zk-web messages in SBM log after install or upgrade

Symptom

Following a fresh install or upgrade to Server Backup Manager version 6.18 or newer, the following error may be observed in the server.log file.

 
ERROR [] - GlobalUpdater failed to update properly
java.lang.NullPointerException: null
at sun.awt.FontConfiguration.getVersion(FontConfiguration.java:219)
at sun.awt.FontConfiguration.readFontConfigFile(FontConfiguration.java:219)
at sun.awt.FontConfiguration.init(FontConfiguration.java:107)
...43 more
 

Cause

The SBM was updated to use OpenJDK 8 in version 6.18 and newer. For a number of years, OpenJDK has not bundled fonts or the ability to discover and use them. The Backup Manager dashboard makes use of fonts that are not natively included. The Dashboard widgets display properly, however the aforementioned error is still logged.

Resolution

Additional packages will be required in order to add fonts support and silence the errors in the server.log file.

 For Debian/Ubuntu/Mint systems :
 apt-get install libfreetype6 fontconfig fonts-dejavu 

 RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:
 yum install freetype fontconfig dejavu-sans-fonts 

 SLES/OpenSUSE:
 zypper install libfreetype6 fontconfig dejavu-fonts 