Installing Weblogic 12 on Windows 8 Server – http server won’t start

Apologies in advance for the terrible formatting – I spent more time getting to this point than I did asking my question.

I'm trying to install Weblogic 12 on Windows 8 Server. I've followed the wizards and I can start the admin console and log in and things seem to work right up until I try to start the HTTP server. It fails with the following error:

weblogic.nodemanager.NMException: Received error message from Node Manager Server: [Server start command for OHS server 'ohs_1' failed due to: [Failed to start the server ohs_1
Check log file C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\system_components\OHS\ohs_nm.log
Check log file C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\servers\ohs_1\logs\ohs_1.log]. Please check Node Manager log and/or server 'ohs_1' log for detailed information.]. Please check Node Manager log for details.
at weblogic.nodemanager.client.NMServerClient.checkResponse(NMServerClient.java:552)
at weblogic.nodemanager.client.NMServerClient.checkResponse(NMServerClient.java:565)
at weblogic.nodemanager.client.NMServerClient.start(NMServerClient.java:124)
at weblogic.nodemanager.client.DefaultSSLClient.start(DefaultSSLClient.java:14)
at weblogic.nodemanager.mbean.StartRequest.start(StartRequest.java:78)
at weblogic.nodemanager.mbean.StartRequest.run(StartRequest.java:47)
at weblogic.work.ContextWrap.run(ContextWrap.java:40)
at weblogic.work.SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl$WorkAdapterImpl.run(SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl.java:548)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:311)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:263)

So that remarkably unhelpful message leads me to C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\system_components\OHS\ohs_nm.log

That log contains this:


[2014-11-07 14:38:15] [INFO] [OHS-4018] [Starting server ohs_1]
[2014-11-07 14:38:15] [INFO] [OHS-0] [Running C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\ohs\bin\launch.exe C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\ohs\bin\httpd.exe -f C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\components\OHS\instances\ohs_1\httpd.conf]
[2014-11-07 14:38:16] [INFO] [OHS-0] [C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\ohs\bin\launch.exe C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\ohs\bin\httpd.exe -f C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\components\OHS\instances\ohs_1\httpd.conf: exit status = -1072365566]
[2014-11-07 14:38:16] [INFO] [OHS-4005] [Check the instance log file for more information: C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\servers\ohs_1\logs\ohs_1.log]
[2014-11-07 14:38:16] [SEVERE] [OHS-0] [Failed to start the server ohs_1]
[2014-11-07 14:42:50] [INFO] [OHS-4018] [Starting server ohs_1]
[2014-11-07 14:42:50] [INFO] [OHS-0] [Running C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\ohs\bin\launch.exe C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\ohs\bin\httpd.exe -f C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\components\OHS\instances\ohs_1\httpd.conf]
[2014-11-07 14:42:51] [INFO] [OHS-0] [C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\ohs\bin\launch.exe C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\ohs\bin\httpd.exe -f C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\components\OHS\instances\ohs_1\httpd.conf: exit status = -1072365566]
[2014-11-07 14:42:51] [INFO] [OHS-4005] [Check the instance log file for more information: C:\app\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\servers\ohs_1\logs\ohs_1.log]
[2014-11-07 14:42:51] [SEVERE] [OHS-0] [Failed to start the server ohs_1]


So I checked the instance log file, as suggested, and it's empty. Oracle support so far has been unhelpful. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.