-api&lt;/artifactId&gt;
          &lt;version&gt;6.0&lt;/version&gt;
          &lt;scope&gt;provided&lt;/scope&gt;
      &lt;/dependency&gt;
      &lt;dependency&gt;
          &lt;groupId&gt;org.springframework.boot&lt;/groupId&gt;
          &lt;artifactId&gt;spring-boot-starter-web&lt;/artifactId&gt;
          &lt;exclusions&gt;
              &lt;exclusion&gt;
                  &lt;groupId&gt;org.springframework.boot&lt;/groupId&gt;
                  &lt;artifactId&gt;spring-boot-starter-tomcat&lt;/artifactId&gt;
              &lt;/exclusion&gt;
          &lt;/exclusions&gt;
      &lt;/dependency&gt;
  &lt;/dependencies&gt;
  
  &lt;build&gt;
      &lt;plugins&gt;
          &lt;plugin&gt;
              &lt;groupId&gt;org.springframework.boot&lt;/groupId&gt;
              &lt;artifactId&gt;spring-boot-maven-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
              &lt;executions&gt;
                  &lt;execution&gt;
                      &lt;goals&gt;
                          &lt;goal&gt;repackage&lt;/goal&gt;
                      &lt;/goals&gt;
                      &lt;configuration&gt;
                          &lt;skip&gt;true&lt;/skip&gt;
                      &lt;/configuration&gt;
                  &lt;/execution&gt;
              &lt;/executions&gt;
          &lt;/plugin&gt;
  
          &lt;plugin&gt;
              &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-resources-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
          &lt;/plugin&gt;
      &lt;/plugins&gt;
  &lt;/build&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And finally my main class:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@SpringBootApplication(exclude = MessageSourceAutoConfiguration.class)
  public class ServletInitializer extends SpringBootServletInitializer {
  
     /*public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(ServletInitializer.class, args);
     }*/
  
      @Override
      protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
          return application.sources(ServletInitializer.class);
      }
  }
  </code></pre>