J2SE/JRE Version(s) on Clients

[Former Member]

Hi All!

Can someone offer some guidance on what version(s) of J2SE/JRE we should have installed on our clients (PCs)? We have standardized on 1.4.2_13 and are moving to 1.4.2_15 for Vista support, but we've run into several situations where SAP is asking for us to also install 1.5 or 1.6, and we also have other vendors asking for various versons of J2SE/JRE. In the past we tried to use the same version as the version on the server, but we're finding this is hard to do.

Also, if you're running multiple versions, how do you manage cases where 2 browser apps want to use different versions since (at least with IE) it appears only one can be the default.

Thanks!

Jeff

[former_member193518]

Jeff,

Unfortunately, as you have realised, you're stuffed when it comes to IE and Java. Only one can be used.

We have to produce a certified list of apps that can be run against a common JRE. It looks like a neat matrix sheet and normally works around the lowest common denominator of JRE.

Unless SAP don't support you on older JRE versions, don't be bullied by them into upgrading.

Unless there is a very compelling reason (e.g. you need a patch that requires an upgrade) then I wouldn't change it, for simplicities sake.

I found this link to be of use though:

Best Regards,

Darryl

[Former Member]

Thanks!

Yeah, this seems to be a tough question. I've gone back and forth with SAP about this and I'm going to try once more. Generally I get the answer we shoud be using some flavor of 1.4.2_11 or higher. But when there's a support problem, SAP often recommends 1.5/5.0. I see that WAS 7.10 is going to require 5.0 or 6.0, so once we have that, then it'll be even harder to keep one version.

From a non-SAP perspective, other vendors of Java-based applications have J2SE requirements and this is getting difficult to manage.

Anyone else out there with any ideas?

Jeff

[Matt_Fraser]

One thing to bear in mind is that there is generally no necessity to match client JRE versions with your server JRE/JDK version. Most SAP server installations (at least on Basis 7.00) seem to like to be installed with (ABAP) or run on top of (J2EE, TREX) 1.4.2_x (usually 12 or higher), but client-side apps (for Portal, SRM, etc) usually seem to work fine with higher versions of a JRE, so we let other non-SAP applications that are more finicky determine the version requirements (I don't think we have many clients still on 1.4, though). Some components, like PI, might be pickier than this, and if you use SAPGUI for Java, then client version requirements will likely be more stringent.

--Matt