The specified directory is not a valid Payara installation

Technical Discussion
1

On Eclipse 4.34 and Eclipse Plugin 2.4.0, I receive the error “The specified directory is not a valid Payara installation” when I try to add a Payara server 5.2020.7 (see screenshot).

Is that combination not supported? Where could I find a spreadsheet outlining which eclipse plugin version is compatible with what eclipse, payara server, and JDK versions?

My Payara server installation is fine btw, it worked correctly before in Eclipse 2021-09 and eclipse plugin 1.4.

Many thanks!

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2

I retried the same with Payara 6.2025.1 and I get the exact same problem.

Looking at the error log in Eclipse, I can see this message which may or may not be relevant:

No property tester contributes a property fish.payara.eclipse.tools.server.isWSLInstance to type class org.eclipse.ui.internal.views.log.LogEntry

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3

I just downloaded the previous version from GitHub (2.3.0) and installed on Eclipse IDE manually. It works fine.

It seems there is either a bug in 2.4.0, or the plugin is not downloading properly from Eclipse Marketplace. I couldn’t try 2.4.0 with manual installation from GitHub as only the sources are tagged and fish.payara.eclipse.update-2.4.0.zip is missing at the time of writing this.

4

I would like to add a little more detail.

Confirmed with Eclipse 2025-03(4.35) and payara-web-ml-6.2025.3.

The Windows version of the PayaraTools Plugin v2.4 works without issues.

However, on macOS, v2.4 does not function. The workaround is as reported above.

PayaraTools has not been well-maintained and has often been unstable.

5

@hidekaz please report the issue on the Payara Ecosystem Support page

6

As of Oct 22, 2025, the Payara Tools 2.4.0 plugin from the Marketplace on a Mac still gives the “not a valid Payara installation” error. Installing 2.3.0 manually works, but I wanted to add steps how to do this in case someone needs to know how to install manually:

  1. Download the fish.payara.eclipse.update-2.3.0.zip file from the Github link in the earlier reply. Leave it zipped.
  2. In Eclipse, click Help>Install New Software.
  3. Click the Add button.
  4. Click the Archive button (don’t click the Local button, even though that seems like it should be one since the file is local).
  5. Enter a name such as PayaraTools2.3.0 in the name box, then click Add.
  6. It seems like nothing is happening, but it says Installing Software in the lower-right. Just sit tight. Eventually it will prompt you with a Restart Now button, which indicates it’s done downloading.
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