Must not use Java 1.7 when using E-Business Suite

Question

This notification is being posted at the request of Oracle Corporation
All E-Business Suite desktop administrators must disable the JRE Auto-Update for their end users immediately to stop it updating to Java 1.7.
URGENT BULLETIN: Disable JRE Auto-Update for All E-Business Suite End-Users.
The following link from my fellow blogger Steve Chan explains more: https://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/bulletin_disable_jre_auto_update
To disable automatic updates, you do this in the Java Control Panel using this workflow:
1. From the Windows Start button launch Control Panel
2. Double-click on the Java icon
3. On the Update tab, uncheck the box that says Check for updates automatically.
4. Click the OK button to complete
So why is this required?If you have Auto-Update enabled, your JRE 1.6 version will be updated to JRE 7. This may happen as early as July 3, 2012. This will definitely happen after Sept. 7, 2012, after the release of 1.6.0_35 (6u35).
Oracle Forms is not compatible with JRE 7 yet. JRE 7 has not been certified with Oracle E-Business Suite yet. Oracle E-Business Suite functionality based on Forms -- e.g. Financials -- will stop working if you upgrade to JRE 7.
If you have already upgraded to 1.7 but already have 1.6 you do not need to uninstall 1.7. You can just tell the system which one to use. You do this using this workflow:
1. From the Windows Start button launch Control Panel
2. Double-click on the Java icon
3. On ths Java tab, click the View button
4. Uncheck the Enabled box against 1.7 and check the box against 1.6
5. Click the OK button to complete
There is also a known issue with WebLogic 10.3.6 and JDK 1.7 and you must use JDK 1.6 for that. I will be posting on my blog shortly about this issue.
Seems to me therefore that until further notice, even for Discoverer, but definitely for E-Business Suite that you must stay on Java 1.6.

Answer 1

Hi Jerre
I hear your concern and when I heard about the issues with E-Business Suite and Java 7 I was horrified. After all, we kind of got used to this when Sun and Oracle were separate but now that Oracle own both you would think these problems would have gone away.
I'm not an insider to the problems with E-Business Suite and I urge anyone that is using it to wait for Oracle's solution and /or follow the great blog owned by Steven Chan which is dedicated to EBS. I took another look a few minutes ago and the advice is still the same - to NOT upgrade to Java 7 if you have E-Business Suite you need to roll back to Java 6 and turn off the automatic updates.
As for Discoverer, I have 10g clients whose workstations were automatically upgraded to Java 7 and had their applications fail. I have always advised my clients to turn off automatic updating of Java and keep their client Java at the same level as the server. There were serious issues here in the past but those were when Sun and Oracle were separate. We had compatibility issues when servers were on Java 5 and workstations upgraded to Java 6 and it looks like we may be having the same problems between Java 6 and Java 7.
I tend to notice far fewer problems in corporate environments when IT departments manage the versions of Java on their servers and workstations rather than let it auto upgrade.
It was me who uncovered a bug in 11.1.1.6 where the Java 7 JDK was not working. Since then Oracle issued a Discoverer patch to allow it to work with Java 7 so for users of 11.1.1.6 you should be OK now to go ahead and allow Java to upgrade. Mind you, if the same workstations need to connect to Forms or E-Business Suite the advice given earlier to not upgrade stilll applies - that is unless someone knows otherwise.
Best wishes
Michael