There are lot of people running randomly into following startup error: javax.jcr.PathNotFoundException: /system
The error is sporadic. there is not yet a way to consistantly reproduce the error, see SUPPORT-17467 for an example.

 Sometimes when you try to first connect to Magnolia you get the error:

18-Dec-2023 12:02:08.198 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start Server startup in [169049] milliseconds
2023-12-18 12:21:46,165 ERROR info.magnolia.cms.security.JCRSessionOp           : Error caught while loading the system user anonymous: javax.jcr.PathNotFoundException: /system/anonymous
javax.jcr.PathNotFoundException: /system/anonymous
	at org.apache.jackrabbit.core.ItemManager.getNode(ItemManager.java:576) ~[jackrabbit-core-2.20.13.jar:2.20.13]

See also:

• Tip from Roman: "If you search for javax.jcr.PathNotFoundException: /system here in slack, there is a lot of hits. Seems to be a similar issue over and over again"
  • (many of the errors are similar yet different - so they might be unrelated issues.)
• related thread re: disambiguation between diff permission & this issue. Dec 5
  https://magnolia-cms.slack.com/archives/CDF2T239Q/p1701772257466299?thread_ts=1701266111.503419&cid=CDF2T239Q