Upgrading Version 2.452.3 to latest LTS

Using Jenkins
1

I am trying to upgrading my jenkins from 2.452 to 2.504.1. Went through the same process I did to upgrade to 2.452, just did a
sudo apt udpate
sudo apt upgrade jenkins

but the upgrade seems to have broke something. Jenkins wouldn’t start. Wondering if there were any dependencies I was supposed to update first. Java is already at 21 so I know that is up to date

2

Yes, 2.479.1 required upgrades of spring plugins separately from the general upgrade path. See Upgrading to Jenkins LTS 2.479.x for details.

1 Like
3

Jenkins 2.504.1 may have introduced changes that break compatibility with Plugins, Java versions, File ownership/permissions, SystemD service configs
Also, Java 21 is not officially supported by Jenkins yet Jenkins only officially supports up to Java 17 as of now (May 2025).
Quick Fix:

  1. Install Java 17 (if not already):
    sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk -y

  2. Switch to Java 17:
    sudo update-alternatives --config java

  3. Restart Jenkins
    sudo systemctl restart jenkins

  4. Check logs if it still fails
    journalctl -u jenkins -xe

4

@davmano
Actually no, the big change was with 2.479.x which made Java 17 mandatory and switched from EE8 to EE9. Some plugins have to be upgraded manually before starting Jenkins as otherwise Jenkins will not be accessible or fail to start.
Jenkins officially supports Java 21, just recently the official images without a dedicated java tag have been changed to be based on Java 21 (see Changelog)

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5

You’re spot-on about Jenkins 2.479.x mandating Java 17 and moving to Jakarta EE 9, which requires careful plugin updates to ensure smooth startups. Notably, Jenkins now fully supports Java 21, with the latest untagged Docker images defaulting to it, as confirmed in the changelog. This enables better performance and access to modern Java features. Thanks

6

ok so of that list of plugins that needed to be updated, I was using 2, which I did download and update. However it still was not starting, figured out the matrix authorization strategy and the github authentication was giving issues as well. I backed up the config.xml file and just edited out the login credentials of those 2, and was able to get jenkins to start. I updated all the plugins, and replaced my backed up config.xml file, but now none of the login credentials are there and its not recognizing the github authentication.

is there an easier way to update all these plugins to the version that is required for this latest LTS release, before doing the jenkins upgrade?