My company is using Jenkins 2.541.3 and it is running with Java 25. My docker nodes are failing after the upgrade, and I think it’s because they have Java 21 in them. Am I correct that I need to upgrade the containers with Java 25 to match Java major versions?
The agent Java virtual machine needs to execute Java byte code sent by the controller. That means it needs to run at least the Java major version that is running on the Jenkins controller.
If your controller is running Java 21, then the agents can run either Java 21 or Java 25. If your controller is running Java 25, then the agents must run Java 25.