Published Release Notes

Ability to restrict access to the Import wizard

You can now restrict access to the Import wizard so that users implement an automated pipeline to deploy changes between environments such as staging and production. Deployment Manager is one method by which to create pipelines. By using pipelines to propagate changes, users can apply a standardized and automated deployment process for migrating their applications.

For more information, see:

• Ensuring that users migrate applications with a pipeline by restricting the Import wizard
• Understanding model-driven DevOps with Deployment Manager

Deploy in secured mode

Deploying the Pega 7 Platform in secured mode helps prevent unauthorized access to your system. By default, the Pega 7 Platform deploys in secured mode. For more information, see the Deployment Guide for your environment.

Search and Reporting does not index large items

When using the Search and Reporting (SRS) microservice in Pega Platform™ 8.5, you might encounter problems with indexing large out-of-the-box rules. The issue is not visible in Queue Processors, but you can access logs to verify which items the system does not index.

Run advanced agents on only one node in a cluster

You can now configure an advanced agent to run on only one node in a cluster at a specified time. In addition, you can specify the time interval within which an advanced agent runs on only one node in the cluster, which avoids having two advanced agents starting to run on the same node at the same time.

For more information, see Improved control for running advanced agents and Agents rules – Completing the Schedule tab.

Existing operator IDs during upgrades and updates

Upgrades and updates are always performed in secured mode to help prevent unauthorized access to your system. In secured mode, the [email protected] operator ID is always overwritten, but other existing standard operator IDs are not modified. New operator IDs are inserted in secured mode. For more information, see the Deployment Guide for your environment.

Ability to test SELECT statements

When developing and debugging applications, you can test SELECT statements from the Query Runner landing page. You can run queries against non-BLOB columns in your database and view the results on the landing page or export the results to an Excel spreadsheet or PDF file. This functionality is available for Pega Cloud customers who use a Postgres database or for customers using an Oracle database on-premises or on the cloud.

To use this landing page, you must have the PegaRULES:DatabaseAdministrator role or the pxDBSelectQuery privilege in Data- and Rule- in your access group. You access the landing page by clicking Designer Studio > System > Database > Query runner.

For more information, see Query Runner landing page for testing SELECT statements.

Simplified support for external log management systems

Simplified support for external log management systems such as ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) makes it easier to implement an external log management system. An external log management system can improve access to system log files that help diagnose and debug issues by eliminating the need to download log files from each node in the cluster.

For information about configuring ELK, see Configuring ELK for log management.

For information about using Kibana to view log files, see Pega logs in Kibana.

Default quiesce strategy changed to immediate drain

The default quiesce strategy has been changed to immediate drain, which allows you to continue to access a quiescing node to perform actions until the node is removed from the load balancer, regardless of your user role. When immediate drain is enabled, and a node is in the quiesce state, the requestor state is saved after every interaction. After the node has been removed from the load balancer, the saved state can be used to restore the requestor state on a new node in the next interaction with the server.

You can change the quiesce strategy default to slow drain by modifying the value of the session/ha/quiesce/strategy setting in the prconfig.xml file to be slowDrain.

Improved experience when building an IVA and Email Bot in App Studio

Build your Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) and Pega Email Bot™ while working only in App Studio. This approach makes the design process easier and more intuitive, and saves you time. You can now modify the advanced text analyzer configuration while working in App Studio. In addition, if you have access to Dev Studio, you can edit the text analyzer rule from App Studio for your chatbot or email bot by clicking a link to open the settings in Dev Studio.

For more information, see Adding a text analyzer for an email bot and Adding a text analyzer for an IVA.