[Jan 28, 2008 Update:  Added IBM AIX and HP-UX PA-RISC to the list of certified platforms]

Out with the old, in with the new.  I’m very pleased to announce that the E-Business Suite Release 11i is now certified with Sun Java SE 6 for use on application tier servers.

Sun Java SE Download page screenshot: Screenshot of Sun Java SE download page

A Rose by Any Other Name

Before getting into the details about this new certification, it’s unavoidable that I spend some time on terminology.  Apparently, the latest iteration of the full name of this product family delivered by Sun Microsystems is:
  • Sun Java Platform, Standard Edition 6. 
  • Short form:  Java SE 6
The full name of the specific product within this family that we require for E-Business Suite application tier servers is:
  • Java Standard Edition Development Kit 6
  • Short form:  JDK 6
This release version is called JDK 6, 1.6, or 1.6.0.  All three version numbers are equivalent to each other.  When the base release is updated, the version number looks like one of the following (which are all equivalent): 
  • JDK 6 Update 2
  • JDK 6u2
  • 1.6.0_2
The previous release was Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5.0, with the short form being J2SE 5.0.  Other related terms equated over the years with this product family are Java SE Development Kit (JDK), and Java 2 Enterprise Edition Software Development Kit (J2SDK). 

For simplicity, for the remainder of this article (and in our official certification documentation), we’ll use the term JDK 6.

What’s Newly Certified?

Sun JDK 6u2 (1.6.0_2) is certified for use on application tiers for:
  • E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10.CU2 with ATG_PF.H RUP 5 or higher
  • E-Business Suite Release 11.5.9.CU2 with ATG_PF.H RUP 5 or higher
Supported Platforms
  • Sun Solaris (SPARC) 8, 9, and 10
  • Linux:
    • SLES-9
    • SLES-8
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 4
    • Red Hat Enterprise AS/ES 3
    • Red Hat Enterprise AS/ES 2.1
  • Microsoft Windows 2003 (x86)
  • IBM AIX
  • HP-UX PA-RISC
Note:  HP-UX PA-RISC and IBM AIX are pending the release of JDK 6 Update 2 by those operating system vendors.  I’ll post updates on these remaining platforms here as soon as they’re available.

Why Bother Upgrading?

JDK 1.3 has since passed its end-of-life threshold, so if you’re still on that release, I’d strongly recommend upgrading to one of the supported versions:  1.4, 5 (1.5), or 6.

If you’re still running on JDK 1.4 and are having trouble with JVM performance, I’d strongly recommend upgrading to either JDK 5 or 6.  These latest two releases offer dramatically improved JVM monitoring and tuning tools not available in previous releases.

Upgrade Documentation

Full details for upgrading your E-Business Suite Release 11i environment to JDK 6 can be found here:
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