Albert Leigh's Weblog: Sun IBM WebSphere Solution Architect

Keeping your WebSphere application environment on Solaris updated with the recommended Fix Packs and Service Releases from IBM and Solaris update releases and patches is a key to better performance and reliability. For example, if you have WebSphere Application Server v6.1 with Fix Pack 5, you may find slowness in the garbage collection process using the throughput collector (ParallelGC). It could be that you are possibly seeing this bug. You can us tools like truss or DTrace to confirm that you are experiencing this bug by looking for high yield() system calls.

Your current WAS JDK may indicate that you are at v1.5.0_06. You can use "${WAS_HOME}/java/bin/java -version" command to verify that. The recommended fix for it is to minimally get to JDK 1.5.0_10.

How do you look for the specific Fix Packs and Java cumulative fixes for IBM WebSphere Application Server for Solaris?

Find "WAS Fix Lists for all versions" from IBM. Or, you can find "WAS v6.1 Fix Lists" here.

Then, you can find all the JDK bug fix lists from here.

You can download one of the following Fix Packs and JDK Updates (Service Release). Note that JDK Updates must be downloaded separately from IBM. They are not automatically included in the Fix Packs.

• v6.1.0.7 and SR4 will upgrade to JDK 1.5.0_10-b02.
  • WebSphere Application Server V6.1 Fix Pack 7 for Solaris.
  • Java SDK 1.5 SR4 Cumulative Fix for WebSphere Application Server
  • You can find out which Java bug fixes are included in 1.5.0_10 at its Release Notes.

I just provided one example potential issue. There are many additional reliability and performance improvements that you can gain by staying with the later update releases. Below are newer WAS Fix Packs with JDK updates that are available for WAS v6.1 at this writing. Look for the latest fixes for WAS here.

• v6.1.0.11 and SR5 will upgrade to 1.5.0_11-b03
  • WebSphere Application Server V6.1 Fix Pack 11 for Solaris
  • Java SDK 1.5 SR5
  • Sun JDK 1.5.0_11 Release Notes
• v6.1.0.13 and SR6 will upgrade to 1.5.0_13-b05
  • WebSphere Application Server V6.1 Fix Pack 13 for Solaris
  • Java SDK 1.5 SR6 Cumulative Fix for WebSphere Application Server
  • Sun JDK 1.5.0_13 WebSphere Application Server V6.1 Fix Pack 17 for Solaris
  • Java SDK 1.5 SR7 Cumulative Fix for WebSphere Application Server
  • Sun JDK 1.5.0_15 Release Notes
• v6.1.0.19 and SR8 will upgrade to 1.5.0_16-b02.
  • WebSphere Application Server V6.1 Fix Pack 19 for Solaris
  • Java SDK 1.5 SR8 Cumulative Fix for WebSphere Application Server
  • Sun JDK 1.5.0_16 Release Notes

Of course, you will need to get the Update Installer from IBM to install these patches to WAS.

Finally, the Solaris Patches for JDK are available at SunSolve. And, you can get the latest Solaris OS Updates here. Below is the list of improvements Sun has put in respective update releases (the most recent 3 here):

• What's new in Solaris 10 10/08
• What's New in the Solaris 10 5/08
• What's New in the Solaris 10 8/07