1. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Zulu: OpenJDK for cloud
and enterprise
Ivan Krylov
Sr. Engineer
Azul Systems St.Petersburg

2. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
OpenJDK Timeline (1)
May 2006 - Sun announced OpenJDK
November 2006 - HotSpot open-sourced
December 2006 - Java SE 6 released
May 2007 - Java class libraries open-sourced (~96%)* as
OpenJDK 7
Later 2007 - OpenJDK 7 b10 forked into OpenJDK 6
February 2008 - Sun released first tar ball with OpenJDK6 that
matches Java SE 6 update 4

3. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
OpenJDK Timeline (2)
July 2011 - Java 7 GA. OpenJDK7 is the Reference
Implementation (RI). This is the only time Oracle released official
binaries for OpenJDK
January 2013 - Oracle EOLed (Open)JDK6
March 2013 - RedHat assumed leadership for OpenJDK6
March 2014 - JDK8 is released
Sometime in 2015 - Oracle is expected to EOL (Open)JDK7

4. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Problem statement
Imagine a large enterprise running on java
Up until March 2014 they could run only on Java 7
Only 12-18 months are given for transition to Java 8
After that the choices are
migrate to 8
stay on old unsupported unsafe java 7
purchase a support contract for Java SE 7
or use on of the OpenJDK7 based products
or use a closed source competing implementation (SAP,IBM,HP..)

5. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
OpenJDK7 sources
Now roughly 4 updates per year. In 2013-2014:
Security: u11, u13, u15, u21, u25, u45, u51, u55
Features u17, u40, u60
Features are mostly developed in open.
Sources for features appear in the repository as they are developed.
Bugs are visible
Discussions and code reviews are open
Security fixes are developed in closed repositories. They appear in open repositories at
once days after the Oracle’s binary release
Tests are not available at all times
Bug details are not available at all times except for #

6. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
OpenJDK6 sources
OpenJDK6 was derived for early OpenJDK7 build
OpenJDK6 “build N” is like an “update N” for OpenJDK7
Build N has no relation to Java SE 6 update M.
6b27 (Oct’12) - last one from Oracle
6b28 and 6b29 in 2013, b30 (Jan’14), b31 (Apr’2014) - all driven by Redhat
Fixes in OpenJDK are
security backports from OpenJDK7 update X
forward ports from IcedTea to OpenJDK6

7. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
OpenJDK6 today: issues
Focus on linux
Focus on backports for security fixes
As of build 31 of openjdk6 windows is broken
Azul Systems (along with the community) is working to restore
openjdk6 for windows

8. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
IcedTea by Redhat
Goals changed over the time as Sun/Oracle gave more to Open
It is a GPLv2 open-source jdk for linux that is
tested
(self)certified with Java Community TCK
with paid support
Source exists as a set of patches being applied to a recent OpenJDK drop. 1
or 2 drops behind are supported.
Since January 13 lots of patches moved up as fixes to OpenJDK 6

9. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Closed sources available to paid subscribers - licensees
Different from OpenJDK in terms of license
Security fixes and test cases are delivered as they are developed
JDK 6 updates are available in sources
Does not contain proprietary enhancements like MC and JFR sources (7u40+)
Does provide some non GPL sources: fonts, graphics features, encryption,
debug interface, etc…
No JDK/hotspot performance enhancements are known missing in SCSL
or OpenJDK sources.
The SCSL sources
(Sun Closed Source License)

10. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
About Azul (who are these guys?)
We make scalable Virtual
Machines
Have built “whatever it takes to
get job done” since 2002
3 generations of custom SMP
Multi-core HW (Vega)
Zing: Pure software for
commodity x86
Known for Low Latency,
Consistent execution, and Large
data set excellence
Vega
C4

11. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
About Azul
We also do other things with
JVMs
Zing: A metrically better JVM
Zulu: A commercialized, fully
supported version of OpenJDK
Long term, commercial support
for Java SE 6, Java SE 7, (and
8 as it comes out)
Zulu: Free & Open Source,
changes contributed back to
OpenJDK
Windows & Linux, Azure & EC2
C4

12. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Zulu at a glance
Start: Summer 2013
Windows Server and Linux (Mac is considered as the next platform)
Focus on server deployment
No plugin or webstart
OpenJDK 6, 7 and 8
Eclipse plugin for Azure deployment
In progress: public rpm repositories
Various support options

13. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Zulu projectStart 2013
From engineering perspective: more than just build and ship existing sources
Windows tooling issues (at least 5 how-to’s on www prove the task isn’t trivial)
Branding issues and versioning
Installers for Windows and Linux
Automated build and test infrastructure
Unit tests
Performace
Automation for compatibility tests
Support of Azure: we test Zulu in the cloud

14. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Zulu in Azure
A tested supported OpenJDK release for Microsoft’s
Azure Cloud
Tested
we run compatibility suites
certification suites for app servers like JBoss
Supported
Critical for majority of business that rely on Java
Open
Sources are open 100% and available
Azure PaaS component for easy deployment
Eclipse plugin for deployment in Azure

15. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Install the plugin from
within Eclipse

16. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Azure toolkit components

17. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
New project wizard

18. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Zulu as PaaS component

19. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Servlet container selection

20. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Latest Eclipse plugin from
MS Open Tech (Apr/14)
Support for the Azure SDK 2.3 release
Upgrading of applications without complete package deployment.
Tomcat 8 now is a recognized application server.
Azul Zulu OpenJDK package updates: v1.7 update 51 and v1.6 update 47.
Support for A8 and A9 Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine size.
Automatic redirection from HTTP to HTTPS for SSL-enabled roles.
Express Emulator used for local emulation.
Windows Azure has been rebranded as Microsoft Azure

21. ©2013 Azul Systems, Inc.
Thank you
Q&A Time
(not yet)
info@azulsystems.com