UBI 8 OpenJDK 17 JAVA_OPTS overwrites JAVA_OPTS_APPEND

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP)
    • 4.x
  • OpenJDK 17
    • Image ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1

Issue

  • UBI OpenJDK ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1 image JAVA_OPTS overwrite JAVA_OPTS_APPEND
  • UBI OpenJDK ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1 image image ignores JAVA_OPTS_APPEND
oc new-app --context-dir=getting-started --name=quickstart --image-stream=test/openjdk-17:1.17-2~https://github.com/quarkusio/quarkus-quickstarts.git#3.2  --build-env='JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx1024M' --build-env='JAVA_OPTS_APPEND=-Dbox=fox'
  • UBI OpenJDK ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1 breaks backward with previous versions on JAVA_OPTS environment variable, which differs from ubi8/openjdk-17 behavior

Resolution

Starting on ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1 the JAVA_OPTS overwrites other JVM flags- and that is expected. So for most use cases: use JAVA_OPTS_APPEND it should have the same intended behavior.
Changes that were introduced in ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1:

  • Before the image ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1 the behavior was: user could use JAVA_OPTS in combination to JAVA_OPTS_APPEND - behavior: combine them both.
  • After ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1, the behavior is: usage of JAVA_OPTS replaces other JVM flags - behavior: java_opts replaces java_opts_append.

Finally, in case of deployment of builds, be sure the images are the same on different pods, via ImageID/shaID verification on the pod yaml.

Quarkus had a similar issue, where JAVA_OPTS_APPEND was not being used, which is now fixed in Quarkus 3.5.0.CR1+, Content from github.com is not included.Quarkus PR 35983.

Root Cause

The changes introduced on ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1 restore JAVA_OPTS to its original behavior, which was broken inadvertently on previous images (ubi8 images). And this aligns the behavior with the ubi9 images.
The intent behind the two variables is:

  • customer-provided JAVA_OPTS overrides all our options generation
  • customer-provided JAVA_OPTS_APPEND adds to our options generation.

The main recommendation is to switch to JAVA_OPTS_APPEND for appending, i.e. the user should be using JAVA_OPTS_APPEND for most use cases except advanced replacement.

ImageBehavior
ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1 (before)JAVA_OPTS: adds, and JAVA_OPTS_APPEND: adds
ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1 (after)JAVA_OPTS: overrides, and JAVA_OPTS_APPEND: adds
ubi9/imagesJAVA_OPTS: overrides, and JAVA_OPTS_APPEND: adds

Diagnostic Steps

  1. Verify if the image is ubi8/openjdk-17:1.15-1
  2. Verify on the deployment/deploymentconfig has JAVA_OPTS.
  3. For most use cases just use JAVA_OPTS_APPEND
  4. $ sed -i 's/\bJAVA_OPTS\b/JAVA_OPTS_APPEND/g' deployment.yaml can be used to automatic replacement
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