diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index d8eb55a347..de733abfa6 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ buildscript {
         isSnapshot = "true" == System.getProperty("build.snapshot", "true")
         opensearch_version = System.getProperty("opensearch.version", "3.0.0-SNAPSHOT")
         buildVersionQualifier = System.getProperty("build.version_qualifier", "")
+        asm_version = "9.7"
 
         // 2.0.0-rc1-SNAPSHOT -> 2.0.0.0-rc1-SNAPSHOT
         version_tokens = opensearch_version.tokenize('-')
@@ -43,6 +44,16 @@ buildscript {
             }
         }
     }
+
+    configurations {
+        classpath {
+            resolutionStrategy {
+                //in order to handle jackson's higher release version in shadow, this needs to be upgraded to latest
+                force(group: "org.ow2.asm", name: "asm", version: asm_version)
+                force(group: "org.ow2.asm", name: "asm-commons", version: asm_version)
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 plugins {
@@ -61,8 +72,10 @@ allprojects {
     apply from: "$rootDir/build-tools/repositories.gradle"
 
     plugins.withId('java') {
-        sourceCompatibility = targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_11
+        sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_21;
+        targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_21;
     }
+
     plugins.withId('jacoco') {
         jacoco.toolVersion = '0.8.10'
     }
diff --git a/client/build.gradle b/client/build.gradle
index 40e0743910..ff84be1059 100644
--- a/client/build.gradle
+++ b/client/build.gradle
@@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ plugins {
     id 'java'
     id "io.freefair.lombok"
     id 'jacoco'
-    id 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow'
+    id 'io.github.goooler.shadow' version "8.1.7"
     id 'maven-publish'
-    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.23.0'
+    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.25.0'
     id 'signing'
 }
 
diff --git a/common/build.gradle b/common/build.gradle
index 619f8dffe5..e4aeea542a 100644
--- a/common/build.gradle
+++ b/common/build.gradle
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 //TODO: cleanup gradle config file, some overlap
 plugins {
     id 'java'
-    id 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow'
+    id 'io.github.goooler.shadow' version "8.1.7"
     id 'jacoco'
     id "io.freefair.lombok"
     id 'maven-publish'
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index 7f93135c49..d64cd49177 100644
Binary files a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar and b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar differ
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index b446fa9a15..d296387b57 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionSha256Sum=3e1af3ae886920c3ac87f7a91f816c0c7c436f276a6eefdb3da152100fef72ae
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.4-bin.zip
+distributionSha256Sum=a4b4158601f8636cdeeab09bd76afb640030bb5b144aafe261a5e8af027dc612
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.8-bin.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/gradlew.bat b/gradlew.bat
index 6689b85bee..7101f8e467 100644
--- a/gradlew.bat
+++ b/gradlew.bat
@@ -43,11 +43,11 @@ set JAVA_EXE=java.exe
 %JAVA_EXE% -version >NUL 2>&1
 if %ERRORLEVEL% equ 0 goto execute
 
-echo.
-echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
-echo.
-echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
-echo location of your Java installation.
+echo. 1>&2
+echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH. 1>&2
+echo. 1>&2
+echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the 1>&2
+echo location of your Java installation. 1>&2
 
 goto fail
 
@@ -57,11 +57,11 @@ set JAVA_EXE=%JAVA_HOME%/bin/java.exe
 
 if exist "%JAVA_EXE%" goto execute
 
-echo.
-echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is set to an invalid directory: %JAVA_HOME%
-echo.
-echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
-echo location of your Java installation.
+echo. 1>&2
+echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is set to an invalid directory: %JAVA_HOME% 1>&2
+echo. 1>&2
+echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the 1>&2
+echo location of your Java installation. 1>&2
 
 goto fail
 
diff --git a/memory/build.gradle b/memory/build.gradle
index c102948bd7..d833f0b0a4 100644
--- a/memory/build.gradle
+++ b/memory/build.gradle
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ plugins {
     id 'java'
     id 'jacoco'
     id "io.freefair.lombok"
-    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.23.0'
+    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.25.0'
 }
 
 dependencies {
diff --git a/ml-algorithms/build.gradle b/ml-algorithms/build.gradle
index 6e44a8e8a9..e97849b019 100644
--- a/ml-algorithms/build.gradle
+++ b/ml-algorithms/build.gradle
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ plugins {
     id 'java'
     id 'jacoco'
     id "io.freefair.lombok"
-    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.23.0'
+    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.25.0'
 }
 
 repositories {
diff --git a/plugin/build.gradle b/plugin/build.gradle
index 4921d73acc..fddb8f00e9 100644
--- a/plugin/build.gradle
+++ b/plugin/build.gradle
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ plugins {
     id "io.freefair.lombok"
     id 'jacoco'
     id 'java-library'
-    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.23.0'
+    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.25.0'
 }
 
 ext {
@@ -30,6 +30,11 @@ ext {
     noticeFile = rootProject.file('NOTICE')
 }
 
+java {
+    targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_21
+    sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_21
+}
+
 lombok {
     version = "1.18.30"
 }
diff --git a/search-processors/build.gradle b/search-processors/build.gradle
index cbb7e045bc..cfef1379dd 100644
--- a/search-processors/build.gradle
+++ b/search-processors/build.gradle
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ plugins {
     id 'java'
     id 'jacoco'
     id "io.freefair.lombok"
-    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.23.0'
+    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '6.25.0'
 }
 
 repositories {
diff --git a/spi/build.gradle b/spi/build.gradle
index 5f0596f013..cae8ba7275 100644
--- a/spi/build.gradle
+++ b/spi/build.gradle
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins.shadow.ShadowBasePlugin
 import org.opensearch.gradle.test.RestIntegTestTask
 
 plugins {
-    id 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow'
+    id 'io.github.goooler.shadow' version "8.1.7"
     id 'jacoco'
     id 'maven-publish'
     id 'signing'