ClassNotFound on CloudFoundry push of alp server directory, but not on push of EAR :-? - ibm-cloud

Question

I am currently trying to deploy a Java Application into IBM Liberty for Cloud Foundry. The Application is a Spring-Boot application. The deployment works perfect when pushing the EAR itself. But I need to amend the server.xml of the Liberty server. Thus I now push a defaultServer directory containing the server.xml and my EAR.
For now I have copied the server.xml from the profile in the cloud when it is successfully deployed via push EAR. So I expect the server.xml to be working. But when I now deploy the defaultServer I suddenly get a ClassNotFoundException on server start.
What is going wrong? Why does it suddenly not find its dependencies event though the EAR is pretty much the same.
------Start of DE processing------ = [4/15/19 21:12:17:313 UTC]
Exception = java.util.ServiceConfigurationError
Source = com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.osgi.DynamicVirtualHost
probeid = startWebApp
Stack Dump = java.util.ServiceConfigurationError: javax.servlet.ServletContainerInitializer: Provider org.cloudfoundry.reconfiguration.spring.AutoReconfigurationServletContainerInitializer could not be instantiated
at java.util.ServiceLoader.fail(Unknown Source)
at java.util.ServiceLoader.access$100(Unknown Source)
at java.util.ServiceLoader$LazyIterator.nextService(Unknown Source)
at java.util.ServiceLoader$LazyIterator.next(Unknown Source)
at java.util.ServiceLoader$1.next(Unknown Source)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.initializeServletContainerInitializers(WebApp.java:2453)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.initialize(WebApp.java:995)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.initialize(WebApp.java:6594)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.osgi.DynamicVirtualHost.startWebApp(DynamicVirtualHost.java:467)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.osgi.DynamicVirtualHost.startWebApplication(DynamicVirtualHost.java:462)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.osgi.WebContainer.startWebApplication(WebContainer.java:1140)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.osgi.WebContainer.access$000(WebContainer.java:110)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.osgi.WebContainer$3.run(WebContainer.java:952)
at com.ibm.ws.threading.internal.ExecutorServiceImpl$RunnableWrapper.run(ExecutorServiceImpl.java:239)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextInitializer
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassImpl(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.definePackageAndClass(AppClassLoader.java:357)
at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.findClass(AppClassLoader.java:281)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassHelper(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.findOrDelegateLoadClass(AppClassLoader.java:522)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.initializeServletContainerInitializers(WebApp.java:2453)
at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.loadClass(AppClassLoader.java:482)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at org.cloudfoundry.reconfiguration.spring.AutoReconfigurationServletContainerInitializer.<clinit>(AutoReconfigurationServletContainerInitializer
.java:33)
at java.lang.J9VMInternals.newInstanceImpl(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Unknown Source)
... 17 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextInitializer
at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.findClassCommonLibraryClassLoaders(AppClassLoader.java:544)
at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.findClass(AppClassLoader.java:286)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassHelper(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.findOrDelegateLoadClass(AppClassLoader.java:522)
at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.loadClass(AppClassLoader.java:482)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
... 29 more
I would expect that the application starts the same way as with only pushing the EAR so that I can go on manipulating the server.xml as needed.
Thanks,
Alex