# Can't launch Payara Micro from payara-micro-maven-plugin, getting "unsupported JDK"

**URL:** <https://forum.payara.fish/t/cant-launch-payara-micro-from-payara-micro-maven-plugin-getting-unsupported-jdk/326>\
**Category:** Payara Micro\
**Created:** [May 11, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.payara.fish/t/cant-launch-payara-micro-from-payara-micro-maven-plugin-getting-unsupported-jdk/326 "2022-05-11T20:55:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jmanko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@jmanko](https://forum.payara.fish/u/jmanko)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.payara.fish/t/cant-launch-payara-micro-from-payara-micro-maven-plugin-getting-unsupported-jdk/326/1 "2022-05-11T20:55:19Z")

</div>

I put together a sample project to demonstrate the issue I’m having.

> **[GitHub - johnmanko/payara-micro-plugin-group: Example project for testing...](https://github.com/johnmanko/payara-micro-plugin-group)**
>
> Example project for testing payara-micro-maven-plugin - GitHub - johnmanko/payara-micro-plugin-group: Example project for testing payara-micro-maven-plugin

Basically, I’m trying to launch my app via payara micro’s maven plugin during development. Here is the `pom.xml` config:

```xml
<plugin>
                <groupId>fish.payara.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>payara-micro-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.4.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <useUberJar>false</useUberJar>
                    <contextRoot>/myapp</contextRoot>
                    <payaraVersion>${version.payara}</payaraVersion>
                    <deployWar>false</deployWar>
                    <artifactItem>
                        <groupId>fish.payara.extras</groupId>
                        <artifactId>payara-micro</artifactId>
                        <version>${version.payara.micro}</version>
                    </artifactItem>
                    <javaCommandLineOptions>
                        <option>
                            <value>-Xdebug</value>
                        </option>
                    </javaCommandLineOptions>
                    <commandLineOptions>
                        <option>
                            <key>--autoBindHttp</key>
                        </option>
                        <option>
                            <key>--nocluster</key>
                        </option>
                        <option>
                            <key>--port</key>
                            <value>8095</value>
                        </option>
                        <option>
                            <key>--prebootcommandfile</key>
                            <value>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources/pre-boot-commands.txt</value>
                        </option>
                        <option>
                            <key>--postbootcommandfile</key>
                            <value>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources/post-boot-commands.txt</value>
                        </option>
                        <option>
                            <key>--deploy</key>
                            <value>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}</value>
                        </option>
                    </commandLineOptions>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

```

The result is the following:

```auto
[2022-05-11T09:54:58.362-0400] [] [SEVERE] [] [org.eclipse.persistence.session./file:/path/to/payara-micro-plugin-group/payara-micro-plugin-example/target/payara-micro-plugin-example-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/WEB-INF/classes/_MyAppPU.metadata] [tid: _ThreadID=1 _ThreadName=main] [timeMillis: 1652277298362] [levelValue: 1000] [[
  The java.lang.Object class was compiled with an unsupported JDK. Report this error to the EclipseLink open source project.
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: Index 8 out of bounds for length 0
	at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.libraries.asm.ClassReader.readUnsignedShort(ClassReader.java:3573)

[2022-05-11T09:54:58.364-0400] [] [WARNING] [] [org.eclipse.persistence.session./file:/path/to/payara-micro-plugin-group/payara-micro-plugin-example/target/payara-micro-plugin-example-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/WEB-INF/classes/_MyAppPU.metadata] [tid: _ThreadID=1 _ThreadName=main] [timeMillis: 1652277298364] [levelValue: 900] [[
  The java.lang.String class was compiled with an unsupported JDK. Report this error to the EclipseLink open source project.
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unsupported class file major version 62
	at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.libraries.asm.ClassReader.<init>(ClassReader.java:196)

[2022-05-11T09:54:58.372-0400] [] [WARNING] [] [org.eclipse.persistence.session./file:/path/to/payara-micro-plugin-group/payara-micro-plugin-example/target/payara-micro-plugin-example-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/WEB-INF/classes/_MyAppPU.metadata] [tid: _ThreadID=1 _ThreadName=main] [timeMillis: 1652277298372] [levelValue: 900] [[
  The java.lang.Long class was compiled with an unsupported JDK. Report this error to the EclipseLink open source project.
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unsupported class file major version 62
	at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.libraries.asm.ClassReader.<init>(ClassReader.java:196)

[2022-05-11T09:54:58.379-0400] [] [WARNING] [] [org.eclipse.persistence.session./file:/path/to/payara-micro-plugin-group/payara-micro-plugin-example/target/payara-micro-plugin-example-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/WEB-INF/classes/_MyAppPU.metadata] [tid: _ThreadID=1 _ThreadName=main] [timeMillis: 1652277298379] [levelValue: 900] [[
  The java.lang.Number class was compiled with an unsupported JDK. Report this error to the EclipseLink open source project.
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unsupported class file major version 62
	at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.libraries.asm.ClassReader.<init>(ClassReader.java:196)

```

The project is built with JDK 1.8, and maven is started with setting JAVA\_HOME to JDK 1.8:

```nohighlight
DATABASE_USER=user \
DATABASE_PASS=password \
DATABASE_NAME=MY_DB_NAME \
DATABASE_SERVER=localhost \
DATABASE_SERVER_PORT=1234 \
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64 \
M2_HOME=/usr/share/maven \
/usr/share/maven/bin/mvn payara-micro:start

```

Maven/JDK version:

```auto
$ JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64 M2_HOME=/usr/share/maven /usr/share/maven/bin/mvn --version
Apache Maven 3.6.3
Maven home: /usr/share/maven
Java version: 1.8.0_312, vendor: Private Build, runtime: /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "linux", version: "5.15.0-27-generic", arch: "amd64", family: "unix"

```

System Java (this shouldn’t be playing a factor):

```auto
$ java -version
openjdk version "18-ea" 2022-03-22
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 18-ea+36-Ubuntu-1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 18-ea+36-Ubuntu-1, mixed mode, sharing)

```

The system default is Java 18, but I don’t see how that can even come into play. All included application dependencies were compiled with JDK 1.8 or earlier (I checked each one).

