ClassCastException Issue with deploying spring boot war in WAS 8.5.5.16 but works in tomcat - spring-boot

Question

When trying to deploy our spring boot war into the WAS 8.5.5.16 application server(aka) Websphere Application Server 8.5.5.16 is giving the following error
Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: org.apache.el.ExpressionFactoryImpl incompatible with javax.el.ExpressionFactory
at javax.el.ExpressionFactory.newInstance(ExpressionFactory.java:210)
at javax.el.ExpressionFactory.newInstance(ExpressionFactory.java:118)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspApplicationContextImpl.<clinit>(JspApplicationContextImpl.java:65)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspFactoryImpl.getJspApplicationContext(JspFactoryImpl.java:267)
at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.Jsp21FacesInitializer.initContainerIntegration(Jsp21FacesInitializer.java:62)
at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.AbstractFacesInitializer.initFaces(AbstractFacesInitializer.java:143)
at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener.contextInitialized(StartupServletContextListener.java:111)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.notifyServletContextCreated(WebApp.java:1736)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppImpl.initialize(WebAppImpl.java:415)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebGroupImpl.addWebApplication(WebGroupImpl.java:88)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.VirtualHostImpl.addWebApplication(VirtualHostImpl.java:171)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.addWebApp(WSWebContainer.java:904)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.addWebApplication(WSWebContainer.java:789)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.install(WebContainerImpl.java:427)
at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.start(WebContainerImpl.java:719)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.start(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1211)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedApplicationImpl.fireDeployedObjectStart(DeployedApplicationImpl.java:1462)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedModuleImpl.start(DeployedModuleImpl.java:641)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedApplicationImpl.start(DeployedApplicationImpl.java:1040)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.startApplication(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:795)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl$5.run(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:2279)
at com.ibm.ws.security.auth.ContextManagerImpl.runAs(ContextManagerImpl.java:5572)
at com.ibm.ws.security.auth.ContextManagerImpl.runAsSystem(ContextManagerImpl.java:5698)
at com.ibm.ws.security.core.SecurityContext.runAsSystem(SecurityContext.java:255)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.start(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:2284)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl.start(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:436)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitImpl.start(CompositionUnitImpl.java:123)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl.start(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:379)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl.access$500(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:127)
at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.CompositionUnitMgrImpl$CUInitializer.run(CompositionUnitMgrImpl.java:985)
at com.ibm.wsspi.runtime.component.WsComponentImpl$_AsynchInitializer.run(WsComponentImpl.java:524)
My pom.xml is as follows
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.xxx.dart</groupId>
<artifactId>YYY</artifactId>
<version>2.0.2-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<name>ZZZ</name>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>2.0.0.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<properties>
<java.version>1.8</java.version>
<jjwt.version>0.9.1</jjwt.version>
<swagger.version>2.8.0</swagger.version>
<maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
<maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
<maven.build.timestamp.format>yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH-mm-ss'Z'</maven.build.timestamp.format>
<jacoco.version>0.8.1</jacoco.version>
<timestamp>${maven.build.timestamp}</timestamp>
<!-- jacoco plugin to run junit tests coverage -->
<jacoco.version>0.8.6</jacoco.version>
<argLine>-Xmx1024m</argLine>
<sonar.java.coveragePlugin>jacoco</sonar.java.coveragePlugin>
<sonar.coverage.jacoco.xmlReportPaths>${project.reporting.outputDirectory}/jacoco/jacoco.xml</sonar.coverage.jacoco.xmlReportPaths>
<sonar.language>java</sonar.language>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-logging</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework.boot/spring-boot-starter-validation -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-aop</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-test</artifactId>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-security</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>io.jsonwebtoken</groupId>
<artifactId>jjwt</artifactId>
<version>${jjwt.version}</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
<artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
</exclusion>
<exclusion>
<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
<artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework.boot/spring-boot-devtools -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.el</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.el-api</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax</groupId>
<artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
<version>7.0</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
<artifactId>tomcat-jdbc</artifactId>
</exclusion>
<exclusion>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
<artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
<artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.oracle.database.jdbc/ojdbc8 -->
<dependency>
<groupId>com.oracle.database.jdbc</groupId>
<artifactId>ojdbc8</artifactId>
<version>21.3.0.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.jasypt</groupId>
<artifactId>jasypt</artifactId>
<version>1.9.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.github.ulisesbocchio</groupId>
<artifactId>jasypt-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
<version>1.18</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>io.springfox</groupId>
<artifactId>springfox-core</artifactId>
<version>2.7.0</version>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.ibm.websphere.appserver.api/com.ibm.websphere.appserver.api.basics -->
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/commons-httpclient/commons-httpclient -->
<dependency>
<groupId>io.springfox</groupId>
<artifactId>springfox-swagger-ui</artifactId>
<version>2.7.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>io.springfox</groupId>
<artifactId>springfox-swagger2</artifactId>
<version>2.7.0</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Test -->
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
<artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>${jacoco.version}</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>prepare-agent</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>report</id>
<phase>prepare-package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>report</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>post-unit-test</id>
<phase>test</phase>
<goals>
<goal>report</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<!-- Sets the path to the file which contains the execution data. -->
<dataFile>target/jacoco.exec</dataFile>
<outputDirectory>target/jacoco</outputDirectory>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<includeSystemScope>true</includeSystemScope>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>build-info</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<webResources>
<resource>
<directory>${basedir}/src/webapp/lib</directory>
<targetPath>WEB-INF/lib</targetPath>
</resource>
</webResources>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.sonarsource.scanner.maven</groupId>
<artifactId>sonar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.5.0.1254</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
<downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
<wtpversion>2.0</wtpversion>
<source>1.8</source>
<target>1.8</target>
<format>{yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH-mm-ss'Z'}</format>
<items>
<item>timestamp</item>
</items>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<pluginManagement>
<plugins>
<!--This plugin's configuration is used to store Eclipse m2e settings
only. It has no influence on the Maven build itself. -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.eclipse.m2e</groupId>
<artifactId>lifecycle-mapping</artifactId>
<version>1.0.0</version>
<configuration>
<lifecycleMappingMetadata>
<pluginExecutions>
<pluginExecution>
<pluginExecutionFilter>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
<versionRange>[2.5.2,)</versionRange>
<goals>
<goal>install-file</goal>
</goals>
</pluginExecutionFilter>
<action>
<ignore />
</action>
</pluginExecution>
</pluginExecutions>
</lifecycleMappingMetadata>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.22.0</version>
<configuration>
<includes>
<include>**/*IT*.java</include>
</includes>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.22.0</version>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/resources</directory>
<filtering>true</filtering>
</resource>
</resources>
<!--final name -->
<finalName>${project.artifactId}-${project.version}</finalName>
</build>
</project>
Few weeks back this configuration was working and we were able to deploy our app, but something happened and this is not working anymore. Key points
we are having parent last in the websphere
we are able to reproduce it in all environments ( though unfortunately it started in production)
We did recently migrate to open jdk ( with adopt ) though i am not sure whether thats causing this issue.
Any help is deeply appreciated. i believe this is because of some Websphere issue but not able to point it out exactly. if we can disable this jsf thats also fine as our front end is a angular application