Debian9 fails to startup in buildbot

debian 9 is failing to start from postConfigure

MariaDB ColumnStore Database Platform Starting, please wait ........................................ FAILED
IMPORTANT: There was a system startup failed, once issue has been resolved, rerun postConfigure

From columnstore logging:
Apr 17 15:25:43 ip-10-0-0-136 PrimProc[49692]: 43.406432 |0|0|0| C 28 CAL0000: Error setting file limits, please see non-root install documentation
Apr 17 15:25:44 ip-10-0-0-136 ProcessMonitor[49188]: 44.122328 |0|0|0| C 18 CAL0000: *****Calpont Process Restarting: PrimProc, old PID = 49692
Apr 17 15:25:48 ip-10-0-0-136 PrimProc[49726]: 48.412316 |0|0|0| C 28 CAL0000: Error setting file limits, please see non-root install documentation
Apr 17 15:25:49 ip-10-0-0-136 ProcessManager[49252]: 49.413319 |0|0|0| C 17 CAL0000: startMgrProcessThread Exit with a failure, error returned from startSystemThread
Apr 17 15:31:23 ip-10-0-0-136 controllernode[50903]: 23.030175 |0|0|0| C 29 CAL0000: ExtentMap::save(): got request to save an empty BRM
Apr 17 15:31:23 ip-10-0-0-136 ProcessManager[49252]: 23.033213 |0|0|0| E 17 CAL0000: line: 6451 Error running DBRM save_brm
Apr 17 15:31:34 ip-10-0-0-136 PrimProc[51317]: 34.631635 |0|0|0| C 28 CAL0000: Error setting file limits, please see non-root install documentation
Apr 17 15:31:39 ip-10-0-0-136 ProcessMonitor[49188]: 39.513999 |0|0|0| C 18 CAL0000: *****Calpont Process Restarting: PrimProc, old PID = 51317
Apr 17 15:31:41 ip-10-0-0-136 PrimProc[51379]: 41.565442 |0|0|0| C 28 CAL0000: Error setting file limits, please see non-root install documentation
Apr 17 15:31:46 ip-10-0-0-136 ProcessMonitor[49188]: 46.570833 |0|0|0| C 18 CAL0000: *****Calpont Process Restarting: PrimProc, old PID = 51379
Apr 17 15:31:48 ip-10-0-0-136 PrimProc[51442]: 48.621322 |0|0|0| C 28 CAL0000: Error setting file limits, please see non-root install documentation

the limits.conf file DOES contain the following entries:
/etc/security/limits.conf
buildbot hard nofile 65536
buildbot soft nofile 65536