Published Release Notes

Support for an external Elasticsearch cluster for on-premises deployments

On-premises customers can configure an Elasticsearch cluster that is external to the Pega Platform™ by using client-server mode. Using an external search configuration makes Elasticsearch more highly available and scalable. 

You can view the status of your external Elasticsearch service on the Search landing page. For more information, see link to Viewing the status of an external search service.

REST APIs for system management

New REST APIs are available for reports, agent management, requestor management, cache management, queue processing, and node management. Call these APIs to troubleshoot issues, or perform administrative functions in Cloud applications.

For more information, see Pega API.

Import only new instances of specific classes

To bypass updates for specific classes and only import new instances of those types, edit the product rule definition.  For more information, see Specifying product rule deployment options.

Create configurable node types with purpose-specific names

To meet your specific business needs, you can now configure your own node types that you can segregate by purpose, and also define their behavior. Pega Platform™ supports node types that you can associate with multiple resources, like agents or job schedulers. For ease of use, apply meaningful names to your node types.

For more information, see Node classification, Creating configurable node types.

Role-based workspaces improve productivity

You can now use workspaces to access role-based tools and features. By focusing on the tasks that align with your expertise, you can develop and manage your application more quickly.

For more information about the different types of workspaces, see Workspaces.

New roles required for system management features and APIs after upgrade

The pzSystemOperationsObserver and pzSystemOperationsAdministator privileges are no longer used for accessing system management features in Admin Studio and for system management APIs. Pega Platform™ has new privileges for individual system management functions and new roles configured with these privileges. Use the following roles to access system management features and APIs:

• PegaRULES:SysOpsAdministrator – has all administrator and observer privileges
• PegaRULES:SysOpsObserver – has all observer privileges
• PegaRULES:SysAdm4 – has all administrator and observer privileges

After upgrading, you can include one or more of these roles in your access group or create a custom role. For more information about access roles, see Access roles.

Feature management added to App Studio

You can now create and manage features in App Studio. Because this functionality is no longer restricted to Dev Studio, you can encourage all team members to adopt feature-driven development, which improves the traceability from your requirements to their respective implementations.

For more information, see Feature-driven development.

Application overview added to App Studio

High-level information about an application, such as the available channel interfaces, case types, and data types, is now available in App Studio. By monitoring your project from a holistic point of view, you can make informed decisions about how and where you want to allocate your development resources.

For more information, see Application overview.
 

Enabling access to upgraded help

After upgrading to Pega Platform ™ 8.1, the default URL to the upgraded help files might be incorrect. To enable access to the latest help files, reset the URL:

1. In the header of Dev Studio, click Configure > System > Settings > URLs.
2. Enter the Online Help URL:

   https://community.pega.com/sites/default/files/help_v81/

3. Click Save.
4. Log out and log back into Pega Platform.

Translation support added to application guides

You can now localize the content in your application guides. By referencing paragraphs instead of rich text in your chapters and tasks, you can provide guidance to users in their native language.

For more information about application guides, see Creating a guide for end users.