SonarSource is thrilled to announce the release of SonarQube 7.9, the new LTS!
In the official announcement you’ll find a summary of all the new features since the previous LTS. We’ve delivered a lot in the 7-series, so you probably want to go through the highlights there, to see all the great features we worked on since the old LTS, and how it all comes together with new language support, code review feedback with PR decoration, and last but not least a now-complete offering for Application Security.
Before you upgrade from any version there are a few things you need to know:
The SonarQube server now requires Java 11. Analysis may continue to use Java 8 if necessary.
Running PyLint automatically during python analysis has been deprecated, and is broken in this version on Windows. If needed, PyLint should be run ahead of time and the resulting report passed in to analysis. This will be fixed in a later version of SonarPython.
Migrations from 6.7.x to 7.9 in Microsoft SQL Server environments may take significantly longer. Tests of the migration from 6.7.x directly to 7.9 on a large instance encountered performance issues in Microsoft SQL Server environments. If further testing determines that it is due to implementation rather than environment, a bug fix will follow. We will share updates on this topic in this thread. You can follow progress on the topic in SONAR-12251.
You’ll find more details in the upgrade notes, and full details of the 7.9 version in its release notes. If you’re upgrading across multiple versions, you should at a minimum read the upgrade notes for the intervening versions. Also don’t forget that if you run a version older than the previous LTS (6.7), you need to upgrade 6.7.x first, and then to 7.9 LTS.
Please open a new thread for any questions you have. As usual, edition downloads are available at sonarqube.org.
Can you please elaborate on the release / upgrade notes item:
Java 11 Required
The SonarQube server now requires Java 11. Analyses may continue to use Java 8 if necessary.
Sad reality of Enterprises is it takes a long time to move 1000’s of apps to new infrastructure. While many apps are Java 8 now, we still have a lot of apps built using Java 6 which we’ve managed to analyze using SQ 6.7.x but it produces a number of spurious findings/issues.
Now you’re saying we require Java 11 (for running). We don’t have a single app running Java 11 yet or even have it installed on our servers! How long before you no longer allow Java 8 analysis? is there any point for us to even bother moving to 7.9 at this time or should we be looking at other products?
The SonarQube Java analyzer is able to analyze any kind of Java source files regardless of the version of Java they comply to. However, SonarQube analysis requires version 8+ of the JVM and the SonarQube Server requires version 11+.
(to be complemented with the Java analysis documentation note about Handling Java Source Version)
Hope that clarifies. If further questions let us know (we’ll likely fork the discussion into a topic of its own at this point).
Thank you for the prompt reply; I will review all the documentation. I guess the real remaining question is do you expect to continue to support version 8+ (for analysis) for the life of the LTS?
Any further questions, I’ll start a separate thread.
Java 8 for analysis will be supported in the LTS until the next LTS. We only do bug fixes for LTSs & dropping support for Java 8 on the analysis side does not fall under that heading.
SonarQube LTS 7.X will support Java 8 on the analysis side
SonarQube LTS 8.X will drop support for Java 8 (because now Java 11 is the new LTS version of the JDK?) and require Java 11 on the analysis side
Several JDK providers e.g. AdoptOpenJDK state that they will provide support for JDK 8 until 2023 and for JDK 11 until 2022 (https://adoptopenjdk.net/support.html)
Is there something like a support matrix like the one of AdoptOpenJDK for SonarQube as well for which JDK is resp. will be required on the analysis side?
7.9.1 has been released. Once we’ve worked out some kinks (probably tomorrow morning) the docs will reflect the updated Upgrade Notes. In the meantime, I’ll give you a preview:
Release 7.9.1 LTS Upgrade Notes
Upgrade on Microsoft SQL Server fixed
Upgrade failure and performance issues with Microsoft SQL Server have been fixed (SONAR-12260, SONAR-12251).
Pylint execution on Windows fixed
Automatic execution of Pylint during python analysis on Windows has been fixed. Note that automatic execution of pylint during analysis remains deprecated on all OSes. (SONAR-12274).
I am unable to find the github tag for version 7.9.1. Only see 7.9. Has it been forgotten?
I need the source for v7.9.1 because I need to change a little the process of finding the config files of Sonarqube on our server. I am preparing to upgrade from 6.7.5.
SonarQube 7.9, 
