Issue

Jenkins fails on startup with the following stack trace:

SEVERE: Container startup failed
java.io.IOException: Failed to start a listener: winstone.HttpsConnectorFactory
    at winstone.Launcher.spawnListener(Launcher.java:209)
    at winstone.Launcher.<init>(Launcher.java:149)
    at winstone.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:354)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
    at Main._main(Main.java:293)
    at Main.main(Main.java:98)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: sun/security/x509/CertAndKeyGen
    at winstone.HttpsConnectorFactory.start(HttpsConnectorFactory.java:100)
    at winstone.Launcher.spawnListener(Launcher.java:207)
    ... 8 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: sun.security.x509.CertAndKeyGen
    [...]

Jenkins startup logs show:

WARNING: Creating a self-signed certificate currently relies on unsupported APIs in the Oracle JRE.
Please create your own certificate using supported tools instead and use --httpsKeyStore.

Environment

Related Issue(s)

JENKINS-25333

Explanation

This is an issue related to the auto-generation of self-signed certificate carried out by the Jetty Winstone container. This feature fails with JDK 8+ as well as with the latest version of Open JDK 7. For more information, have a look at JENKINS-25333.

The problem occurs only if you use -httpsPort without providing a keystore or a certificate. In that case Jenkins tries to run with an auto-generated self-signed certificate.

Although the issue is fixed since Jenkins 2.38, the auto-generation of self-signed certificate currently relies on unsupported APIs and is deprecated.

Resolution

The recommended solution is to generate a custom key and certificate and provide the keystore like described in the following article How to setup HTTPS within Jetty

Another solution is to manage HTTPS with a reverse proxy, see Reverse proxy configuration.

Useful Links

How to setup HTTPS within Jetty with Intermediate certificates
How to install a new SSL certificate
Starting and Accessing Jenkins

Jenkins Automatic Generation of a Self-Signed Certificate is Unreliable