This is still failing for me, but I think I've now found the exception that is actually showing the problem - it was hiding in localhost.<date>.log. I've pasted it on the ticket, but here it is as well:
Aug 30, 2014 11:10:50 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.web.CloudStackContextLoaderListener java.lang.NullPointerException at java.util.ArrayList.addAll(ArrayList.java:530) at com.cloud.api.auth.APIAuthenticationManagerImpl.getCommands(APIAuthenticationManagerImpl.java:72) at com.cloud.api.auth.APIAuthenticationManagerImpl.start(APIAuthenticationManagerImpl.java:56) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.lifecycle.CloudStackExtendedLifeCycle$1.with(CloudStackExtendedLifeCycle.java:75) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.lifecycle.CloudStackExtendedLifeCycle.with(CloudStackExtendedLifeCycle.java:153) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.lifecycle.CloudStackExtendedLifeCycle.startBeans(CloudStackExtendedLifeCycle.java:72) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.lifecycle.CloudStackExtendedLifeCycleStart.run(CloudStackExtendedLifeCycleStart.java:46) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.model.impl.DefaultModuleDefinitionSet$1.with(DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.java:105) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.model.impl.DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.withModule(DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.java:245) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.model.impl.DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.withModule(DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.java:250) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.model.impl.DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.withModule(DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.java:250) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.model.impl.DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.withModule(DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.java:233) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.model.impl.DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.startContexts(DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.java:97) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.model.impl.DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.load(DefaultModuleDefinitionSet.java:80) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.factory.ModuleBasedContextFactory.loadModules(ModuleBasedContextFactory.java:37) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.factory.CloudStackSpringContext.init(CloudStackSpringContext.java:70) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.factory.CloudStackSpringContext.<init>(CloudStackSpringContext.java:57) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.factory.CloudStackSpringContext.<init>(CloudStackSpringContext.java:61) at org.apache.cloudstack.spring.module.web.CloudStackContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(CloudStackContextLoaderListener.java:52) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3972) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4467) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:526) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:1041) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectories(HostConfig.java:964) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:502) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1277) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:321) at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:722) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710) at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:593) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601) at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:289) at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:414) Alex