[HTTP:101216]Servlet: "action" failed to preload on startup in Web application: "ccg.war".

While deploying ccg in a freshly installed Weblogic 10.3.5, this error was coming:

[HTTP:101216]Servlet: "action" failed to preload on startup in Web application: "ccg.war". java.lang.NullPointerException at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.getXMLReader(Digester.java:899) at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1647) at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.parseModuleConfigFile(ActionServlet.java:708) at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.initModuleConfig(ActionServlet.java:670) at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.init(ActionServlet.java:329) at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:241) at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletInitAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:283) at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321) at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(SecurityManager.java:120) at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.createServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:64) at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubLifecycleHelper.createOneInstance(StubLifecycleHelper.java:58) at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubLifecycleHelper.(StubLifecycleHelper.java:48) at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.prepareServlet(ServletStubImpl.java:539) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadServlet(WebAppServletContext.java:1985) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.loadServletsOnStartup(WebAppServletContext.java:1959) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadResources(WebAppServletContext.java:1878) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.start(WebAppServletContext.java:3153) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.startContexts(WebAppModule.java:1508) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.start(WebAppModule.java:482) at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver$3.next(ModuleStateDriver.java:425) at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:52) at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver.start(ModuleStateDriver.java:119) at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ScopedModuleDriver.start(ScopedModuleDriver.java:200) at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleListenerInvoker.start(ModuleListenerInvoker.java:247) at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver$3.next(ModuleStateDriver.java:425) at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:52) at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleStateDriver.start(ModuleStateDriver.java:119) at weblogic.application.internal.flow.StartModulesFlow.activate(StartModulesFlow.java:27) at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment$2.next(BaseDeployment.java:636) at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:52) at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment.activate(BaseDeployment.java:205) at weblogic.application.internal.SingleModuleDeployment.activate(SingleModuleDeployment.java:43) at weblogic.application.internal.DeploymentStateChecker.activate(DeploymentStateChecker.java:161) at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.AppContainerInvoker.activate(AppContainerInvoker.java:79) at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.AbstractOperation.activate(AbstractOperation.java:569) 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.AbstractOperation.commit(AbstractOperation.java:323) at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentManager.handleDeploymentCommit(DeploymentManager.java:844) at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentManager.activateDeploymentList(DeploymentManager.java:1253) at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentManager.handleCommit(DeploymentManager.java:440) at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentServiceDispatcher.commit(DeploymentServiceDispatcher.java:163) 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:528) at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:209) at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:178)

The issue is caused by the following setup: Existence of ‘xercesImpl.jar’ file in the ccg-war directory (Location: /WEB-INF/lib) caused errors on the Weblogic 11g application server while deplying CCG applications.

As per My Oracle Support article "CCG 5.5.1 Deployment With Weblogic 10.3.0.1/11g Fails [ID 1265899.1]"

This is explained in the following bug:
Bug 10251676 - CCG 5.5.1 DEPLOYMENT WITH WEBLOGIC 10.3.0.1 FAILS

Solution
1. Delete Weblogic cache and restart it before applying the workaround below.
2. Remove the ‘xercesImpl.jar’ file from ccg-war directory (Location: /WEB-INF/lib)
3. Redeploy CCG applications on Weblogic 11g application server. (Refer to the CCG Install Guide v5.5.1 for detailed instructions.

Weblogic Cache exists in $MW_HOME/user_projects/domains/ccg/servers/AdminServer/tmp
I had named my domain ccg. You can replace that with your domain name in the above path.

So I did this:

Stop Weblogic Server
rm /ccg/WEB-INF/lib/xercesImpl.jar
rm -rf $MW_HOME/user_projects/domains/ccg/servers/AdminServer/tmp
mkdir $MW_HOME/user_projects/domains/ccg/servers/AdminServer/tmp
Start Weblogic Server

The issue was resolved.