diff -r d68158e12cea -r ffae627760ca src/share/vm/services/management.cpp
--- a/src/share/vm/services/management.cpp	Wed Mar 11 13:36:57 2015 -0700
+++ b/src/share/vm/services/management.cpp	Wed Jan 08 20:23:16 2014 -0500
@@ -155,11 +155,14 @@
     // Load and initialize the sun.management.Agent class
     // invoke startAgent method to start the management server
     Handle loader = Handle(THREAD, SystemDictionary::java_system_loader());
-    Klass* k = SystemDictionary::resolve_or_fail(vmSymbols::sun_management_Agent(),
+    Klass* k = SystemDictionary::resolve_or_null(vmSymbols::sun_management_Agent(),
                                                    loader,
                                                    Handle(),
-                                                   true,
-                                                   CHECK);
+                                                   THREAD);
+    if (k == NULL) {
+      vm_exit_during_initialization("Management agent initialization failure: "
+          "class sun.management.Agent not found.");
+    }
     instanceKlassHandle ik (THREAD, k);
 
     JavaValue result(T_VOID);