Jenkins upgrade issue from 2.504.1 to 2.541.3 or later

I have been trying to upgrade jenkins from 2.504.1 to 2.541.3 or later…
Late I found out that rpm package for upgrading to 2.541.3 was not published but after trying some time I got the package from " Index of /rpm-stable " but after trying to upgrade I was getting below error and jenkins was not starting up due to some plugins issue.

[root@athdeasp025 Jenkins_2.541.1]# journalctl -xeu jenkins.service
░░ Subject: A start job for unit jenkins.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://www.suse.com/support
░░
░░ A start job for unit jenkins.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 1566450 and the job result is failed.
Apr 29 08:10:46 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Consumed 31.925s CPU time.
░░ Subject: Resources consumed by unit runtime
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: 

░░
░░ The unit jenkins.service completed and consumed the indicated resources.
Apr 29 08:10:47 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
░░ Subject: Automatic restarting of a unit has been scheduled
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: 

░░
░░ Automatic restarting of the unit jenkins.service has been scheduled, as the result for
░░ the configured Restart= setting for the unit.
Apr 29 08:10:47 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: Stopped Jenkins Continuous Integration Server.
░░ Subject: A stop job for unit jenkins.service has finished
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: 

░░
░░ A stop job for unit jenkins.service has finished.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 1566587 and the job result is done.
Apr 29 08:10:47 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Consumed 31.925s CPU time.
░░ Subject: Resources consumed by unit runtime
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: 

░░
░░ The unit jenkins.service completed and consumed the indicated resources.
Apr 29 08:10:47 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Apr 29 08:10:47 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: 

░░
░░ The unit jenkins.service has entered the ‘failed’ state with result ‘exit-code’.
Apr 29 08:10:47 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: Failed to start Jenkins Continuous Integration Server.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit jenkins.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: 

░░
░░ A start job for unit jenkins.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 1566587 and the job result is failed.
[root@athdeasp025 Jenkins_2.541.1]#

===========================================================================================================