Why would it be picking up major version 62?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jmanko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@jmanko](https://forum.payara.fish/u/jmanko)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 11:06pm UTC](https://forum.payara.fish/t/cant-launch-payara-micro-from-payara-micro-maven-plugin-getting-unsupported-jdk/326/2 "2022-05-12T23:06:32Z")

</div>

I found the cause. The plugin uses [Apache Toolchain](https://maven.apache.org/guides/mini/guide-using-toolchains.html) to locate `java`, and it’s finding the wrong one (ie, the system one).

One solution is to add the plugin `<javaPath>` option:

```auto
                <configuration>
                    <useUberJar>false</useUberJar>
                    <contextRoot>/myapp</contextRoot>
                    <payaraVersion>${version.payara}</payaraVersion>
                    <deployWar>false</deployWar>                    
                    <javaPath>/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java</javaPath>

```

Of course, that won’t work for devs on other systems like Windows of Mac.

The proper way is configure a `~/.m2/toolchains.xml` file and set up [Toolchain](https://maven.apache.org/guides/mini/guide-using-toolchains.html) in the pom to use that.

`~/.m2/toolchains.xml`:

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<toolchains>
	<!-- JDK toolchains -->
	<toolchain>
		<type>jdk</type>
		<provides>
		  	<version>1.8</version>
		  	<vendor>openjdk</vendor>
		</provides>
		<configuration>
		  	<jdkHome>/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64</jdkHome>
		</configuration>
	</toolchain>
	<toolchain>
		<type>jdk</type>
		<provides>
		  	<version>11</version>
		  	<vendor>openjdk</vendor>
		</provides>
		<configuration>
		  	<jdkHome>/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64</jdkHome>
		</configuration>
	</toolchain>
	<toolchain>
		<type>jdk</type>
		<provides>
		  	<version>18</version>
		  	<vendor>openjdk</vendor>
		</provides>
		<configuration>
		  	<jdkHome>/usr/lib/jvm/java-18-openjdk-amd64</jdkHome>
		</configuration>
	</toolchain>
</toolchains>

```

`pom.xml`

```xml

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.10.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.8</source>
                    <target>1.8</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-toolchains-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.1</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>toolchain</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <configuration>
                    <toolchains>
                        <jdk>
                            <version>1.8</version>
                            <vendor>openjdk</vendor>
                        </jdk>
                    </toolchains>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>fish.payara.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>payara-micro-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.4.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <useUberJar>false</useUberJar>
                    <contextRoot>/myapp</contextRoot>
                    <payaraVersion>${version.payara}</payaraVersion>
                    <deployWar>false</deployWar>                    
                    <artifactItem>
                        <groupId>fish.payara.extras</groupId>
                        <artifactId>payara-micro</artifactId>
                        <version>${version.payara.micro}</version>
                    </artifactItem>
                    <javaCommandLineOptions>
                        <option>
                            <value>-Xdebug</value>
                        </option>
                    </javaCommandLineOptions>
                    <commandLineOptions>
                        <option>
                            <key>--nocluster</key>
                        </option>
                        <option>
                            <key>--port</key>
                            <value>8095</value>
                        </option>
                        <option>
                            <key>--postbootcommandfile</key>
                            <value>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources/post-boot-commands.txt</value>
                        </option>
                        <option>
                            <key>--deploy</key>
                            <value>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}</value>
                        </option>
                    </commandLineOptions>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

```

Launch using `nbactions.xml`:

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<actions>
    <action>
        <actionName>CUSTOM-toolchains:toolchain payara-micro:start (with DB)</actionName>
        <displayName>toolchains:toolchain payara-micro:start (with DB)</displayName>
        <goals>
            <goal>toolchains:toolchain</goal>
            <goal>payara-micro:start</goal>
        </goals>
        <properties>
            <Env.DATABASE_USER>user</Env.DATABASE_USER>
            <Env.DATABASE_PASS>password</Env.DATABASE_PASS>
            <Env.DATABASE_NAME>DATABASE</Env.DATABASE_NAME>
            <Env.DATABASE_SERVER>localhost</Env.DATABASE_SERVER>
            <Env.DATABASE_SERVER_PORT>1234</Env.DATABASE_SERVER_PORT>
        </properties>
    </action>
</actions>

```

Launch using commandline:

```auto
DATABASE_USER=user \
DATABASE_PASS=password \
DATABASE_NAME=MY_DB_NAME \
DATABASE_SERVER=localhost \
DATABASE_SERVER_PORT=1234 \
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64 \
M2_HOME=/usr/share/maven \
/usr/share/maven/bin/mvn toolchains:toolchain payara-micro:start

```