Running Java8 on Azure web apps

Switching to Java 8 version has got easier in new Azure Portal. Below are list of instructions

1)     Navigate to https://ms.portal.azure.com/

2)     Select your Java Web app and Click on settings

 

3)     Click on Application Settings in Settings bar

 

4)     You should see drop-down’s to select different java version and web container.

 

------------------------------------------------ Below content is deprecated in favor of New Azure Portal ——————————————————-

Note :  Please refer http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/web-sites-java-custom-upload/ for changing java version in application server.

Java 1.8 binaries are pre-installed in Azure Web apps and Below are steps to activate it

1)     Go to configure tab in your webapp

 

2)     Add following content in app settings

Key : JAVA_HOME 

Value : D:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_25

3)     Navigate to your website kudu console - https://yourWebsiteName.scm.azurewebsites.net/Env and check if you have below content

JAVA_HOME = D:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_25

4)     Set java bin path in debug console

set PATH=%PATH%;%JAVA_HOME%/bin

 

5)     Check if changes are reflected

Java –version

 

Note :  Please refer http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/web-sites-java-custom-upload/ for changing java version in application server.

Troubleshoot :

1) You can skip setting PATH variable from step 4 above and run java directly using below command

D:\home>"%JAVA_HOME%"\bin\java -version 

2) If you would like to make this change at application server level, please use below config file for tomcat. You can find more details @ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/web-sites-java-custom-upload/

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <configuration>
    <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
    <add name="httpPlatformHandler" path="*" verb="*" modules="httpPlatformHandler" resourceType="Unspecified" />
    </handlers>
    <httpPlatform processPath="%HOME%sitewwwrootbintomcatbinstartup.bat" 
    arguments="">
    <environmentVariables>
    <environmentVariable name="CATALINA_OPTS" value="-Dport.http=%HTTP_PLATFORM_PORT%" />
    <environmentVariable name="CATALINA_HOME" value="%HOME%sitewwwrootbintomcat" />
    <environmentVariable name="JRE_HOME" value="%JAVA_HOME%" /> 
    <environmentVariable name="JAVA_OPTS" value="-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true" />
    </environmentVariables>
    </httpPlatform>
    </system.webServer>
    </configuration>

As suggested by PERTU in comments try using JAVA_HOME1 if azure overrides value set in user interface