[root@athdeasp025 plugins.rollback]# journalctl -u jenkins -n 100 --no-pager
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at PluginClassLoader for metrics//jenkins.metrics.api.HealthCheckProviderListener.attach(HealthCheckProviderListener.java:79)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at PluginClassLoader for metrics//jenkins.metrics.api.Metrics.afterExtensionsAugmented(Metrics.java:315)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:77)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:569)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at hudson.init.TaskMethodFinder.invoke(TaskMethodFinder.java:109)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at hudson.init.TaskMethodFinder$TaskImpl.run(TaskMethodFinder.java:185)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at org.jvnet.hudson.reactor.Reactor.runTask(Reactor.java:304)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at jenkins.model.Jenkins$5.runTask(Jenkins.java:1152)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at org.jvnet.hudson.reactor.Reactor$2.run(Reactor.java:221)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at org.jvnet.hudson.reactor.Reactor$Node.run(Reactor.java:120)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at jenkins.security.ImpersonatingExecutorService$1.run(ImpersonatingExecutorService.java:68)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:840)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: 2026-04-29 07:02:29.974+0000 [id=24]        INFO        jenkins.model.Jenkins#_cleanUpPersistQueue: Persisting build queue
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: 2026-04-29 07:02:29.996+0000 [id=24]        SEVERE        jenkins.model.Jenkins#_cleanUpPluginServletFilters: Failed to stop filters
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: net.bull.javamelody.MonitoringInitialContextFactory
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:445)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at jenkins.util.URLClassLoader2.findClass(URLClassLoader2.java:70)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:592)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:525)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: Caused: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: net/bull/javamelody/MonitoringInitialContextFactory
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at PluginClassLoader for monitoring//net.bull.javamelody.FilterContext.destroy(FilterContext.java:472)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at PluginClassLoader for monitoring//net.bull.javamelody.MonitoringFilter.destroy(MonitoringFilter.java:176)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at PluginClassLoader for monitoring//net.bull.javamelody.PluginMonitoringFilter.destroy(PluginMonitoringFilter.java:74)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at io.jenkins.servlet.FilterWrapper$1.destroy(FilterWrapper.java:59)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter.cleanUp(PluginServletFilter.java:228)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at jenkins.model.Jenkins._cleanUpPluginServletFilters(Jenkins.java:3980)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at jenkins.model.Jenkins.cleanUp(Jenkins.java:3668)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at hudson.lifecycle.ExitLifecycle.restart(ExitLifecycle.java:66)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at hudson.lifecycle.ExitLifecycle.onBootFailure(ExitLifecycle.java:77)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at hudson.util.BootFailure.publish(BootFailure.java:55)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at hudson.WebAppMain$3.run(WebAppMain.java:277)
Apr 29 09:02:29 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: 2026-04-29 07:02:29.997+0000 [id=24]        INFO        hudson.lifecycle.Lifecycle#onStatusUpdate: Jenkins stopped
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: 2026-04-29 07:02:30.000+0000 [id=28]        INFO        winstone.Logger#logInternal: JVM is terminating. Shutting down Jetty
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: 2026-04-29 07:02:30.001+0000 [id=28]        INFO        org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server#doStop: Stopped oejs.Server@60222fd8{STOPPING}[12.1.5,sto=0]
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: 2026-04-29 07:02:30.004+0000 [id=28]        INFO        o.e.j.server.AbstractConnector#doStop: Stopped oejs.ServerConnector@76b50f68{HTTP/1.1, (http/1.1)}{0.0.0.0:8080}
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: 2026-04-29 07:02:30.009+0000 [id=28]        INFO        o.e.j.server.AbstractConnector#doStop: Stopped oejs.ServerConnector@353a8354{SSL, (ssl, http/1.1)}{0.0.0.0:8443}
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: 2026-04-29 07:02:30.014+0000 [id=28]        INFO        hudson.WebAppMain#contextDestroyed: Shutting down a Jenkins instance that was still starting up
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]: java.lang.Throwable: reason
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at hudson.WebAppMain.contextDestroyed(WebAppMain.java:419)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.nested.ContextHandler.callContextDestroyed(ContextHandler.java:910)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.servlet.ServletContextHandler.callContextDestroyed(ServletContextHandler.java:608)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.nested.ContextHandler.contextDestroyed(ContextHandler.java:867)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.servlet.ServletHandler.doStop(ServletHandler.java:307)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.AbstractLifeCycle.stop(AbstractLifeCycle.java:131)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.stop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:181)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.doStop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:203)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.nested.AbstractHandler.doStop(AbstractHandler.java:88)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.security.SecurityHandler.doStop(SecurityHandler.java:414)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.security.ConstraintSecurityHandler.doStop(ConstraintSecurityHandler.java:413)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.AbstractLifeCycle.stop(AbstractLifeCycle.java:131)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.stop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:181)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.doStop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:203)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.nested.AbstractHandler.doStop(AbstractHandler.java:88)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.AbstractLifeCycle.stop(AbstractLifeCycle.java:131)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.stop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:181)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.doStop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:203)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.nested.AbstractHandler.doStop(AbstractHandler.java:88)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.nested.ContextHandler.stopContext(ContextHandler.java:890)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.servlet.ServletContextHandler.stopContext(ServletContextHandler.java:371)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.webapp.WebAppContext.stopWebapp(WebAppContext.java:1425)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.webapp.WebAppContext.stopContext(WebAppContext.java:1384)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.nested.ContextHandler.doStopInContext(ContextHandler.java:741)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler$ScopedContext.call(ContextHandler.java:1630)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.nested.ContextHandler.doStop(ContextHandler.java:734)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.servlet.ServletContextHandler.doStop(ServletContextHandler.java:284)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.AbstractLifeCycle.stop(AbstractLifeCycle.java:131)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.stop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:181)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.doStop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:203)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.server.Handler$Abstract.doStop(Handler.java:553)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.lambda$doStop$0(ContextHandler.java:959)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler$ScopedContext.call(ContextHandler.java:1636)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doStop(ContextHandler.java:959)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.ee9.nested.ContextHandler$CoreContextHandler.doStop(ContextHandler.java:2886)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.AbstractLifeCycle.stop(AbstractLifeCycle.java:131)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.stop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:181)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.doStop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:203)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.server.Handler$Abstract.doStop(Handler.java:553)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.gzip.GzipHandler.doStop(GzipHandler.java:146)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.AbstractLifeCycle.stop(AbstractLifeCycle.java:131)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.stop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:181)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.ContainerLifeCycle.doStop(ContainerLifeCycle.java:203)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.server.Handler$Abstract.doStop(Handler.java:553)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server.doStop(Server.java:738)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//org.eclipse.jetty.util.component.AbstractLifeCycle.stop(AbstractLifeCycle.java:131)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//winstone.Launcher.shutdown(Launcher.java:441)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 jenkins[2330525]:         at Jenkins Main ClassLoader//winstone.ShutdownHook.run(ShutdownHook.java:28)
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=5/NOTINSTALLED
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: Failed to start Jenkins Continuous Integration Server.
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Consumed 34.835s CPU time.
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: Stopped Jenkins Continuous Integration Server.
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Consumed 34.835s CPU time.
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: jenkins.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
Apr 29 09:02:30 athdeasp025 systemd[1]: Failed to start Jenkins Continuous Integration Server.
[root@athdeasp025 plugins.rollback]#

I would like to know steps that I can follow to upgrade to 2.541.3 or later to fix vulnerability issues and also I want this upgrade in a way that doesn’t affects config.xml(Security settings) and also trigger any plugins issue.

let me know if I can directly go to 2.541.3 or later from 2.504.1 or some intermediate upgrade is required?

There is not enough log output. Make sure that the journalctl call includes the complete log.
I assume that there is a need to update one or two plugins manually. You would need to download the hpi files manually and put them in the plugins folder (renamed to jpi) or use a the GitHub - jenkinsci/plugin-installation-manager-tool: Plugin Manager CLI tool for Jenkins · GitHub to download plugins

Please read the upgrade guide for each of the releases between your starting point and your ending point.