DBAs working in a managed services environment often run into situations where some customers are still running JRE6 while others have upgraded to latest JRE7. When JRE7 is installed on a Windows desktop, it becomes the default JRE and gets invoked when users access Oracle forms. This creates all kinds of issues for users who try to access Oracle forms from customers who are still on JRE6.
This blog describes a way to access Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) forms running on JRE7 and, at the same time, other EBS forms running on JRE6. This method has been tested on Windows 7 64bit running on laptops and desktops. The reason this method only works on the 64bit flavor of Windows is that it comes with both 32bit and 64bit versions of Internet Explorer. We will configure the 32bit version of Internet Explorer to use JRE6 and the 64bit version to use JRE7. This is done by installing the 64bit version of JRE7 . You can download 64bit JRE7 from the Java download page. Just look for Windows x64, which I’ve highlighted in the image below.
After you download and install JRE7 64bit, now launch 64bit Internet Explorer by just typing “internet explorer” into the run prompt (as shown below) and click on “Internet Explorer (64-bit)”
You can quickly verify which version of JRE is running by accessing this java.com url. You will notice that this link shows JRE7 when you access it via Internet Explorer 64bit and the default Internet Explorer will show JRE6.
You may be concerned that this setup is not supported, but don’t worry. 64bit Internet Explorer & 64bit JRE are certified with Oracle E-Business Suite. You can refer to My Oracle Support Note 285218.1
I would like to hear about any issues you may have experienced with JRE. Please post them in the comments section!
3 Comments. Leave new
Hi. You can configure E-Business suite to run with 1.6+ instead of a specific version of JRE which cuts down on the possible warning/error messages that clients will receive. Using 11i as an example put a version of JRE here $COMMON_TOP/util/jinitiator/ and call it j2se16+.exe then update the apps context variables below:
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Hi Ciaran, Thanks for your comment. you are right about configuring with java 1.6+ to get it working with all kind of JREs. But my post is more about dealing with JRE conflicts when you are accessing different Customers environments who are configured with different versions ( JRE6 & JRE7 ) of JREs. The assumptions is if you access Customer with JRE6 with JRE7 on your desktop, you will end up with forms issues.