3138452 - Enterprise Service Repository (ESR) fails to lauch with error "Internal error while starting the application"

You are working with SAP Process Integration / SAP Process Orchestration running on a release lower than 7.5 (for example 7.4, 7.31, 7.3)

You have recently updated your system to one of the latest Support Packages available for such release and also applied the latest patch levels available for all the components.

However after that, the Enterprise Service Repository (ESR) fails to launch and the following error is visible in the Java Logs*:

ERROR com.sap.aii.utilxi.swing.toolkit.ExceptionDialog: MessageID=IBF.lib_gui.005265#Failed to initialize Exception Dialog
Thrown:
com.sap.aii.utilxi.misc.api.BaseRuntimeException: Internal error while starting the application
 at com.sap.aii.ib.gui.login.SplashLoginFrame$StartupThread.run(SplashLoginFrame.java:843)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: null
 at com.sap.aii.ibrep.core.devmode.info.RepositoryModeProvider.constructRepositoryMode(RepositoryModeProvider.java:57)
 at com.sap.aii.ibrep.core.devmode.info.RepositoryModeProvider.registerRepositoryMode(RepositoryModeProvider.java:38)
 at com.sap.aii.ibrep.core.devmode.info.RepositoryModeProvider.registerRepositoryMode(RepositoryModeProvider.java:34)
 at com.sap.aii.ibrep.gui.applcomp.StartupCodeEntry.startup(StartupCodeEntry.java:182)
 at com.sap.aii.ib.core.applcomp.IStartupCodeEntry.startupIfNotAlreadyDone(IStartupCodeEntry.java:43)
 at com.sap.aii.ib.core.applcomp.ExplicitApplicationComponentImpl.startup(ExplicitApplicationComponentImpl.java:116)
 at com.sap.aii.ib.core.applcomp.ExplicitApplicationComponents.startup(ExplicitApplicationComponents.java:481)
 at com.sap.aii.ib.core.applcomp.ApplicationComponent.startup(ApplicationComponent.java:207)
 at com.sap.aii.ib.gui.login.SplashLoginFrame$StartupThread.run(SplashLoginFrame.java:839)

SAP Process Integration

SAP NetWeaver 7.4

SAP NetWeaver 7.31

SAP NetWeaver 7.3

ESR, Launch, Open, Fail, Fails, Error, Repository, Internal, Error, Application, 7.4, 7.31, 7.3, Netweaver, PI, PO, Process Integration, Process Orchestration,  , KBA , BC-XI-IBF-WEB , Webstart for ESR / IB , Problem