TeamCity Server: Update Java (Amazon Corretto)

This article explains how to update Java for your TeamCity installation with few simple steps. No system restarts required.

It assumed that TeamCity runs under a Linux distribution (Ubuntu Server) and Amazon Corretto is used as Java backend.

Stop your TeamCity server

 You must be logged in as the user who runs TeamCity process. If the default installation guide was used, the user suggested was teamcity.

su teamcity

To stop the TeamCity server, navigate to the TeamCity installation directory and run:

./bin/teamcity-server.sh stop

Note: There's a bunch of handy scripts in bin directory there, might be of interest to spend some time to have a look.

Stop TeamCity agent(s)

The default installation is shipped with a default agent, which is located in same directory where TeamCity server resides, inside the buildAgent directory.

To stop the agent, there's a script of it's own:

./buildAgent/bin/agent.sh stop

Repeat the same for additional agents (if any) in their installation directories.

 Remove obsolete Corretto and install new version

As for the sake of this article, update is towards Corretto v21. The user (not teamcity related) must have root privileges to install/remove packages.

Uninstall the obsolete Corretto (v11 was installed prior):

sudo dpkg --remove java-11-amazon-corretto-jdk

 Download the latest deb package:

wget https://corretto.aws/downloads/latest/amazon-corretto-21-x64-linux-jdk.deb

Install the downloaded Corretto package:

sudo dpkg --install amazon-corretto-21-x64-linux-jdk.deb

Check Java version:

java --version
openjdk 21.0.6 2025-01-21 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Corretto-21.0.6.7.1 (build 21.0.6+7-LTS)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Corretto-21.0.6.7.1 (build 21.0.6+7-LTS, mixed mode, sharing)

Links:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/corretto/latest/corretto-21-ug/generic-linux-install.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/corretto/latest/corretto-21-ug/downloads-list.html

 Start TeamCity and the agent(s) back

Authenticate as teamcity user again. Use the same scripts for TeamCity server and agent(s), respectively, to start them.

./bin/teamcity-server.sh start

./buildAgent/bin/agent.sh start

The server and agent(s) should start without any issue.

Login in your TeamCity server via web interface as administrator. Check under Admin -> Diagnostics, scroll down to Java Configuration and observe that updated Java is used:

Java version: 21.0.6
Java VM info: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM
Java Home path: /usr/lib/jvm/java-21-amazon-corretto
Server: Apache Tomcat/9.0.102