We tried to update our application from spring boot 3.0.5 to 3.2.0. This brings new versions of  infinispan (before 14.0.7, after 14.0.21). Jgroups is 5.2.19 before and after the upgrade.

When we start our cluster, the first node starts just fine. The second node fails with NPE:

2023-12-21T12:29:10.387+01:00  INFO 2639276 — [main] org.hibernate.Version                    : HHH000412: Hibernate ORM core version 6.3.1.Final
2023-12-21T12:29:10.424+01:00  INFO 2639276 — [main] o.h.c.internal.RegionFactoryInitiator    : HHH000025: Second-level cache region factory [org.infinispan.hibernate.cache.v62.InfinispanRegionFactory]
2023-12-21T12:29:10.591+01:00  INFO 2639276 — [main] 21T12:29:11.693+01:00  WARN 2639276 — [main] org.infinispan.PERSISTENCE               : ISPN000554: jboss-marshalling is deprecated and planned for removal
2023-12-21T12:29:11.738+01:00  INFO 2639276 — [main] org.infinispan.CONTAINER                 : ISPN000556: Starting user marshaller 'org.infinispan.jboss.marshalling.core.JBossUserMarshaller'
2023-12-21T12:29:11.901+01:00  INFO 2639276 — [main] org.infinispan.CLUSTER                   : ISPN000078: Starting JGroups channel `infinispan-hibernate-cluster` with stack `hibernate-jgroups`
2023-12-21T12:29:11.903+01:00  INFO 2639276 — [main] org.jgroups.JChannel                     : local_addr: aba6ea22-b26c-4262-bebb-a924c5d4d7ef, name: kt124-41993
2023-12-21T12:29:11.985+01:00  INFO 2639276 — [main] org.infinispan.CLUSTER                   : ISPN000094: Received new cluster view for channel infinispan-hibernate-cluster: [kt123-16975|1] (2) [kt123-16975, kt124-41993]
2023-12-21T12:29:12.083+01:00  INFO 2639276 — [main] org.infinispan.CLUSTER                   : ISPN000079: Channel `infinispan-hibernate-cluster` local address is `****`, physical addresses are `[192.***:78**]`
2023-12-21T12:29:12.092+01:00 ERROR 2639276 — [main] org.infinispan.CONFIG                    : ISPN000660: DefaultCacheManager start failed, stopping any running components

org.infinispan.commons.CacheConfigurationException: ISPN000659: Component ComponentWrapper{name=org.infinispan.topology.ClusterTopologyManager, instance=org.infinispan.topology.ClusterTopologyManagerImpl@7c80c68f, status=FAILED} failed to start
        at org.infinispan.factories.impl.BasicComponentRegistryImpl.startWrapper(BasicComponentRegistryImpl.java:584)
        at org.infinispan.factories.impl.BasicComponentRegistryImpl$ComponentWrapper.running(BasicComponentRegistryImpl.java:807)
        at org.infinispan.factories.impl.BasicComponentRegistryImpl.startDependencies(BasicComponentRegistryImpl.java:634)
        at org.infinispan.factories.impl.BasicComponentRegistryImpl.doStartWrapper(BasicComponentRegistryImpl.java:598)
        at org.infinispan.factories.impl.BasicComponentRegistryImpl.startWrapper(BasicComponentRegistryImpl.java:576)
        at org.infinispan.factories.impl.BasicComponentRegistryImpl$ComponentWrapper.running(BasicComponentRegistryImpl.java:807)
        at org.springframework.boot.loader.launch.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:53)
        at org.springframework.boot.loader.launch.WarLauncher.main(WarLauncher.java:57)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: null
        at java.base/java.util.Objects.requireNonNull(Objects.java:209)
        at org.infinispan.remoting.transport.jgroups.JGroupsMetricsManagerImpl$DestinationMetricsBuilder.build(JGroupsMetricsManagerImpl.java:253)
        at org.infinispan.remoting.transport.jgroups.JGroupsMetricsManagerImpl.createDestinationMetrics(JGroupsMetricsManagerImpl.java:185)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap.computeIfAbsent(ConcurrentHashMap.java:1708)
        at org.infinispan.remoting.transport.jgroups.JGroupsMetricsManagerImpl.get(JGroupsMetricsManagerImpl.java:168)
        at org.infinispan.remoting.transport.jgroups.JGroupsMetricsManagerImpl.trackRequest(JGroupsMetricsManagerImpl.java:108)
        at org.infinispan.remoting.transport.jgroups.JGroupsTransport.invokeCommand(JGroupsTransport.java:1022)
        at org.infinispan.topology.TopologyManagementHelper.executeOnCoordinator(TopologyManagementHelper.java:94)
        at org.infinispan.topology.ClusterTopologyManagerImpl.fetchRebalancingStatusFromCoordinator(ClusterTopologyManagerImpl.java:156)
        at org.infinispan.topology.ClusterTopologyManagerImpl.start(ClusterTopologyManagerImpl.java:147)
        at org.infinispan.topology.CorePackageImpl$3.start(CorePackageImpl.java:74)
        at org.infinispan.topology.CorePackageImpl$3.start(CorePackageImpl.java:58)
        at org.infinispan.factories.impl.BasicComponentRegistryImpl.invokeStart(BasicComponentRegistryImpl.java:616)
        at org.infinispan.factories.impl.BasicComponentRegistryImpl.doStartWrapper(BasicComponentRegistryImpl.java:607)
        at org.infinispan.factories.impl.BasicComponentRegistryImpl.startWrapper(BasicComponentRegistryImpl.java:576)
        ... 180 common frames omitted

2023-12-21T12:29:12.095+01:00  INFO 2639276 — [main] org.infinispan.CLUSTER                   : ISPN000080: Disconnecting JGroups channel `infinispan-hibernate-cluster`

after adding a version downgrade to 14.0.14 everything works fine again. 

 ext['infinispan.version'] = '14.0.14.Final'