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  3. September 2021

Re: RDi 9.6 Fix Pack 11 and iSphere

Hi Frank,

Uninstalling a fix pack won't affect the shared JVM cache location. Especially if the machine had 9.6.0.10 since it had the JVM update.

A JVM update or a system reboot will, or in Mikes suggestion, not using a shared location will ensure that the cache will not be used. (Keep in mind this is different from Eclipse or RDi cache that is stored in the workspace. These can be cleaned with the preferences or a -clean.)

The JVM cache persists until a reboot. And some cached items can be preserved even between system restarts.

We take security seriously, so we need to update the JVM for security updates. Which is why 9.6.0.10 was an iFix to update the JVM only.

It's OK to build for RDP 8.0 and target to Java 5. This way your plugin is backward compatible. It simply means you cannot use any new methods introduced in Java 6 to the current level. But because we are running the latest version of the IBM JVM Java 8, you have all of the security fixes, while running code compatible to Java 5 call signatures.

The issue occurs when items are normally cached to speed up the process, either by the JVM or by developers. If you have a PCML program you use, and pre-compile the PCML and ship it, you may need to "recompile" when the JVM is updated. I say may, because most of the time a wide character is the same size in the JVM. Sometimes the JVM redefines sizes, in which case your PCML will need to be regenerated. These pre-compiled PCML are examples of items that persist between system restarts.

I'd suggest looking at how your PCML objects are generated. Pre-compiled is nice when YOU control the JVM updates only. But when you are dependent upon a user or 3rd party update, you may be better off having them generated at "JVM startup".

We do appreciate ALL of our Plugin developers, and urge you to take advantage of our 6 week beta so that if you (or we) need a fix before GA we have time to do it before the final ship date.

Hope this help!

Steve Ferrell
w. www.helpsystems.com



-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of fhildebrandt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2021 10:20 AM
To: 'Rational Developer for IBM i' <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi 9.6 Fix Pack 11 and iSphere

External: Pause and review the sender's email address, any URLs before clicking links, opening attachments, or following requests. When in doubt, contact the Service Desk.


Hi Steve,

on the first machine the problem occurred, we uninstalled RDi completly and installed it from scratch with fix pack 11. This did`t help at all. We still had the same problem.

I tried multiple things to make it work and at the end I had a workaround which made it work without Mikes fix, but of course Mikes fix is much better.

I downloaded all JTOpen versions from 9.6 to 10.6 from the link below. Then I replaced the JTOpen jt400.jar in folder
...\SDPShared\plugins\com.ibm.etools.iseries.toolbox_8.5.6109.v20210426_1434
\runtime with the downloaded JTOpen jar. With JTOpen 9.6 and 9.7 the pcml exception didn`t occur any longer. But after this I got a null pointer exception in our CMOne NG plugin, which could absolutly not be explained.
Normally we build our CMOne NG plugin with RDP 8.0, which uses a Java 5 JDK.
Now I built our CMOne NG plugin with RDi 9.6.0.11, which uses a Java 8 JDK, and this fixed the null pointer exception and CMOne NG was able to work.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/jt400/files/JTOpen-full/

My assumption is, that the JRE, which is delivered with RDi 9.6.0.11 has a problem with jars, who are compiled with a lower target JRE then Java 8. I checked the jt400.jar in folder
...\SDPShared\plugins\com.ibm.etools.iseries.toolbox_8.5.6109.v20210426_1434
\runtime. The classes in this jar have a major version of 45. Major version
45 is Java 1.0 and Java 1.1. Wow, was this really intentional?. I bet, if we could get a jt400.jar for JTOpen 10.5 compiled with a target of Java 8, then the problem with the pcml exception would not occur. When downloading the JTOpen from sourceforge the zip file contains a jt400.jar in a folders java6, java8 and java9. I checked the jt400.jar in the java8 folder and unfortunately it is not compiled with target Java 8. It is compiled with target Java 5.

Frank



-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: WDSCI-L <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Im Auftrag von Steve Ferrell via WDSCI-L
Gesendet: Freitag, 17. September 2021 16:34
An: Rational Developer for IBM i <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Steve Ferrell <Steve.Ferrell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Betreff: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi 9.6 Fix Pack 11 and iSphere

Hi Frank and Mike,

It's likely the issue was caused by users who installed 9.6.0.10 (which was a JVM update only) caching classes from Java Toolbox.

9.6.0.11 didn't update the JVM, but did update Java Toolbox. A JVM update clears the cache. Future releases will only update Java Toolbox during a JVM update.

I would suggest attempting a system reboot BEFORE changing the JVM setting.
A reboot may also clear the cache. Any user who WASN'T affected by the PCML issue would NOT need to change the JVM setting.

Anyone interested in in joining the 6 week beta program can send me a message in LinkedIN, or contact IBM Support.

Hope this helps!

Steve Ferrell
w. www.helpsystems.com
l. www.linkedin.com/in/steve-ferrell-rdi


-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Mike Hockings
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2021 8:00 AM
To: Rational Developer for IBM i <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi 9.6 Fix Pack 11 and iSphere

External: Pause and review the sender's email address, any URLs before clicking links, opening attachments, or following requests. When in doubt, contact the Service Desk.


Hi Frank,

Yes, I figured it out and told Farzi about it so she could let you know. I thought I should put it in the WDSC-L so that more folks might know and be able to take corrective action as needed.

My hypothesis was that there was an bad entry in the shared classes cache in the JVM to changing the setting just turns off using the cache. You can also tinker at clearing the cache or naming it differently and see if the issue comes back. Here is a link to the JVM parm https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/sdk-java-technology/8?topic=options-xshareclasse
s

The only down-side of the setting is performance but this is unlikely to affect small-scale interactive usage like RDI but could affect a large WAS server for example.

I don't think that there is anything that the RDI team can directly do about it and without a clear test-case to reliably cause the problem it is unlikely that we could get the Java team to look into it. However historically I have seen this sort of issue fixed by the next Java update, when that will be, I don't know, sorry.

Hopefully this helps a bit with understanding the underlying issue.

As the HelpSystem folks may have said, they recommend all plugin developers to get onboard with the Beta program so you have a preview of what is to come with each release.

All the best, Mike

Mike Hockings, M.Eng., P.Eng.
DevOps for Enterprise
IBM Developer for z Systems and Power Systems Software Technical Support IBM Canada Ltd. Laboratory hockings@xxxxxxxxxx voice 1-905-413-3199 T/L 313-3199 ITN 23133199




From: <fhildebrandt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Rational Developer for IBM i'" <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 2021/09/17 07:39 AM
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi 9.6 Fix Pack 11 and iSphere
Sent by: "WDSCI-L" <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>



Hi Mike,

Farzi from the RDi technical support team already pointed me to this.

On all affected systems we know this worked. In case of iSphere and in case of CMOne NG too.

One of the users with this problem has a question. He asked "Do you have any clue what other effect it is going to have, just in case I come across a "difference" later?"

I have a question too.

When I informed Farzi, that this worked he asked me, if he can close the ticket. Is this the permanent solution we have to apply on all affected systems manually in the future or will IBM supply something else?

Frank




-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: WDSCI-L <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Im Auftrag von Mike Hockings
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 16. September 2021 21:01
An: Rational Developer for IBM i <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Betreff: Re: [WDSCI-L] RDi 9.6 Fix Pack 11 and iSphere

Hi Frank,

Edit the eclipse.ini in the RDI install directory and locate the line:
-Xshareclasses:name=IBMSDP_%u
then modify the line to be:
-Xshareclasses:none
and save the eclipse.ini then restart RDI.

Let me know if that fixes the iSphere search issue or not, thanks.

Mike Hockings, M.Eng., P.Eng.
DevOps for Enterprise
IBM Developer for z Systems and Power Systems Software Technical Support IBM Canada Ltd. Laboratory hockings@xxxxxxxxxx voice 1-905-413-3199 T/L
313-3199
ITN 23133199




From: <fhildebrandt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 2021/09/16 07:35 AM
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [WDSCI-L] RDi 9.6 Fix Pack 11 and
iSphere
Sent by: "WDSCI-L" <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>



Hi,



if you are using iSphere you shouldn`t update your RDi 9.6 Installation to fix pack 11. On some boxes with RDi 9.6 Fix Pack 11 we get a PCML exception, if we use the iSphere source file search. On most of the boxes with RDi 9.6 Fix Pack 11 everything works fine. At the moment the problem is not reproducable. We have opened a ticket at IBM to find a solution for this problem



Regards



Frank Hildebrandt



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