Published Release Notes

Data schema error on z/OS split schema upgrades from versions before Pega 7.1.8

When upgrading to a split schema on Pega 7.x with IBM DB2 for z/OS, you see an error during the data schema upgrade when the system tries to drop the PRPC_Updatescache procedure. Because triggers on rules tables use PRPC_Updatescache, you must use the ZOSDisableTriggerScripts to disable these triggers before you update the data schema.

1. Follow the instructions in the Pega 7 Platform Upgrade Guide to upgrade the rules schema, but stop immediately before you upgrade the data schema with the upgrade.bat or upgrade.sh script. The Pega 7 Platform Upgrade Guide is on the Support > Deployment Guides page.
2. Copy the contents of the <distribution>\ResourceKit\ZOSDisableTriggerScripts directory into the <distribution>\scripts\ directory.
3. Run fixZosTriggers.bat or fixZosTriggers.sh with the following arguments:
   --action preupgrade
--dataschema <data schema name>
   --oldrulesschema <old rules schema name. If you are upgrading from a single-schema system, this is the data schema name.>
   --newrulesschema <new rules schema name>
   --automaticddl <Optional. Set to true to automatically apply the disable trigger SQL scripts.>

   For example:
   fixZosTriggers --action preupgrade --dataschema pegadata --oldrulesschema pegarules --newrulesschema newrules --automaticddl false

4. If you did not set --automaticddl to true in the previous step, run the <distribution>\schema/disable.sql script to manually disable the trigger SQL scripts.
5. Run the data schema upgrade as described in the Pega 7 Platform Upgrade Guide.

Upgrade changes system name

As of Pega 7.1.7, the following renaming behavior no longer occurs.

The upgrade process renames your system to “PRPC” and modifies any custom requestor rules in your application to use this name. After the upgrade completes, you must apply these changes to revert your system:

1. Identify all custom requestor rules (browser, batch, app, portal) with access groups that point to prior versions of PRPC.
2. Open the relevant access groups (for example, PRPC:Unauthenticated and PRPC:Agents) and update the name and version fields to point to the current PegaRULES application.
3. Reset your system name to its original value. You can set the Dynamic System Setting prconfig/identification/systemName/default or use the Designer Studio > System > Settings > System Name landing page.
4. Restart the system.

Required DB2 settings

For customers using the DB2 Version 4 drivers (“db2jcc4.jar”), it is necessary to set the custom connection property useJDBC4ColumnNameAndLabelSemantics to “false”.   

For customers using DB2 with WebSphere, the useJDBC4ColumnNameAndLabelSemantics property in the DB2 data source needs to be changed from a Boolean to an Integer and set to "2". 

EAR support for JBoss EAP 6

PRPC deployment in JBoss EAP 6 as an EAR archive is now supported. 

If you need to deploy the JBoss EAR file, go to My Support Portal and submit a Support Request. GCS can assist you with the procedure.

Small distribution kit

A new “small” release distribution format for Maintenance Levels (ML) is now available, designed to significantly increase adoption via: 

• Minimal package size and faster download time
• Minimal install time via tactical changes to the upgrade implementation and process

This kit contains streamlined installers (both UI and command-line installers) and specialized error handling for ML updates (for example, a “small” kit will only work if an existing version of the same release is already installed). 

The kit assembly has also been automated, which includes the construction of a PRPC_Rules.jar archive containing cumulative rules since the GA release. 

A “small” kit will work for any prior ML release within a major release (for example, the “small” ML5 distribution kit will update any customer on 7.1 ML1 through 7.1 ML4).

Improved data page performance

Improvements have been made with queueing and processing of asynchronously-loaded data pages to reduce the number of calls to the database and avoid generating performance problems because of unneeded asynchronous requests.

Restricted SMA access

System Management Application (SMA) remote connections are not supported on JBoss EAP 6.x. This means SMA users may only monitor locally connected systems. Ensure that the "Local JVM Connection..." option is selected when configuring PRPC nodes:

PRServlet not required in PRPC URLs

PRServlet is no longer required in a URL when accessing PRPC. A URL typically written like this:

http://example.com/prweb/PRServlet?[QueryString]

Can instead be written like this:

http://example.com/prweb/?[QueryString]

DB2-LUW database logfile size increase

To avoid running out of logfile space due to large transaction sets during the rule base load of a Pega 7.1.x install, upgrade, or maintenance level update, systems supported by a DB2-LUW database platform should increase the LOGFILSIZ parameter to at least 4096 pages from the default size of 1000 pages.

After the size has been increased, restart the database to ensure that the new setting is loaded into the database correctly.

Unable to drop triggers for frameworks with custom rule tables

For PostgreSQL and z/OS systems, if your deployment includes a framework or application with custom rule tables (such as CPM or any applcation built on CPM), upgrading to Pega 7.1.x causes the DDL application to fail when it tries to drop the following stored procedures:

• z/OS
  • SPPR_RULE_VW_UPDATE
  • PRPC_UPDATESCACHE
• PostgreSQL
  • sppr_base_uc_del.sql
  • sppr_base_uc_ins.sql
  • sppr_base_uc_upd.sql
  • sppr4_fv_ins
  • sppr4_fv_upd

During an upgrade, a number of stored procedures must be dropped and re-added. If the framework or application has custom dependencies that call the stored procedure, this problem is likely to occur.

To correct this issue, drop the framework’s custom dependencies before upgrading and add back the dependencies following the upgrade.

For instructions about how to drop and add the dependencies for your framework and database when this problem occurs, see Troubleshooting: PRPC 7.1.6 upgrade does not drop PRPC_UPDATESCACHE stored procedure.