diff --git a/BUILDING.txt b/BUILDING.txt
index c7a91da5d0..9d297f7c5e 100644
--- a/BUILDING.txt
+++ b/BUILDING.txt
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Build instructions for Hadoop
 Requirements:
 
 * Unix System
-* JDK 1.7+
+* JDK 1.8+
 * Maven 3.0 or later
 * Findbugs 1.3.9 (if running findbugs)
 * ProtocolBuffer 2.5.0
@@ -56,12 +56,12 @@ Known issues:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Installing required packages for clean install of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Desktop:
 
-* Oracle JDK 1.7 (preferred)
+* Oracle JDK 1.8 (preferred)
   $ sudo apt-get purge openjdk*
   $ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
   $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
   $ sudo apt-get update
-  $ sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer
+  $ sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer
 * Maven
   $ sudo apt-get -y install maven
 * Native libraries
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ Building on Windows
 Requirements:
 
 * Windows System
-* JDK 1.7+
+* JDK 1.8+
 * Maven 3.0 or later
 * Findbugs 1.3.9 (if running findbugs)
 * ProtocolBuffer 2.5.0
diff --git a/hadoop-project/pom.xml b/hadoop-project/pom.xml
index 7994dedd30..f5fb8afbec 100644
--- a/hadoop-project/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-project/pom.xml
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@
     <tomcat.version>6.0.44</tomcat.version>
 
     <!-- define the Java language version used by the compiler -->
-    <javac.version>1.7</javac.version>
+    <javac.version>1.8</javac.version>
 
     <!-- The java version enforced by the maven enforcer -->
     <!-- more complex patterns can be used here, such as
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@
     <enforced.maven.version>[3.0.2,)</enforced.maven.version>
 
     <!-- Plugin versions and config -->
-    <maven-surefire-plugin.argLine>-Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=768m -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError</maven-surefire-plugin.argLine>
+    <maven-surefire-plugin.argLine>-Xmx2048m -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError</maven-surefire-plugin.argLine>
     <maven-surefire-plugin.version>2.17</maven-surefire-plugin.version>
     <maven-surefire-report-plugin.version>${maven-surefire-plugin.version}</maven-surefire-report-plugin.version>
     <maven-failsafe-plugin.version>${maven-surefire-plugin.version}</maven-failsafe-plugin.version>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index d2fc6fd070..97561330fd 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xs
                 <version>[3.0.2,)</version>
               </requireMavenVersion>
               <requireJavaVersion>
-                <version>[1.7,)</version>
+                <version>[1.8,)</version>
               </requireJavaVersion>
             </rules>
           </configuration>