How to Configure SonarQube to Start Automatically on Boot Using a Script

If you have installed SonarQube on Linux (Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS, etc.), you might notice that it doesn’t start automatically after a system reboot.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to create a one-click script that registers SonarQube as a systemd service and enables it to start automatically on boot.

Assumptions

  • SonarQube is installed in: /opt/sonarqube
  • SonarQube startup script: /opt/sonarqube/bin/linux-x86-64/sonar.sh
  • Running user: sonarqube

Step 1: Create the script

Create a script named setup-sonarqube-service.sh with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
# setup-sonarqube-service.sh
# Configure SonarQube systemd service

SONAR_USER="sonarqube"
SONAR_DIR="/opt/sonarqube"
SONAR_BIN="$SONAR_DIR/bin/linux-x86-64/sonar.sh"
SERVICE_FILE="/etc/systemd/system/sonarqube.service"

# Check if the user exists
if ! id "$SONAR_USER" &>/dev/null; then
  echo "Creating SonarQube user: $SONAR_USER"
  useradd -r -s /bin/bash "$SONAR_USER"
  chown -R $SONAR_USER:$SONAR_USER $SONAR_DIR
fi

# Create systemd service file
echo "Creating systemd service file: $SERVICE_FILE"
cat > $SERVICE_FILE <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=SonarQube service
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=$SONAR_BIN start
ExecStop=$SONAR_BIN stop
ExecReload=$SONAR_BIN restart
User=$SONAR_USER
Group=$SONAR_USER
Restart=always
LimitNOFILE=65536

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

# Reload systemd
echo "Reloading systemd configuration..."
systemctl daemon-reload

# Start service and enable auto start
echo "Starting SonarQube service..."
systemctl start sonarqube

echo "Enabling SonarQube auto start..."
systemctl enable sonarqube

echo "Done! Use the following commands to manage SonarQube:"
echo "  systemctl start sonarqube"
echo "  systemctl stop sonarqube"
echo "  systemctl restart sonarqube"
echo "  systemctl status sonarqube"

Step 2: Run the script

sudo bash setup-sonarqube-service.sh

Once executed, SonarQube will be registered as a systemd service and automatically start on boot.

Conclusion

With this script, you don’t need to manually start SonarQube after every reboot. This method works on Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, and most systemd-based Linux distributions.

Published on 2025-09-04