Installing SonarQube on Ubuntu 24.04

SonarQube is an open-source static analysis platform for continuous code quality inspection — bugs, vulnerabilities, and maintainability issues across multiple languages. This guide installs it on Ubuntu 24.04 with PostgreSQL, sets up SonarScanner CLI, runs SonarQube as a systemd service, and scans both an example project and your own.

Prerequisites: an Ubuntu 24.04 instance, non-root sudo user.

Set Up PostgreSQL

$ sudo apt install -y postgresql-common postgresql -y
$ sudo systemctl enable postgresql
$ sudo systemctl start postgresql
$ sudo -u postgres psql

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postgres=# CREATE ROLE sonaruser WITH LOGIN ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'your_password';
postgres=# CREATE DATABASE sonarqube;
postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE sonarqube TO sonaruser;
postgres=# \c sonarqube
postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON SCHEMA public TO sonaruser;
postgres=# \q

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Install SonarQube

Needs OpenJDK 17.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk -y
$ sudo apt install unzip
$ java -version

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Check the releases page for the current version:

$ sudo wget https://binaries.sonarsource.com/Distribution/sonarqube/sonarqube-25.2.0.102705.zip
$ unzip sonarqube-25.2.0.102705.zip
$ sudo mv sonarqube-25.2.0.102705/ /opt/sonarqube
$ sudo adduser --system --no-create-home --group --disabled-login sonarqube
$ sudo chown -R sonarqube:sonarqube /opt/sonarqube

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Install SonarScanner CLI

Check the releases page for the current version:

$ wget https://binaries.sonarsource.com/Distribution/sonar-scanner-cli/sonar-scanner-cli-7.0.1.4817-linux-x64.zip
$ unzip sonar-scanner-cli-7.0.1.4817-linux-x64.zip
$ sudo mv sonar-scanner-7.0.1.4817-linux-x64/ /opt/sonarscanner
$ sudo nano /opt/sonarscanner/conf/sonar-scanner.properties

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Set:

sonar.host.url=127.0.0.1

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$ sudo chmod +x /opt/sonarscanner/bin/sonar-scanner
$ sudo ln -s /opt/sonarscanner/bin/sonar-scanner /usr/local/bin/sonar-scanner
$ sonar-scanner -v

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Configure SonarQube

$ sudo nano /opt/sonarqube/conf/sonar.properties

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sonar.jdbc.username=sonaruser
sonar.jdbc.password=your_password
sonar.jdbc.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/sonarqube
sonar.web.javaAdditionalOpts=-server
sonar.web.host=0.0.0.0
sonar.web.port=9000

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System limits — SonarQube’s embedded Elasticsearch needs headroom:

$ sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

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vm.max_map_count=524288
fs.file-max=131072

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$ sudo nano /etc/security/limits.d/99-sonarqube.conf

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sonarqube   -   nofile   131072
sonarqube   -   nproc    8192

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Firewall:

$ sudo ufw allow 9000/tcp
$ sudo apt install ufw -y && sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
$ sudo ufw reload
$ sudo ufw status

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Run as a systemd Service

$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/sonarqube.service

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[Unit]
Description=SonarQube service
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking

ExecStart=/opt/sonarqube/bin/linux-x86-64/sonar.sh start
ExecStop=/opt/sonarqube/bin/linux-x86-64/sonar.sh stop

User=sonarqube
Group=sonarqube
PermissionsStartOnly=true
Restart=always

StandardOutput=syslog
LimitNOFILE=131072
LimitNPROC=8192
TimeoutStartSec=5
SuccessExitStatus=143

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

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$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl enable sonarqube
$ sudo systemctl start sonarqube
$ sudo systemctl status sonarqube
$ sudo reboot now

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The reboot applies the sysctl/limits changes cleanly.

First-Run Setup

1. Visit port 9000 on your server, log in admin/admin, change the password when prompted.
2. Administration → Security → Users → Create User — a dedicated account for scanning.
3. Generate a token: options icon in the Tokens column → name it, set expiry, Generate. Copy the token.

Scan an Example Project

$ cd
$ mkdir sonar-example-test
$ cd sonar-example-test
$ wget https://github.com/SonarSource/sonar-scanning-examples/archive/master.zip
$ unzip master.zip
$ cd sonar-scanning-examples-master
$ cd sonar-scanner
$ sonar-scanner -D sonar.token=user-sonar_token

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Replace user-sonar_token with your generated token. Check the dashboard for the scan results.

Scan Your Own Project

$ cd myproject
$ nano sonar-project.properties

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sonar.projectKey=MyProject:Key1
sonar.projectName=First Project
sonar.projectVersion=1.0
sonar.projectDescription=My First Project
sonar.sources=src

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$ sonar-scanner -D sonar.token=<sonar_token>

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Next Steps

SonarQube is running with a PostgreSQL backend and validated on both an example and custom project scan. From here:

• Put Nginx in front of port 9000 as a reverse proxy with TLS
• Wire SonarScanner into CI (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) for scans on every push
• Set quality gates to fail builds on new bugs or vulnerabilities

For the full guide, visit the original article on Vultr Docs.