Published Release Notes

PegaDISTRIBUTION Manager (PDM) is no longer available

The PegaDISTRIBUTION Manager (PDM) is no longer available in the Pega 7 Platform. The related PDN articles and help topics have been archived.

Configure Elasticsearch index nodes to ensure availability of index files

You can now configure Elasticsearch index host nodes in a Pega cluster outside of the Search landing page. This change ensures that search index files are always available by eliminating the need for manual configuration on the Search landing page. Use the new index.directory=<index_directory> command-line setting during JVM startup to indicate that this node is an index host node and to specify the directory where the index files will be hosted.

In addition, offline Elasticsearch index nodes can now be removed by using a new prpcUtils command-line option. For more information, see Managing Elasticsearch index host nodes outside of the Search landing page.

New Schema Tools and Query Inspector landing pages for Pega Cloud

Two landing pages have been added for advanced database administration tasks for Pega Cloud customers who use a Pega-hosted instance. These landing pages minimize the operations that need to be performed outside of the Pega 7 Platform. They are available only for customers who use a Postgres database.

From the new Schema Tools landing page, you can view PegaRULES and PegaDATA database schemas, increase the size of a column, add a composite or function index, update database statistics for a table, and defragment a table.

From the new Query Inspector landing page, you can enter an SQL query and generate an explain plan.

To use these landing pages, you must have the new PegaRULES:DatabaseAdministrator role. You access the landing pages by clicking Designer Studio > System > Database > Schema Tools or by clicking Designer Studio > System > Database > Query Inspector. The individual features that you can access are determined by the privileges that are assigned to you.

For more information, see Schema Tools and Query Inspector landing pages for tuning and maintaining databases in the Pega Cloud.

Custom properties can be passed to an Oracle database

You can pass a customizable set of property values to an Oracle database when a connection is established so that an SQL statement can be run. This feature provides the ability to implement object-level security for data access from a Pega 7 Platform application by defining Virtual Private Databases (VPDs) on class tables that reference the information passed. For example, you could pass in an operator's branch office into the context of every query run against the Oracle database to ensure that the operator has access only to data that is applicable to the operator's branch.

This feature is available only for Oracle databases and for a Data-Admin-DB-Name instance that is not PegaRULES or PegaDATA, and has the same connection metadata (JNDI, URL) as PegaData.

See Passing custom properties to an Oracle database.

Pega 7 Platform supports X-Forwarded-* (XF*) HTTP headers

When deployed behind a load balancer, the Pega 7 Platform can formulate absolute URLs while responding to requests, without any additional configuration. The load balancer must be configured to use XF* headers. Consequently, the configuration property contextrewriteenabled is deprecated.

Improved application performance when responding to SOAP requests

When an application serves multiple requests, the contention placed on the ContextHash class is reduced because all threads can concurrently access the mHash instance variable, which improves performance. To experience this benefit, redeploy the prweb.war file for web tier deployment or redeploy the prpc_wls_jee4.ear file for e-tier deployment.

Enhanced performance of autopopulated properties

You can improve performance when accessing data from autopopulated properties that are defined by keys or parameters. If the properties were created in an earlier version of the product, run the pzReSaveAutoPopulateProperties activity to gain a performance improvement.

For more information, see Enhancing performance when loading autopopulated properties.

Pega 7 Platform startup fails with an evaluateWhen-Exception after upgrade

If the batch requestor, Data-Admin-Requestor.BATCH, does not have access to the PRPC:Agent access group, the Pega 7 Platform fails to start up after an upgrade. The checkSecurity step fails with an evaluateWhen-Exception while evaluating access to the Data-Admin-System-Settings.pzSharedTenant when rule.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. On the pre-upgraded environment, grant the Data-Admin-Requestor.BATCH access to the PRPC:Agents access group. See the online help for information about granting access to access groups.
2. Move the database table record that corresponds to the batch requestor type from the pr_data_admin table of the pre-upgraded environment to the pr_data_admin table on the upgraded environment. See the online help for information about moving database table records.

Column Populator utility documentation out of date for prior versions

The documentation for using the Column Populator utility to populate newly exposed database columns is out of date for Pega 7 Platform versions prior to 7.2. For all Pega 7 versions, refer to the Pega 7.2 help documentation for instructions about how to use this utility.

End of support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and Internet Explorer 10

In accordance with Microsoft’s announcement to discontinue support for Internet Explorer 9 and Internet Explorer 10 in January 2016, Pega 7.2 will be the last version of the Pega 7 Platform to support Internet Explorer 9 and Internet Explorer 10.  

For Pega 7.2.1, you must upgrade to Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 or later, or use Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or Mozilla Firefox.

For more information about browser support, see the Platform Support Guide or contact Pegasystems Global Customer Support.