Image Artist: Image Artist 1.5 - Error 500 when attempting to login via the webUI or failures in batch analysis after 3rd Dec 2025

Problem:

Batch Analysis failure:

If you have installed ImA 1.5 or have upgraded to ImA 1.5 but have NOT had to redeploy the ImA stack, you will not be able to utilize the Batch Analysis functionality. The job status page reports a Preprocessing error. Example shown below:

If you download the logs using the "Download Logs" link on the job status page and open the preprocessing.log, you will see an error which includes the line:

Missing license: Ac_AcapellaCore" |PID=6302|TID=6302|

e.g.

11:26:08.508 2 {7} [run/fail] "ERROR: Acapella 6.2.0.14231 run failed with exit code 1:\n\n<!>/opt/columbus-cluster-compute/src/python/coca/resources/indexsplit.script(13) [::ReadXml]: Missing license: Ac_AcapellaCore" |PID=6302|TID=6302|

Error in the SImA_acapella.log:

$ docker service -f SImA_acapella

2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 2025-12-04 08:36:41.589 2 {7} [run/fail] "ERROR: Acapella 6.2.0.14231 run failed with exit code 1:\n\n<!>/home/acapella/Acapella/acapellaServer.script(15) [::ReadFile]: Missing license: Ac_AcapellaCore" |PID=7|TID=7|
2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 Acapella 6.2.0.14231 run failed with exit code 1
2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 Title:
2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 Text: Missing license: Ac_AcapellaCore
2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 Context:
2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 Origin: /home/acapella/Acapella/acapellaServer.script(15) [::ReadFile]
2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 Timestamp: 2025-12-04T08:36:41.591+00:00
2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 See the log file for more details: /home/acapella/acapella.log
2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 2025-12-04 08:36:41.592 5 {8} [acapella/shutdown] INFO: Shutting down Acapella Engine, timeout=5s, timeoutForPersistent=10s, joinThreads=true, releaseStaticMemory=false |PID=7|TID=7|
2025-12-04T09:36:41+01:00 2025-12-04 08:36:41.656 5 {8} [acapella/shutdown] INFO: Engine shutdown completed |PID=7|TID=7|

Cause:

Workaround:

The attached "license_fix.zip" contains a new acapella_license.txt file and a docker-compose-custom.yml file. 

• Transfer the license_fix.zip file to the ImA-1.5.x installation directory. 
• Unzip the file:

$ unzip license_fix.zip

• check that the user:group ownership of the folder and files inside the license_fix folder matches the files already present inside the ImA-1.5.x installation directory e.g. ownership would typically be sima:sima

In the below example the lines have been added assuming the "services" section is NOT already present:

services:
  acapella:
    configs:
    - source: acapella_license
      target: /home/acapella/Acapella/bin/acapella_license.txt
  slurmd:
    configs:
    - source: acapella_license
      target: /home/acapella/Acapella/bin/acapella_license.txt
  slurmctld:
    configs:
    - source: acapella_license
      target: /home/acapella/Acapella/bin/acapella_license.txt

Add the following under the configs section. Do not duplicate the section header if it already exists.

In the below example the lines have been added assuming the "configs" section is NOT already present:

configs:
  acapella_license:
    file: license_fix/acapella/acapella_license.txt

Redeploy the ImA stack. Image Artist: How do I redeploy/restart the container stack?

If you do NOT have customizations to your existing docker-compose-custom.yml file, replace it with the docker-compose-custom.yml from the license_fix folder.

• make a backup of the original docker-compose-custom.yml:

$ mv docker-compose-custom.yml docker-compose-custom_BK.yml

• move or copy the docker-compose-custom.yml file found in the license_fix folder to the ImA-1.5.x installation directory to replace the original.
• redeploy the ImA stack (Image Artist: How do I redeploy/restart the container stack?)

Note - if you are also utilizing an external cluster, the acapella_license file will also need to be updated there too, as described here:

Image Artist: Batch analysis jobs submitted to an external cluster queue fail after upgrading to Image Artist 1.5