Bitbucket server installation at a Debian Buster system: Java problem

Question

Good morning,

Following the proposed installation steps for the 6.10 bitbucket server version, at a Linux Debian Buster system, the following problem occurred. While trying to execute:

start-bitbucket.sh

I get the message:

Neither the JAVA_HOME nor the JRE_HOME environment variable is defined
Edit set-jre-home.sh and define JRE_HOME

I am trying to Install Bitbucket Server 6.10 from the zip or archive file:

atlassian-bitbucket-6.10.0

The relevant support page mentions at the "Before you begin>Are you using a supported operating system and Java version?" section:

The Bitbucket Server installer includes Java (JRE) and Tomcat, so you don't need to install these separately.

and at the same page, "the Before you begin>Is your JAVA_HOME variable set correctly?" section mentions that:

Before you install Bitbucket Server, check that you're running a supported Java version and that the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set correctly.

It is not clear to me what I have to do.

Please advise if I have to install Java. If so please advise which one of the java packages for Debian Buster are necessary to install.

admin admin_trokdm · Accepted Answer

While you don't need to install Java, you do need to have it referenced in your environment.

That said however;

The Bitbucket Server installer includes Java (JRE) and Tomcat, so you don't need to install these separately.

Specifies the 'installer' includes these, the tar.gz archive file may not (and does not that I am aware of), so this depends on how the server was installed (you mention you are installing from an archive, so this decision may need to be re-evaluated).

You can verify if you have a JRE_HOME variable already defined;

echo $JRE_HOME [OR] echo $JAVA_HOME

A quick fix is to reference this variable's destination in the set-jre-home.sh file as the description you provided specifies;

vi ${BITBUCKET_INSTALL_DIR}/bin/set-jre-home.sh

And the easiest solution is to reference the JAVA_HOME location in your /etc/environment file, Though this may alter the operation of other applications running on your server.

admin admin_trokdm · Accepted Answer

You can also resolve this issue by installing with the bitbucket .bin file, which will install Java in Linux.

In truth, as I used to deliver Atlassian servers as docker containers I preferred the tar.gz delivery, b/c modifying the response.varfile file in the Dockerfile to provide automated installation was frustrating, but I now install Atlassian servers into the host OS, and the .bin files, in fresh environments, has proven much simpler to deliver.