Problem Definition

Disabling 3rd party apps on startup is a great functionality to troubleshoot issues caused by installed Apps (aka Plugins, Addons).

This functionality is available in the Server deployment by using the --disable-all-addons attribute as described in this KB.

If we try to use the same functionality in a Data Center instance it won't work and we get the following message in atlassian-confluence.log:

2020-04-03 12:14:08,659 WARN [Catalina-utility-1]
[atlassian.plugin.manager.DefaultSafeModeManager]
<init> Add-ons disable options from '--disable-all-addons' are being ignored due to start up in clustered mode!

Suggested Solution

Since Apps' state is mapped in the database, Confluence could check if the cluster is being initiated (one node only running) and accept the option to disable 3rd Party Apps.

Workaround

As workaround, you may disable each App from the database following the instructions in this KB.