Bob, thank you for the reply, however this error is related to the actual initial config of backup navigator, and has nothing to do with data protector or the cell manager.
It seems Tomcat for some unknown reason is unable to establish a communication with the underlined DB (which for back navigator vr 9 is PostgreSQL - not MariaDB as in the past version).
As I'm just evaluating this software, I have no way of logging a case directly with HP.
As to the logs you mentioned, I've attached what I found.
Thanks again.