Java/RPG Question

Hello All,

We have an RPG application that uses a Java class to perform HTTPS REST requests to an external web API. The connectivity between the systems broke recently (probably due to an update applied on the other side). We’ve determined the problem is that the process needs to establish a TLS 1.2-level connection since by default the Java environment appears to use an older, now unsupported version of TLS. We found a way to enable the Java code to establish a TLS 1.2 connection with the following property:

-Dcom.ibm.jsse2.overrideDefaultTLS=true

When we run a Java test app within QSH from the command line, it causes the Java code to negotiate a connection using TLS 1.2, which fixes our problem.

Java -Dcom.ibm.jsse2.overrideDefaultTLS=true <class>

When we put the property into the RPG program using the QIBM_RPG_JAVA_PROPERTIES environment variable, it fails. The JVM has an error on startup. We tried using ADDENVVAR and then the command line invocation without the property, which doesn’t work either. Lastly, we tried putting the property in a SystemDefault.properties file. It seems the system sees the property, but the JVM fails on startup.

Has anyone else run into something like this? Is there a better/alternate way to configure Java to use TLS 1.2? We are currently running Java 8 on IBM i 7.2. Sorry, this is kind of a cross-over question. I can post it to the RPG side, if need be.

Thanks,
Blake Butterworth

Application Development Manager

Kansas Turnpike Authority