Bamboo fails to start with NullPointerException at com.thoughtworks.xstream.mapper.ClassAliasingMapper.addClassAlias

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Summary

Bamboo fails to start with the below error being present in the $BAMBOO_HOME/atlassian-bamboo.log

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'deploymentsInProgressService' defined in class path resource [applicationContextDeploymentsServices.xml]: Bean instantiation via constructor failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [com.atlassian.bamboo.deployments.runtime.DeploymentsInProgressServiceImpl]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.autowireConstructor(ConstructorResolver.java:283) ... at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:367) ... 57 more Caused by: org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [com.atlassian.bamboo.deployments.runtime.DeploymentsInProgressServiceImpl]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:182) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:117) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.autowireConstructor(ConstructorResolver.java:276) ... 66 more Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException at com.thoughtworks.xstream.mapper.ClassAliasingMapper.addClassAlias(ClassAliasingMapper.java:37) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.alias(XStream.java:1511) at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.setupAliases(XStream.java:921) ... at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.<init>(XStream.java:397) at com.atlassian.bamboo.persister.xstream.CustomizableXStreamFactory$CustomXStream.<init>(CustomizableXStreamFactory.java:213) at com.atlassian.bamboo.persister.xstream.CustomizableXStreamFactory.createCompactXStream(CustomizableXStreamFactory.java:160) at com.atlassian.bamboo.deployments.runtime.DeploymentsInProgressServiceImpl.<init>(DeploymentsInProgressServiceImpl.java:42) ... at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:170) ... 68 more

Cause

We've found this occurs with incompatible or incomplete / private JDK builds (e.g. some distributions incorrectly compiled from source). For example:

1 2019-10-23 07:16:05,963 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] [lifecycle] Starting Bamboo 6.10.3 (build #61008 Fri Sep 27 12:36:01 UTC 2019) using Java 1.8.0_222 from Private Build

Solution

Install a supported version of the JDK. At the time of writing (Bamboo 6.10x), this is JDK 8:

If you're looking for a free distribution of compiled OpenJDK binaries, we endorse Adopt OpenJDK:

Updated on April 8, 2025

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