Remedy AR System Mid Tier is not working after upgrading Java to 1.7.0u261+ or 1.8.0u261

Knowledge Article

Article Number

000196784

Old Article Number

000193673

Article Type

Solutions to a Product Problem

Title

Remedy AR System Mid Tier is not working after upgrading Java to 1.7.0u261+ or 1.8.0u261

Summary

Tomcat/Midtier will not initialize successfully after upgrading the Java to 1.7.0_261 or 1.8.0_261

Product

Remedy AR System Server

Component

AR System Mid Tier

Applies to

Any Midtier version earlier than 19.02 with Java release update greater than 255.

Problem

Tomcat/Midtier is not initializing successfully after Java was upgraded from 1.7.0_251 to 1.7.0_261 or similarly to 1.8.0_261

The following is found in the Tomcat localhost log:

........................
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart
SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class [org.eclipse.birt.report.listener.ViewerServletContextListener]
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
   at com.ibm.icu.impl.ICUResourceBundle.<clinit>(ICUResourceBundle.java:464)
at com.ibm.icu.text.DateFormatSymbols.getCalendarType(DateFormatSymbols.ja
....
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid version number: Version number may be negative or greater than 255
   at com.ibm.icu.util.VersionInfo.getInstance(VersionInfo.java:191)
   at com.ibm.icu.impl.ICUDebug.getInstanceLenient(ICUDebug.java:65)
........................

Note:
The affected versions 9.1, 18.05, and 18.08 of Remedy AR System.

Cause

ICU4J library in Midtier performs a check to make sure Java update version is < 255.

Solution

This knowledge article may contain information that does not apply to version 21.05 or later which runs in a container environment. Please refer to Article Number 000385088 for more information about troubleshooting BMC products in containers.

Midtier uses the icu4j.jar library; This library performs a check to make sure the installed Java update version is lower than 255, otherwise it will throw the error mentioned:
.....................
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart
SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class
[org.eclipse.birt.report.listener.ViewerServletContextListener] java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
   at com.ibm.icu.impl.ICUResourceBundle.<clinit>(ICUResourceBundle.java:464)
at com.ibm.icu.text.DateFormatSymbols.getCalendarType(DateFormatSymbols.ja
....
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException:
Invalid version number: Version number may be negative or greater than 255
   at com.ibm.icu.util.VersionInfo.getInstance(VersionInfo.java:191)
   at com.ibm.icu.impl.ICUDebug.getInstanceLenient(ICUDebug.java:65)
.....................

This behavior is identified as a defect:
................
SW00570344 - Remedy Mid Tier does not start and AR Reporting plug-in fails during creating, editing, or scheduling of Web reports when you upgrade to Java version higher than 255 such as 1.8.0_261.
................

Please find attached the Alert Notification about this observed behavior where:

Issue

When you upgrade to a Java update version higher than 255 such as 1.8.0_261, the following issues occur:

Remedy Mid Tier does not start.
You cannot create, modify, or schedule AR System Web reports.

Resolution

Perform one of the following steps:

If you are using an older version of Java, ensure that you do not upgrade to a Java update version higher than 255 such as 1.8.0_261.
If you have already upgraded your Java version and you run into this issue, downgrade Java Runtime version to lower than 255 on Remedy Mid Tier and AR System Server.
Upgrade Remedy platform components (AR System Server, BMC CMDB, and Atrium Integrator) to the most recent Remedy version, which contains a newer version of the ICU4J library that provides a fix for this compatibility defect. Important: If you are using Remedy AR System version 19.02 or later, you will not experience these issues.

If customer is facing the problem with 19.02 or better Build of Midtier , customer can consider to delete this icu4j.jar . This jar package is safe to delete in newer build as BMC has bundled the relevant code in the AR Reporting Jars. BMC has removed this icu4j jar library from 20.08 release onwards.

Attachment(s):

Compatibility issue in Remedy AR System due to an older version of ICU4J library