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Troubleshooting: CDM DC expiration trigger issues troubleshooting

Troubleshooting: CDM DC expiration trigger issues troubleshooting

Summary

In Comala Document Management for Confluence Data Center, the Workflow Expiration Trigger may stop working as expected if:

  • Pages do not change state when an expiration is due.

  • No expiration-related emails or notifications are sent.

  • The same configuration previously worked, but stopped working recently.

This article provides a step-by-step procedure to verify configuration, rebuild indexes, refresh app data, confirm the scheduled job status, and collect logs if the problem persists.

Affected Application

  • Application: Comala Document Management (CDM)

  • Platform: Confluence Data Center

  • Impacted Area: Workflow Expiration Trigger / Scheduled Jobs

Symptoms

You may observe one or more of the following:

  • Workflow expiration that previously functioned correctly no longer:

    • changes the page state, and/or

    • sends any expiration notification (email/message).

  • Modifying expiration trigger configurations (for example, different periods, conditions, etc.) has no effect.

  • No obvious error is displayed in the UI.

Cause

There is no single root cause; however, this issue can be triggered by one or a combination of the following:

  • Missing or incorrect Impersonation group configuration used by Comala Document Management for background tasks.

  • Problems with the Confluence content index in the affected space.

  • Stale or inconsistent CDM data within the space.

  • The Workflow Expiration Trigger scheduled job is being disabled at the Confluence level.

  • Underlying errors during execution of the expiration job (requiring log analysis).

Resolution

Work through the following steps in order.

1. Configure the Impersonation Group for Refresh Data

Comala Document Management background tasks (such as data refreshes and scheduled operations) may rely on an impersonation group.

  1. Navigate to Confluence Administration → Comala Document Management → Global Settings.

  2. Locate the Impersonation Group for Refresh Data setting.

  3. Set this value to a valid Confluence group that:

    • Exists on your instance, and

    • Has the required permissions to operate on the spaces/pages where the workflow is used.

  4. Save the configuration.

For more details, see:

After setting the impersonation group, proceed to step 2.

2. Rebuild the Confluence index for the affected space

Index problems can prevent the identification of contents and due dates.

  1. Follow Atlassian’s documentation to rebuild the content index for the affected space(s):

https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/content-index-administration-148844.html

  1. Allow the reindex operation to complete fully.

After the reindex is complete, proceed to Step 3.

3. Run a Data Refresh for the Affected Space

Comala Document Management stores additional data for workflows. Refreshing this data can resolve inconsistencies.

  1. Go to the affected space.

  2. Select Space Tools → Document Management.

  3. Run Refresh Data.

Reference:

4. Verify the “Workflow Expiration Trigger” Scheduled Job

Ensure the Confluence scheduled job that executes workflow expirations is enabled.

  1. Go to Confluence Administration → Scheduled Jobs.

  2. Locate the job named Workflow Expiration Trigger:

    image_2026-02-19_122830134.png

  3. Please confirm the following:

    • The job is not disabled, and

    • The Next run time is reasonable (not far in the past or unexpectedly far in the future).

  4. If disabled, enable the job and save.

After confirming the job is enabled, create a test page with an expiration and wait for the job to execute to see if the state changes and notifications are sent.

If the issue persists

If expiration continues to not work after completing the steps above, collect detailed logs and a support zip file for further analysis.

Before collecting the logs, complete the steps below:

5. Enable DEBUG Logging for the Expiration Job

Configure logging for the workflow expiration background task:

  1. Go to Confluence Administration → General Configuration → Logging and Profiling.

  2. If you run a cluster, select the cluster node where you will reproduce the issue.

  3. In the logger configuration, add the following package:

    • com.comalatech.confluence.workflow.tasks.WorkflowExpirationJob

  4. Set the logging level for this package to DEBUG.

    image_2026-02-19_122910516.png

  5. Save your changes.

6. Mark logs and reproduce the issue

Use log markers to delimit the time window during which the issue is reproduced.

  1. In Logging and Profiling, locate the Mark logs section.

  2. Enter a marker message, such as:

    replication starts here

  3. Click Mark.

  4. Immediately after marking, reproduce the issue:

    • Create or edit a page so it expires according to your configured rules.

    • Wait for the Workflow Expiration Trigger job to run.

    • Confirm that the expected state change/notification does not occur.

  5. Once reproduction is complete, go back to Logging and Profiling:

    • Enter another marker such as:

      • replication ends here

    • Click Mark.

For more details, see:

7. Create and download a support zip

  1. In Confluence Administration, go to Support Tools → Create Support Zip.

  2. Generate a support zip that includes:

    • Application logs (with your log markers and DEBUG traces), and

    • System information.

  3. Download the support zip file.

For detailed instructions, refer to the page below:

  1. Attach the support zip to your Appfire support request so the support team can review the logs around:

    • The Workflow Expiration Trigger execution.

    • Any errors raised by WorkflowExpirationJob.

  2. After collecting the data, you can revert the logging change:

    • Remove the com.comalatech. Confluence.workflow.tasks.WorkflowExpirationJob logger or set it back to a less verbose level (e.g., INFO) to keep logs tidy.

Additional Notes

  • Always test with a new page after configuration changes to avoid confusion caused by the previous state or already-scheduled jobs.

  • If multiple spaces are affected, repeat steps 2–3 (reindex and data refresh) for each relevant space.

  • When contacting support, include:

    • A description of when the expiration last worked and when it stopped.

    • Examples of pages and workflows where expiration fails.

    • The support zip contains the DEBUG logs with markers.