What versions of Java are supported and proven to work for Tridion 2011 SP1 HR1?

Question

Q1. What is the latest version update of Java 6 that is supported for Tridion 2011 SP1 HR1?

Q2. Also, given the problems with different Java 6 updates and Tridion, which other Java 6 version updates are supported and proven to work for Tridion 2011 SP1?

Q3. The information I have been able to obtain is that Java 7 is only supported on Tridion 2013 (here).
Is possible that Tridion will release a service pack or hotfix with Java 7 support for Tridion 2011 SP1 (because of the known security issues in Java 6 versions)?

Q4. In an environment in which the CM, Publisher, Deployer and the presentation server(s) are on separate machines, would be possible to upgrade just the presentation servers to Java 7?

Answer 1

All Java 6 versions are officially supported.

Note: Java versions 6 update 26 to 6 update 30 may create problems with the publishing process and some other operations due to known issues in incompatibility between Oracle's jdk and Microsoft's sqljdbc4.jar

For more detail on this issue you can see THIS thread.

From my personal experience, I noticed the issue with the following versions of Java:

1. 6 u 26,
2. 6 u 27
3. 6 u 28
4. 6 u 29 and
5. 6 u 30

However, the issue got resolved with 6 u 31 and onwards.

As metioned by Raj (and you have also identified) Java version 7 is only supported with SDL Tridion 2013.

Answer 2

only Java 6 is supported for Tridion 2011 SP1 HR1, it does not work on Java 7(i hadtried) & i do not think its support for Java 7 is going to happen because there would be good amount of change and 2013 is already launched. so very less chance.

Latest Version of Java 6 can be download from here