Had a new thing happen today, updating CF 2021 from Update 14 to 16. The installer I downloaded this afternoon through CF Amin wouldn't start; nothing happened when I ran it on the command line, twice. I compared its file size to the one I installed on our other production server yesterday, they were identical, down to the byte. I downloaded it again, the same way, and it worked as expected. That's a first for me, but all good in the end. Weird. Has anyone seen that?

Yes, the same thing happened to me the other day. 🤷🏻‍♂️ No obvious root cause.

Same update?

Yes.

Hmmm...

May I know which JDK are you using and when you ran the installer from command line which JDK location was used to run that?

@priyank_adobe Thanks for jumping in. Using jdk-11.0.24, the same disk path that CF is using. I think that's the current recommendation for CF 2021, yes? I didn't have any trouble installing this update on another production server and two dev servers.

We can connect over a call to check this, will send you the details. We did not hear from any other customer regarding update installation.

@jakobward reported the same thing in this thread. I haven't heard about this from anyone else.

@Dave Merrill is the command you're using the recommended method from Adobe? Probably not ideal, but I use the older JDK 11.0.19 to install the updates so I don't have to mess around with the zip issue.

X:\Java\jdk-11.0.19\bin\java.exe -jar X:\ColdFusion2021\bundles\updateinstallers\hotfix-016-330307.jar

@hemi345 My understanding is that we're supposed to use the java version that CF is running on. FWIW, @priyank_adobe didn't question it when I said was using that actual disk path. However, this is from the U16 release notes:

Ensure that the JRE bundled with ColdFusion is used for executing the downloaded JAR. For standalone ColdFusion, this must be at, <cf_root>/jre/bin.

In my case, probably the same on most sites, that's not where the java CF uses is, it's in a versioned director inside a /java/ directory, outside the cf install. I update the jvm path in cf admin when there's new java. That's just to make managing java updates easier, potential rollback too.

I interpret that message in the release notes as using the java version that was shipped with CF, but I remember some discussion about this a while back and think you're right on we're supposed to use the version we currently run CF with. That whole zip file validation debacle has had me just using ver 11.0.19 to install updates even though I'm using a new version and I haven't seen any ill effects yet. Same as you, I point CF admin to the new version of java where I installed it instead of updating where CF original had it installed in cfroot/jre/bin.

@priyank_adobe @Mark Takata (Adobe) Could we have some clarification on which JVM we're supposed to use to install CF updates? Is it the one that SHIPPED with our original CF install, or the one CF is CURRENTLY using? Is there any suspicion that the java version is related to the install weirdness @jakobward and I saw with the installer not doing anything when we initially ran it?

I use the updated version. The docs do seem to point to the original.

@priyank_adobe @Mark Takata (Adobe) Today I updated 2 dev servers to CF 2021.0.17.330334. The first one went fine. The second one had the exact same problem @jakobward and I reported in this thread installing update 16, where pressing RETURN in an admin cmd prompt with the install cmd pasted in did nothing. The CF service was stopped. After waiting too long, I closed the cmd prompt and tried again, but like the update 16 case, nothing happened. I redownloaded the installer, which is what fixed this last time, but installing that failed too. I compared the two versions, they were binary identical (said Beyond Compare), compared their permissions, again identical. I copied the installer from the other server that had succeeded, ran it in an admin cmd prompt, like I'd done the others, and it worked. Compared that file and its permissions to one of the others, again identical. I don't understand. If the installers are binary identical, and their permissions are identical, why does one run and another not? How can I guarantee that I won't get stuck doing this on a production server? Has anyone else seen this, on this or any other update? I'd be happy to do a remote session with an Adobe tech to look at logs or anything else that would help. Please reach out, really would like to get to the bottom of this. FYI, I'm on US East Coast time. Thank you.

@Dave Merrill I have not yet. I do have one scheduled for later today and can add another to that list. Yes, I will report back if I encounter any additional issues.

To clarify, for update 16, both dev servers were ok, one of the two production servers failed. Yesterday was two dev servers, one of which failed, the one for the application that succeeded updating to 16. Any ideas are welcome.

@Dave Merrill I updated one Windows server early this morning (Windows Server 2016, ColdFusion 2023 Update 11, Java 17.0.13) with no issues! I have several more to update this weekend—fingers crossed. This machine has not caused any problems in the past. I will be adding an ‘Issues’ column to my update spreadsheet to track any errors I encounter on specific machines and identify any patterns.

Thanks for the feedback, keep me posted.

@Dave Merrill I've just updated two more Windows servers without any issues with the installer this time. However, on one system, I always have to install from the CLI and manually reinstall the Administrator package after updating. I also need to reinstall a few packages that are consistently missing after the update. Fortunately, no mysterious 'failure to start' issues this time. ( One was CF2021, one was CF2023 - all latest Java's, both CLI installs )

Bleh, thanks for letting us know. I didn't see that caching issue, and no packages are missing. I haven't updated java yet, was waiting for the official Adobe download, I'll check for it again today.