End Support WAS 5.0 by IBM

Has anyone out there on XE addressed the issue that on September 30,2006 IBM will no longer support any version of WAS 5.0?
When I noticed this I checked the current(HA) MTR's for XE and sure enough they are currently not supporting 5.1 or 6 versions for XE.
I put in a call to ORACLE and get the standard answer that the current MTR does not support 5.1 or 6.
I work for a state agency and our policy does not allow us to run unsupported software!
Any suggestions or input would be appreciated.

Oracle is working on WAS6 support and was supposed to announce 1Q2006. This obviously has not happened huh?



[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone out there on XE addressed the issue that on September 30,2006 IBM will no longer support any version of WAS 5.0?
When I noticed this I checked the current(HA) MTR's for XE and sure enough they are currently not supporting 5.1 or 6 versions for XE.
I put in a call to ORACLE and get the standard answer that the current MTR does not support 5.1 or 6.
I work for a state agency and our policy does not allow us to run unsupported software!
Any suggestions or input would be appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

No it hasn't and I was just on the phone again and the person handling my case at ORACLE said he could not find anything on their internal system that addresses this issue.
I had to e-mail him the web site because he didn't believe me, once he looked at the website he said he would open up a case with the development group to see what they were going to do.

I just got off of the phone with ORACLE and guess WHAT my case worker said that ORACLE HAS NO INTENTION OF TESTING 5.1 OR 6.0 WITH XE NEITHER WILL BE SUPPORTED!!!!!

So how do they intend to support XE to 2013?

THE WALL IS STARTING TO FALL WITH ALL OF THEIR TALK AFTER THE BUYOUT FROM PEOPLESOFT ABOUT SUPPORTING ALL OF THE RELEASES.

BTW HE ALSO MENTIONED THAT ALL FUTURE TESTING OF WAS WILL ONLY BE DONE ON 8.12 SO GOOD LOOK TO YOU GUY'S ON 8.0 OR 8.11

My opinion...but I believe that will change. Too many people will grumble about that. Also, luckily for you, Oracle's policy for iSeries users is to support whatever IBM supports...so if you put WAS on the iSeries, they will support you at whatever release IBM supports. Now I know for a fact that this is true...however, the blurry area arises if you are running WAS on Wintel and using the iSeries as a enterprise server.

It however, is not surprising. Look at the current slate of combinations they'd have to test...it probably just comes down to dollars and timing. You know that most of the money and effort are going into OAS validation, Fusion migrations, etc....there comes a time when there's just not time in the day nor money in the pot to spend resource time and maintain systems for a software package that is 6 years old and isn't being updated.

With that said, I still believe with the XE/8.0 install base and Oracle's seemingly tight partnership with IBM, that you won't see a change in direction.

The answer we got from Oracle on this question was that SP23O1 will support WAS 6. As per below.
Q. Support for WAS 5.02 is being dropped by IBM in Sept 2006. The service pack for WAS 6, SP23O1 is not being released by Oracle until July 18, 2006. Can the support be extended for WAS 5.02?
WAS 5.1 currently has no expiry date. From Oracle There are no current plans to ever validate against 5.1. The decision was made to go straight from 5.0 to 6.0. Call #4156789.
It was recognized by the technical Oracle folks that something needs to be done.
Sounds like Oracle is given new OS400 versions for testing long before new versions of WAS if that makes you feel better.

We are contacting IBM for an extension of 5.0 support. Stay tuned for updates.

Sue Shaw
Xe SP23J1 Coexistent iSeries V5R3 - all client platforms including WAS 5.0 on the iSeries for the Xe web client

This does not affect the Xe folks only. We got pretty annoyed (8.11 SP1 and 8.95!) when TR 8.95 came around as they put all the effort into making OC4J work with it (surprise -- Oracle wants to sell you more "middleware" licenses), but left WAS at the 5.02 release and support?! Two releases behind the current version.

The message was clear and unapologetic to all customers I have talked to. Even the Java levels are different (1.4 and 1.3) between the two and you can't denerate to the same sets of tables.

As we were all forced to buy Tech Foundation at one point, we should all start asking for the famous "like for like" exchange with OAS (OC4J, portal, even the database), Oracle Tech Stack, Fusion Middleware or whartever new name they want to give it...

The logic is simple -- the one you sold us (TechFoundation, WAS, WPS) as a mandatory package is antiquated and not being updated and supported anymore, because you want to push IBM out, fine, so give us a refund, or a free replacement licenses for the one you are peddling (OC4J)...
My 2 cents.

Well, this not a good story. But this is not 100% true. I just have had a look at the MTR Page. WAS 6.0 is supported for 8.9 SP2 and Xe is only supported for WAS5.0.2.12 and the JAVA 2 SDK

I think you may be confused by the terminology they use.
The story is true. In the recent MTR, when they say 8.9SP6 for tools, they mean what is know as Tools Release 8.96 (people still call TRs service packs and this is SP6 for the 8.9x tools releases) which is in the future.
8.96 will probably be released with 8.12 and will include a different architechture and, likely, approach to generating for JAS -- for example it will have specs as XML in a database, instead of TAM files, etc...
Tools Release 8.95 (required for 8.11 SP1) was GA on September 15 2005, after a lot of work to make OC4J work with it, and WAS 5.02 as the oly WebSphere platform.

Has anyone heard more from Oracle about this, or are
we still just waiting for SP23_O1 for 6.0 support?

Hi,

Yes, I talked to Oracle 2 weeks ago concerning a client
with OneWorld Xe SP23_M1 on OS/400 V5R3 + WAS 5.02 Intel.
They confirmed me that SP23_O1 is going to support WAS 6.0,
but (at the time) they were no sure of the SP release date.

Regards,