UnsupportedClassVersionError: JVMCFRE003 bad major version in WebSphere AS 7

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14926402

Question

I am getting this error

java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: JVMCFRE003 bad major version; class=map/CareMonths, offset=6

My Eclipse's Java compiler is set to 1.6 and my installed Java SDK in C:\Program Files is 1.6.0, but still I get this error when I install my app to Webshere Application Server V7.

What does offset=6 mean? I want to compile using Java 6 and Websphere 7 supports Java 6.

I do see that the JDK in the IBM directory where server is installed is Java 7. Is that what is causing this? ....but again my workspace's Eclipse compiler is set to Java 1.6.

Was it helpful?

Solution

WebSphere Application Server V7 does support Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) 6 (see Specifications and API documentation in the Network Deployment (All operating systems), Version 7.0 Information Center) and it's since the release V8.5 when Java 7 has been supported.

I couldn't find the Java 6 SDK documentation, and could only consult IBM JVM Messages in Java 7 Windows documentation. Alas, I couldn't find the error message in the documentation either.

Since java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError is "Thrown when the Java Virtual Machine attempts to read a class file and determines that the major and minor version numbers in the file are not supported.", you ran into an issue of building the application with more recent version of Java than the one supported by the runtime environment, i.e. WebSphere Application Server 7.0.

I may be mistaken, but I think that offset=6 in the message is to let you know what position caused the incompatibility issue to occur. It's irrelevant for you, for me, and for many other people, but some might find it useful, esp. when they generate bytecode themselves.

Run the versionInfo command to find out about the Installed Features of WebSphere Application Server V7, e.g.

C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer>.\bin\versionInfo.bat
WVER0010I: Copyright (c) IBM Corporation 2002, 2005, 2008; All rights reserved.
WVER0012I: VersionInfo reporter version 1.15.1.47, dated 10/18/11

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM WebSphere Product Installation Status Report
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Report at date and time February 19, 2013 8:07:20 AM EST

Installation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product Directory        C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer
Version Directory        C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\properties\version
DTD Directory            C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\properties\version\dtd
Log Directory            C:\ProgramData\IBM\Installation Manager\logs

Product List
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BPMPC                    installed
ND                       installed
WBM                      installed

Installed Product
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name                  IBM Business Process Manager Advanced V8.0
Version               8.0.1.0
ID                    BPMPC
Build Level           20121102-1733
Build Date            11/2/12
Package               com.ibm.bpm.ADV.V80_8.0.1000.20121102_2136
Architecture          x86-64 (64 bit)
Installed Features    Non-production
                      Business Process Manager Advanced - Client (always installed)
Optional Languages    German
                      Russian
                      Korean
                      Brazilian Portuguese
                      Italian
                      French
                      Hungarian
                      Simplified Chinese
                      Spanish
                      Czech
                      Traditional Chinese
                      Japanese
                      Polish
                      Romanian

Installed Product
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name                  IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
Version               8.0.0.5
ID                    ND
Build Level           cf051243.01
Build Date            10/22/12
Package               com.ibm.websphere.ND.v80_8.0.5.20121022_1902
Architecture          x86-64 (64 bit)
Installed Features    IBM 64-bit SDK for Java, Version 6
                      EJBDeploy tool for pre-EJB 3.0 modules
                      Embeddable EJB container
                      Sample applications
                      Stand-alone thin clients and resource adapters
Optional Languages    German
                      Russian
                      Korean
                      Brazilian Portuguese
                      Italian
                      French
                      Hungarian
                      Simplified Chinese
                      Spanish
                      Czech
                      Traditional Chinese
                      Japanese
                      Polish
                      Romanian

Installed Product
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name                  IBM Business Monitor
Version               8.0.1.0
ID                    WBM
Build Level           20121102-1733
Build Date            11/2/12
Package               com.ibm.websphere.MON.V80_8.0.1000.20121102_2222
Architecture          x86-64 (64 bit)
Optional Languages    German
                      Russian
                      Korean
                      Brazilian Portuguese
                      Italian
                      French
                      Hungarian
                      Simplified Chinese
                      Spanish
                      Czech
                      Traditional Chinese
                      Japanese
                      Polish
                      Romanian

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Installation Status Report
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OTHER TIPS

In this Eclipse Preferences panel you can change the compiler compatibility from 1.7 to 1.6. This solved the similar message I was getting. For Eclipse, it is under: Preferences -> Java -> Compiler: 'Compiler compliance level'

You should also make sure you have set appropriate Project Facets Java version. Module Properties -> Project Facets -> Java 1.6 should be checked

This error can occur if you project is compiling with JDK 1.6 and you have dependencies compiled with Java 7.

I was getting this error in websphere 8.5:

java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: JVMCFRE003 bad major version; class=com/xxx/Whatever, offset=6

I had my project JDK level set at 1.7 in eclipse and was8 by default runs on JDK 1.6 so there was a clash. I had to install the optional SDK 1.7 to my websphere server and then the problem went away. I guess I could have also set my project level down to 1.6 in eclipse but I wanted to code to 1.7.

I was getting the same error even after doing above changes and what i did is

Right click on the project->properties->java compiler->Compiler compliance level->changes it to 1.6

This change is particular for the project. This should hopefully work.

I was getting the same error. In the Project Facets of my Java project, the Java compile level was set to 1.7 whereas the WebSphere Application Server v7.0 had a Runtime Composition of JRE v1.6; setting the Java compile level to 1.6 in Project Facets got rid of the error. I did not have to change the Compiler compliance level though, it's still 1.7. Hope this helps!

At first you should check major version of compiled problematic .class file, in your case map/CareMonths. See this answer how to do it.

WAS7 uses Java 6 (as said Jacek), and Java 6 uses major version 50, so you have to compile your project with Java 6. How to set proper version of Java compiler depends on your IDE (e.g. Eclipse, IntelliJ) or build tool (e.g. Maven, Ant).

If the log indicates java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: JVM**** bad major version.

Then the code and server is not compiled with the same JDK version.

To fix this, please switch the JDK version either in code or server JDK.

Try this:- In the below use case, im switching to 1.7_64 (JDK 1.7 64 bit)

c:\IBM\WebSphere\WSRR\v8.5\bin\managesdk.bat -enableProfile -profileName WSRRSrv01 -sdkname 1.7_64

If you use maven try to add in the pom.xml

<properties>
    ...
    <maven.compiler.source>1.7</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.7</maven.compiler.target>
    ...
</properties>

Otherwise try to change the compiler version.

In eclipse, Go to Project->Properties->Java build Path->Order and Export. If you are using multiple JREs, try like jdk and ibm. Order should start with jdk and then IBM. This is how my issue was resolved.

I fixed it by setting up env. variable JAVA_HOME.

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