Jenkins was running all fine on a RedHat Linux machine (a clean EC2 machine on AWS), until I decided to change the `JENKINS_HOME`. I simply moved the Jenkins directory from `/var/lib/jenkins` to `/home/ec2-user/jenkins` and then created a symlink. (I followed the first answer to this question: [Change JENKINS\_HOME on Red Hat Linux?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21839538/change-jenkins-home-on-red-hat-linux)). 

However when I restart Jenkins I get the error: 

> 
> Unable to create the home directory ‘/var/lib/jenkins’. This is most
>  likely a permission problem. To change the home directory, use
>  JENKINS\_HOME environment variable or set the JENKINS\_HOME system
>  property.
> 
> 
> 

I tried changing `JENKINS_HOME` in `/etc/sysconfig/jenkins`, setting it to the new folder (which I suppose defeats the point of a symlink?) and I still get the same error 

> 
> Unable to create the home directory ‘/home/ec2-user/jenkins’. 
> 
> 
> 

It is for backup purposes, so that I have all Jenkins data in a mounted external data storage (AWS Elastic File System).