On-premise Adobe Connect Servers and Java

The question occasionally comes up: May I freely update Java on my Adobe Connect on-premise server?

And actually this question should be split into two questions:

• What version of Java may I use?
• What update of that version may I use?

It is important to keep these two questions separated because updating a point release is different from (more trivial than) upgrading an entire version (whereby compatibility issues could result).

Since we make every effort to keep Adobe Connect up to date with its surrounding infrastructure,we evaluate and implement moves to upgraded Java versions with every major release of Connect.

With reference to the updaters, Oracle releases quarterly Critical Patch Updates and we have been striving to keep up with these (although our release cycle does often mean that we are one or two quarters behind so as to allow for time to fully test).

We do not recommend that customers update the JRE separately from Connect itself. There are multiple reasons for this:

• We have uncovered JRE bugs in the past during our performance/longevity tests.
• When we moved from 32-bit JRE to 64-bit JRE, this necessitated sizing changes (heap size etc.).

Heap size is an important variable that warrants performance testing to ensure that the sizing is adequate for the target JRE version. All this is due diligence is done as part of our packaged Connect builds; by updating outside of our quality assurance and performance testing cycles, you add unnecessary risk. It is best to take full advantage the battery of testing accomplished by the Adobe Connect engineering team; by upgrading the JRE separately, you will create an infrastructure with variables that have not been fully tested and thereby assume commensurate risk.