Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfoFile

Question

I ran into this exception when i tried to start elasticsearch-6.8.20 using the command systemctl start elasticsearch.service

  Starting Elasticsearch...
  systemd[1]: Started Elasticsearch.
  elasticsearch[71380]: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfoFile
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo.getTimeZone(ZoneInfo.java:589)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at java.util.TimeZone.getTimeZone(TimeZone.java:560)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at java.util.TimeZone.setDefaultZone(TimeZone.java:666)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at java.util.TimeZone.getDefaultRef(TimeZone.java:636)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at java.util.TimeZone.getDefault(TimeZone.java:625)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.initializeCalendar(SimpleDateFormat.java:657)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.<init>(SimpleDateFormat.java:601)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.<init>(SimpleDateFormat.java:580)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.status.StatusData.getFormattedStatus(StatusData.java:122)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.status.StatusConsoleListener.log(StatusConsoleListener.java:81)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.status.StatusLogger.logMessage(StatusLogger.java:278)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger.tryLogMessage(AbstractLogger.java:2170)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger.logMessageTrackRecursion(AbstractLogger.java:2125)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger.logMessageSafely(AbstractLogger.java:2108)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger.logMessage(AbstractLogger.java:2002)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger.logIfEnabled(AbstractLogger.java:1974)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger.error(AbstractLogger.java:741)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.pattern.PatternParser.createConverter(PatternParser.java:592)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.pattern.PatternParser.finalizeConverter(PatternParser.java:639)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.pattern.PatternParser.parse(PatternParser.java:415)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.pattern.PatternParser.parse(PatternParser.java:177)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.layout.PatternLayout$SerializerBuilder.build(PatternLayout.java:377)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.layout.PatternLayout.<init>(PatternLayout.java:129)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.layout.PatternLayout.<init>(PatternLayout.java:59)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.layout.PatternLayout$Builder.build(PatternLayout.java:660)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.AbstractConfiguration.setToDefault(AbstractConfiguration.java:584)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.AbstractConfiguration.doConfigure(AbstractConfiguration.java:560)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.AbstractConfiguration.initialize(AbstractConfiguration.java:238)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.impl.DefaultConfigurationBuilder.build(DefaultConfigurationBuilder.java:204)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.impl.DefaultConfigurationBuilder.build(DefaultConfigurationBuilder.java:161)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.impl.DefaultConfigurationBuilder.build(DefaultConfigurationBuilder.java:57)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.common.logging.LogConfigurator.configureStatusLogger(LogConfigurator.java:250)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.common.logging.LogConfigurator.configure(LogConfigurator.java:166)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.common.logging.LogConfigurator.configure(LogConfigurator.java:127)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:302)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:159)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:150)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:86)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:124)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:90)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:116)
  elasticsearch[71380]: #011at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:93)
  systemd[1]: elasticsearch.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
  systemd[1]: elasticsearch.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

The service is not logging under the path defined in the config file elasticsearch.yml. any idea what could be the cause? I'm using openjdk version "1.8.0_312" and Red Hat release 8.3

Have you tried running it with more recent JDK? – ilvar Jan 13 '22 at 15:09 — ilvar, Jan 13 '22 at 15:09
no, this is the version we're using in prod environment – Lèanne Jan 14 '22 at 14:57 — Lèanne, Jan 14 '22 at 14:57

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 21 '22 at 16:24

I figured out the problem. The TimeZone dependency was missing from the OpenJDK installation: The symbolic link $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/tzdb.dat -> /usr/share/javazi-1.8/tzdb.dat was pointing to an empty directory. I downloaded the rpm file tzdata-java-2021c-1.el8.noarch.rpm and installed using the command: rpm -ivh tzdata-java-2021c-1.el8.noarch.rpm

All works fine now.

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 13 '22 at 14:36

According to java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class XXX, the problem may be related to static initializer of ZoneInfoFile.java.

What I can suggest is to create a simple class that use ZoneInfoFile and run in the server, to find out why this class cannot be initialized.

import sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfoFile;

public class TestInitZoneInfoFile {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ZoneInfoFile.getZoneInfo("dummy");
    }
}

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfoFile

2 Answers2