I am using Sakai 2.9.1, Tomcat 7.0.59, JDK 1.6, MySQL 5.5, Maven 3.0.5 and Windows XP. The build of Sakai into Tomcat has been successful, and when I start Tomcat, I get a lot of errors and Sakai doesn't load. All environment variables have been configured, too.
INFO: Deploying web application archive C:\opt\tomcat7021\webapps\access.war
Mar 12, 2015 12:41:06 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase addChildInternal
SEVERE: ContainerBase.addChild: start:
org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/access]]
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:901)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:649)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:1081)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployWar.run(HostConfig.java:1877)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:441)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:885)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:907)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/commons/collections/ExtendedProperties
at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredFields0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredFields(Class.java:2291)
at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredFields(Class.java:1743)
at org.apache.catalina.util.Introspection.getDeclaredFields(Introspection.java:106)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadFieldsAnnotation(WebAnnotationSet.java:270)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadApplicationServletAnnotations(WebAnnotationSet.java:139)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadApplicationAnnotations(WebAnnotationSet.java:65)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.applicationAnnotationsConfig(ContextConfig.java:415)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:892)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:386)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:117)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5412)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
... 11 more
Mar 12, 2015 12:41:06 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployWAR
SEVERE: Error deploying web application archive C:\opt\tomcat7021\webapps\access.war
java.lang.IllegalStateException: ContainerBase.addChild: start: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/access]]
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:904)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:649)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:1081)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployWar.run(HostConfig.java:1877)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:441)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:885)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:907)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Mar 12, 2015 12:41:06 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployWAR
INFO: Deployment of web application archive C:\opt\tomcat7021\webapps\access.war has finished in 828 ms
If you look at the Maven Build and Deploy (2.x - 3.x) page on the site you mentioned, in section 4.0 ("Install Maven 3.0 or later") it is stated that
(warning) Maven 3.0 or later is the required for performing Sakai 2.9 builds.
This may be a starting point, since it seems that a class cannot be found while starting Tomcat. Did you try using Tomcat 7? Did you properly configure Sakay?