Run a Java JAR as a Systemd Service on Ubuntu with Auto‑Start

Introduction

When you need a Java JAR to run as a background service on Ubuntu and start automatically after a reboot, you can wrap it with a systemd service.

Step 1: Create the systemd service file

[Unit]
Description=My Webapp Java REST Service

[Service]
User=ubuntu
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu/workspace
fileExecStart=/home/ubuntu/workspace/my-webapp
SuccessExitStatus=143
TimeoutStopSec=10
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Step 2: Create a Bash script to launch the JAR

#!/bin/sh
sudo /usr/bin/java -jar my-webapp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar server config.yml

Make the script executable:

sudo chmod u+x my-webapp

Step 3: Enable and start the service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable my-webapp.service
sudo systemctl start my-webapp
sudo systemctl status my-webapp

Step 4: View logs with journald

sudo journalctl --unit=my-webapp
sudo journalctl -f -n 1000 -u my-webapp
sudo systemctl stop my-webapp

Conclusion

This approach lets you run a Java program as a managed Ubuntu service, and the same pattern can be adapted for other languages or distributions.