# Best java to run ElasticSearch **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [February 21, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-java-to-run-elasticsearch/10840 "2013-02-21T14:32:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kazimieras\_Aliulis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kazimieras_aliulis/32/2480_2.png) [@Kazimieras\_Aliulis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kazimieras_Aliulis)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-java-to-run-elasticsearch/10840/1 "2013-02-21T14:32:39Z")
Hi, I wanted to ask which java version is best to run ElasticSearch on. I am running ES on JRockit 1.6. Maybe it would be more stable on OpenJDK or HotSpot or 1.7? -- Sincerely Kazimieras Aliulis -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![jprante](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jprante/32/44941_2.png) [@jprante](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jprante)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-java-to-run-elasticsearch/10840/2 "2013-02-21T15:35:37Z")
There are some factors for ES that are important when it comes to selecting a JVM. Technically, to take most advantage of ES, a JVM must be able to allocate large virtual address space (so 64bit is good), it should perform garbage collection on large heaps quickly without pausing the JVM (Java 7 has made progress on it, but G1 GC is not mature enough yet), and it must be able to run a lot of threads in parallel (which means, the JVM should perform well in exploiting all the threading capabilities of the underlying operating system). Lucene (and of cource Elasticsearch) is on of the most challenging piece of Java software for a JVM because it can create a lot of stress situations where a JVM must prove that is was really implemented to cope with heavy workloads. In my eyes, stability is a feature for having faulty hard- and software behavior fixed soon. In the beginning of opening the Java JDK source code by SUN, in the early OpenJDK releases, a lot of unfixed bugs were ported to the open source versions while the closed source JDK had them fixed. And, the first OpenJDK 6 releases were in fact containing JDK 7 alpha quality code that was just backported to the JDK 6 API, with numerous known bugs. So I recommend not to deploy ES on early OpenJDK 6 versions. Today, it's not easy for me to tell if Oracle will always provide "stable enough" JVM software, because only OpenJDK is open sourced, while other Oracle JVM source code like security fixes and JRockIt is hidden. The Oracle support for OpenJDK is somewhat restricted but the OpenJDK community contains big players (like Apache and IBM) and they are all committed to maintain a certified, solid, and reliable codebase which is important for stability. Note that Google forked the JVM code to build Dalvik for Android. There are also other JVM vendors, most prominent one is IBM. But I don't have any measurable facts about JVM stability of different vendors. In the end, it's up to you to test several JVMs and find out the most appropriate one for your purpose. Jörg Am 21.02.13 15:32, schrieb Kazimieras Aliulis: > I wanted to ask which java version is best to run Elasticsearch on. I > am running ES on JRockit 1.6. Maybe it would be more stable on OpenJDK > or HotSpot or 1.7? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/df788c/32.png) [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-java-to-run-elasticsearch/10840/3 "2013-02-21T15:39:57Z")
I never had much luck with OpenJDK. It is alway a considerable improvement when I switch over to Oracle's JVM. -- Ivan On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 6:32 AM, Kazimieras Aliulis \< [kazimieras.aliulis@gmail.com](mailto:kazimieras.aliulis@gmail.com)\> wrote: > Hi, > > I wanted to ask which java version is best to run Elasticsearch on. I am > running ES on JRockit 1.6. Maybe it would be more stable on OpenJDK or > HotSpot or 1.7? > > -- > Sincerely > Kazimieras Aliulis > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![drewr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/drewr/32/7803_2.png) [@drewr](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/drewr)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-java-to-run-elasticsearch/10840/4 "2013-02-21T16:11:35Z")
Kazimieras Aliulis wrote: > I wanted to ask which java version is best to run Elasticsearch > on. I am running ES on JRockit 1.6. Maybe it would be more stable > on OpenJDK or HotSpot or 1.7? We actively test OpenJDK and Oracle Java, but JRockit has been known to work fine. We prefer that you use 7, but 6 is ok if you are stuck on it. Most importantly, run the latest update of the version you choose. For Oracle, at least 1.6u38 or 1.7u10. For OpenJDK, 6b24 or 7u3. There have been numerous bugfixes over the last couple years that are important to ES stability at scale. -Drew -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-java-to-run-elasticsearch/10840/5 "2017-07-06T02:50:17Z")