Download and Install Developer Kit for Java 17 64bit
The instructions for download are nicely detailed here
In essence, download the version of Developer Kit for Java 17 applicable for your system.
For IBM i V7R4 it is called:
For IBM i V7R5 it is (rather confusingly) called:
Once you have downloaded the hefty install fil (around 1.5GB) let's upload and install it on our IBM i System.
Upload and Install Java 17
Create a new directory named /home/jdk17 on your IBM i server (use the command MKDIR '/home/jdk17')
After creating the directory, transfer the downloaded .zip file to the newly created IFS directory, /home/jdk17.
Upload the ISO to this folder /home/jdk17
Install Java 17
Once the upload is complete - unzip it and get it ready for install:
My system is IBM i 7.5, if you are on a different release the file name in the commands may vary slightly. Use these instructions for installing JDK 17 using the UDF image catalog from an IBM i CL command line.
NOTE: The CHGOPTA command must be issued before the LODIMGCLG command shown below. If it is issued after the LODIMGCLG command, you will need to re-load the catalog.
NOTE: If the OPTVRT01 device description already exists, please continue to the next step.
Ensure the Developer_Kit_for_Java_17_64bit image is mounted in WRKIMGCLGE IMGCLG(jdk17). You can enter option 6 next to the image to mount it.
Now just MOUNT that volume with a 6
Install the Licensed Program
Finally, download and install the latest IBM i Java Group PTF to complete the LPP installation.
IBM i 7.5 - SF99955 level 5 or later
IBM i 7.4 - SF99665 level 18 or later
Check the Licensed Program Installed
Option 10
Looks good!
In order to use Java 17 64 bit on the IBM i OS, the JAVA_HOME environment variable will need to be set to /QOpenSys/QIBM/ProdData/JavaVM/jdk17/64bit.
How to Use the new Java
To change the default JDK system-wide to JDK 17 64 bit:
To change the current job to JDK 17 64 bit:
To change the current Qshell session to use JDK 17 64 bit
You can check this value with:
Note the LEVEL parameter - Specifies the level of the environment variable. The possible values are:
And that's that!
You have installed Java 17 and set the system to use it by default!
Final Step - Cleanup
Now an important step which is frequently overlooked - lets cleanup the uploaded installer file and folder. We don't need this anymore (because the install was successful) so lets just delete it.