Trying to install Jenkins and stuck with error Failed to start lsb: start Jenkins at boot time?

This is an installation error that shows up due to missing dependencies or insufficient resources.

At Bobcares, we fix errors with software development tools like Jenkins as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s see why Jenkins fail at installation and how our Support Engineers fixed this error.

What is Jenkins?

Jenkin is a popular, open-source Continuous Integration tool. Jenkins is Java-based. It automates the repetitive technical tasks during Continous Integration in software development.

During Continuous Integration the software builds and tests the code immediately after committing it. It deploys this code if a test is a success. And if the deployment is successful, it pushes the code to production.

We can install Jenkins using Linux package managers or else download and run the WAR file (Web Application Archive). But installing Jenkins often throws errors due to missing dependencies or insufficient resources.

When does the error failed to start lsb occurs?

Recently one of our customers was trying to download Jenkins in Ubuntu 18.04. But it failed with an error ‘Failed to start lsb: Start Jenkins at boot time‘.

On checking the Jenkin service status, the status failed with the error message,

This was an installation error. Now let’s see how our Support Engineers fixed this error.

How we fix this Jenkins installation error?

Usually, a Jenkins installation fails due to two reasons. This includes missing dependencies or a lack of resources on the server. Let’s now check how our Support Engineers check the following.

1. Check for dependencies

Jenkins works on Java. It is one of the most important prerequisites while installing Jenkins in the server. Users do not notice this and install Jenkins. And this ends up in installation error ‘Failed to start lsb : Start Jenkins at boot time‘.

Additionally, Jenkins requires an appropriate Java version to be functional. So when the customer approached us, we checked the Java version on the server. The output appeared as,

root@xxxxxx-xxxx-xxx:~# java -version
openjdk version "1.7.0_242"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_242-8u242-b08-0ubuntu3~18.04-b08)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.242-b08, mixed mode)

The Jenkins version of the customer was version 2.204.2. So Jenkins was incompatible with the Java package. It required an upgraded Java package, which is Java 8.

So we installed it using the command,

apt install openjdk-8-jdk

Later we installed Jenkins successfully.

2. Check available resources

Insufficient resources in the server can also cause an error during installation. So when an installation fails our Support Engineers check the free memory left for Jenkins to work.

For Jenkins installation, we recommend a free space around 1GB. So if there is no sufficient memory space, we ask the customer to add more RAM to the server to complete the installation.

[Need assistance in setting up Jenkins in your Ubuntu 18.04? – We can help you.]

Conclusion

In short, Failed to start lsb: Start Jenkins at boot time is an installation error. The major reasons for this include missing dependencies or insufficient resources. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers fixed this error.