In every release, Blackboard devotes time and resources to make Blackboard Learn run on the latest operating systems, databases, and browsers available, with the goal of creating a system that is more manageable, more stable, and more user friendly.

This topic highlights the major changes to the Supported Technologies and Browsers for this release. 

In order to more clearly define support statements regarding third-party client technologies, Blackboard no longer classifies support for technologies in terms of "compatible" or "certified." These technologies are now either fully supported or not supported. Supported and unsupported technologies are aligned as closely as possible with third-party vendor support policies.

  • Supported: Supported by the vendor and Blackboard.
  • Unsupported: Unsupported by the vendor or not supported by Blackboard.

64-bit server configurations

Supported Operating Systems and Databases
  Application Server OpenJDK 11 Corretto3 SQL Server 20171 SQL Server 20191 Oracle 19c1,2 Oracle 18c Oracle 12cR21,2,4
Windows Server 2016 Supported Supported Unsupported Unsupported Unsupported Unsupported
Windows Server 20194 Supported Unsupported Supported Unsupported Unsupported Unsupported
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7.x3 Supported Unsupported Unsupported Supported Unsupported Unsupported

1. Server AlwaysOn for SQL Server and RAC configurations for Oracle not officially supported. Support statement is: "It is strongly recommended by Blackboard that for purposes of system management, Blackboard Learn be installed on a single instance database. Oracle RAC and Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn are high-availability configurations from their respective vendors. If for reasons of institutional policy you must run Blackboard Learn in a RAC or AlwaysOn database environment you may do so, but Blackboard will only support the installation at the Learn-to-database JDBC layer, not at the database layer. Issues encountered up to the JDBC layer will be accepted as support incidents, and escalated and triaged according to standard Client Support procedures. Other issues encountered at the database layer will have to be addressed with the database vendor. If you are unable to address database issues at the database layer in these configurations, Client Support will recommend switching to a single instance database configuration for continued support."

2. Oracle ASO (Advanced Security configuration) is not supported.

3. We recommend using the latest versions of Corretto 11 and RHEL7 available when upgrading Learn 3900.x. If you encounter an issue with a particular release of either of these technologies, use one version prior instead. In this circumstance, contact Client Support so any version-specific issue can be confirmed and communicated with the community.

4. Oracle’s support for the stable channel release of Oracle 12cR2 ends in 2022. Learn environments running this older version of Oracle will no longer be supported as of December 31, 2022. Self-hosted environments using Oracle should run Oracle 19c instead. For Windows Server, a long-term service channel version is recommended.

32-bit server configurations

32-bit configurations are not supported.

Configuration notes

See Browser Support Policy

Note: all supported configurations are based on the latest minor version release of supported software - including MS Service Packs and Oracle patches (DB and Java). RHEL 7.9 should be tested as current available version, but versions of RHEL 7 actively supported by Red Hat should be considered supported for this release.

Oracle RAC Support Statement

Oracle Version RAC Supported
11gR2 Unsupported
12cR2 Provisional

Virtualization Support Statement

VMWare ESX Server 4.1 Comments
Certified

Verbatim From the 9.1 Release Notes:
VMware® ESX Server 4 (Linux® and Windows®) is the only configuration Certified by Blackboard for Release 9.1.

Blackboard supports other virtualization solutions as long as Blackboard and the hypervisor support the guest operating system.

In addition to VMware, Blackboard has experience with Citrix XenServer 5.5, Solaris 10 Zones and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 4 & 5 Xen™.

Unsupported

  • Java 8
  • Oracle 18c
  • Oracle 12cR2

Supported upgrade paths

Blackboard Product Development certifies upgrades directly from two prior releases: