I've been engaged in a problem where users are attempting to test Oracle Data Source connections from within a WebSphere ND 6.1.0.13 admin console. 

Up until a few days ago, everything supposedly worked fine.  Then the users noticed the error:
DataSourceCon E   DSRA8040I: Failed to connect to the DataSource.  Encountered "": java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: (oracle/jdbc/pool/OracleConnectionPoolDataSource) bad major version at offset=6

I've verified that the JDBC Provider and Data Source appear to be correct (comparing to our documentation and other environments where everything works fine.)  I've googled.  I verified that the node agents were in synch with the DMGR, and even cycled the node agents.  But, nothing has yet worked to data.

The problem just started to appear, so I'm a bit confused. 

The other day, a user pushed a new EAR and the problem started upon trying to restart the application.  They rebooted the physical server and claim "the problems went away."  Yesterday, they pushed another EAR, and when attempting to restart the application, the issue reappeared.  Coincidence?

If there is a correlation between the new EAR and this failure, how is it possible that the act of deploying the EAR (they are deleting the old application, not replacing it) would impact the JDBC connection?  Is the JDBC connection not tested at the NodeAgent or the DMGR level?

If anyone has any input, your feedback could be very helpful...

This error:java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: (oracle/jdbc/pool/OracleConnectionPoolDataSource) bad major version at offset=6

usually means that the class is compiled with JDK 6, but the running enviornemnt is lower version.

WAS 6.1, i think, uses JDK5.  and it seems the class that is trying to load was compiled with JDK 6 and that caused the error.

Make sure that the new ears do not have classes compiled with JDK 6 - and the drivers used are all JDK 5.

 

 

I agree Mohammad.  Everything I read while researching is pointing back to a development issue.  Are you aware of any command / way that the EAR could be queried to determine if this is the case?

Thanks for your reply.

several ways -

you can use javap -verbose className

or you can write some script or java program that can check the classes in an ear.

this link has a program that can help... with little customization; you should be able to do it.

www.rgagnon.com/javadetails/java-0544.ht...

• Java 1.2 uses major version 46


• Java 1.3 uses major version 47


• Java 1.4 uses major version 48


• Java 5 uses major version 49


• Java 6 uses major version 50

Thank you!  I'll pass this along to the development team.