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How to Transition from
Azul Zulu for Azure Distribution to
Azul Zulu Builds of OpenJDK

On January 1st, 2022, Azul’s Zulu for Azure OpenJDK-based distribution entered End of Life (EOL).

As such, all support services and binary updates have ended. While Java applications can continue to use these open-source binaries in perpetuity (licensed under GPLv2 with Classpath Exception), quarterly bug fixes and security updates ended on December 31, 2021. As such, Zulu for Azure users should move to Azul Zulu Builds of OpenJDK distributions (which has optional commercial support from Azul) as soon as practical in order to receive “secure and updated” binaries on a continuous basis.

This page provides detail information on how users transition from Azul Zulu for Azure to Azul’s free and open-source Zulu Builds of OpenJDK for their Java deployments and container images.

JDK/JRE Package Transition

Azul Zulu Builds of OpenJDK are Java SE compliant and 100% compatible with the Azul Zulu for Azure distribution. As such, users who want to continue to receive Java updates or support services after December 31, 2021, must transition to Azul Zulu Builds of OpenJDK. Users can manually download Azul Zulu JDKs or JREs for Java 7, 8, 13, 15 and 17 from the Azul website here or programmatically from Azul Yum and Apt repositories or via Zulu download API.

Updating Container Images

To ensure applications using Zulu for Azure based container images remain secure and updated, users are encouraged to update their container builds scripts to use the latest versions of Aul Zulu Builds of OpenJDK as defined below:

Below we provide a list of interchangeable Docker images between Azul Zulu for Azure and Azul Zulu Builds of OpenJDK.

JDK

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Important: For customers transitioning from Zulu for Azure Docker images based on old or outdated Linux distribution (i.e., Debian 8, Debian 9, Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 19.10), should consider a change to a newer base OS. These older versions are outdated and no longer supported. 

Other Images and Packages

JRE

JRE Headless

Important Dates for Zulu for Azure End of Life (EOL)

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October 19th, 2021

Last Zulu for Azure update (e.g. 8u312, 11.0.13, 17.0.1, etc.) 

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January 1st, 2022

No more updates or support services for Zulu for Azure binaries

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July 1st, 2022

Zulu for Azure binaries no longer be available from Azul Zulu for Azure repositories