dmServer 2.0 and Java 5

[Ilya Katsov]

Hi All,

Our project has strong requirement to use Java 5. We work with dmServer 1.0.2 currently, but it will be really good for us to take advantages of dmServer 2.0; in particular we want to migarte our .par archives to .plan files. Could you please clarify, is there way to utilize this feature without migration on Java 6?

Thanks,
Ilya

[Glyn Normington]

dm Server 2.0 requires Java 6, so I'm afraid you'll have to run under Java 6 to use 2.0.

However it should be possible to compile your code for Java 5 against Java 5 class libraries and have it run under Java 6 because of Java's reasonable backward compatibility story. It all depends on why you have a strong requirement to use Java 5 and what restrictions that actually places on you.

[Ilya Katsov]

Glyn,

thank you for quick response. Unfortunately Java5 is our business requirement and we have no possibility to migrate a production system on Java6.

We are able to spend some time tuning dm Server 2.0 at code level to make it compatible with Java 5 (at least partially) or migrating some features from dm Server 2.0 to 1.0.2. So, my question may be posed as follows: Is it reasonable to try tuning of dm Server 2.0 at code level to migrate it on Java5? Does dm Server 2.0 use Java 6 features so extensively that migration will have very high LOE?

Thanks,
Ilya

[Glyn Normington]

Unfortunately I think either of those approaches is likely to be prohibitively expensive.

The Java 6 dependencies in dm Server 2.0 are fairly localised but critical. For example, 2.0 depends on Java 6 JMX features, critical to the function of the admin console and the shell, and Java 6 concurrency utilities.

Backporting function from 2.0 to 1.0.2 is likely to be costly since the design of the two versions is so radically different.

I would recommend staying on vanilla 1.0.2 until your business requirements allow you to upgrade to Java 6.