Upgrade from 2.452.3 to 2.516.2 failed

Using Jenkins
1

Jenkins setup:

Current version: 2.452.3 running on Ubuntu 22.04

Hi,

I’m trying to upgrade our Jenkins server from 2.452.3 to the latest 2.516.2. I ran the upgrade via apt update but after rebooting I am getting a lot of plugin errors which i believe is stopping Jenkins form starting.

SEVERE jenkins.InitReactorRunner$1#onTaskFailed: Failed Loading plugin GitHub plugin v1.39.0 (github)

SEVERE jenkins.InitReactorRunner$1#onTaskFailed: Failed Loading plugin GitHub Branch Source Plugin v1789.v5b_0c0cea_18c3 (github-branch-source)

SEVERE jenkins.InitReactorRunner$1#onTaskFailed: Failed Loading plugin Pipeline: GitHub Groovy Libraries v61.v629f2cc41d83 (pipeline-github-lib)

etc

I didn’t update the plugin’s before upgrading. Is this something I should have done first?

Any help getting this up and running will be most appreciated.

Thanks

James

2

Yes you most likely have many plugins that need to be updated. Potentially it is only a few plugins that make problems so you need to identify them. In the logs look for the first plugin that fails to load and check whey it is not loading, probably it requires another plugin in a newer version. So update that plugin. But that approach might take several rounds until Jenkins comes up so you can then use the UI to update all remaining plugins.

What might be easier is to use the GitHub - jenkinsci/plugin-installation-manager-tool: Plugin Manager CLI tool for Jenkins . For this you need to create a list of all your plugins, then call the tool and it will download all plugins.

3

The steps for an upgrade are usually:

  1. Read the upgrade guide for your version and any intervening versions. Optionally, watch the “What’s New in Jenkins LTS” videos
  2. Update plugins to most recent releases supported on that version of Jenkins
  3. Update Jenkins to most recent release
  4. Update plugins to most recent releases

Upgrade guides for your specific versions will describe major changes that happened between those releases, including

  • Several important security fixes
  • Spring Security 6 upgrade
  • Java 17 required as minimum Java version
  • YahooUI JavaScript library removed
  • Navigation and header redesign

There is also a blog post that outlines the upgrade process

4

Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling it may be an update failing to start but i was on limited time so had to rollback.
I`m creating a clone to work out what was failing. Can plugins be updated via the terminal?

5

yes with the plugin manager tool you download the plugins from command line. Either directly into the plugins directory of your instance or you download them in a separate folder and copy them afterwards.

Jenkins core upgrade 2.444 to 2.516.1 what are the challenges? does it make any impact on prod?