Published Release Notes

IBM WebSphere Application Server V8: Edit the URL for Enabling System Management Application

WebSphere 8 does not correctly resolve the URL to enable System Management Application. As a workaround, when you configure the application server, you can do either of these actions:

• Enter the full URL in the format:
  ​http://hostname:port/prsysmgmt/getnodes.action

• Set the com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.redirectcontextroot property to true.

Open ports required for cluster communication

In a Pega 7 system, there can be multiple servers, or nodes, and each node can contain multiple JVMs.  In Pega 7.1.7, the port range 5701-5800 needs to be left open for cluster communication.   The number of available ports in this range needs to be greater than or equal to the greatest number of JVMs on any one node in the cluster.  So for example, if there are 3 JVMs on one node, and 7 JVMs on another node, there need to be at least 7 ports available.  By default, the system will begin with port 5701, and then look for the next port in the sequence (5702, followed by 5703).

If these ports are not available, you will see the following error:

ERROR   - PegaRULES initialization failed. Server: ABCDEF123

com.pega.pegarules.pub.context.InitializationFailedError: PRNodeImpl init failed

< . . . Java dump here . . . >

Caused by: com.hazelcast.core.HazelcastException: ServerSocket bind has failed. Hazelcast cannot start! config-port: <port>, latest-port: <port>

Using Kerberos authentication with your database

Pega 7 supports Kerberos functionality. Kerberos is a computer network authentication protocol which allows nodes communicating over a non-secure network to prove their identity to one another in a secure manner. 

To use Kerberos for authentication, you must use the command line to install or upgrade Pega 7.

To use Kerberos authentication:

1.  Change the setupDatabase.properties file.

a.  In the “Uncomment this property section” of the file, uncomment the jdbc.custom.connection.properties property.  Based on your security infrastructure, different properties may be required as parameters to this property; provide the needed properties as semicolon-delimited name/value pairs:
 

jdbc.custom.connection.properties=prop1=val1;prop2=val2;prop3=val3;
 

Example:  For an installation on a MSSQL database server from a Windows client machine (where both machines belong to the same Windows domain), using the Microsoft JDBC driver, the property may be set as follows:
 

jdbc.custom.connection.properties=integratedSecurity=true;

b.  Comment out all the username and password properties where they occur in the jdbc.custom.connection.properties file, so that they appear as follows:

# pega.jdbc.username db username
# pega.jdbc.password db password

[lines removed here]

# pega.jdbc.username=ADMIN
# pega.jdbc.password=ADMIN

2.  Set up your database to enable Kerberos functionality.  This may include additional vendor-specific JDBC driver configuration, or other setup procedures.  Check the documentation from your database vendor to determine what Kerberos setup is needed for your database.

3.  Run the command line installation or upgrade by following the instructions found in the Pega 7 Deployment guides.

Recommended heap sizes

The heap is a storage area in the Java virtual machine (JVM) allocated for both short-term and long-term (shared) object storage. If the server does not have enough memory allocated to run Pega 7, the system can hang without an error message. If this occurs, your values need to be higher than the recommendations based on your server hardware and the number of other applications on the server.

Pegasystems recommends using these settings:

• Initial Heap Size (Xms): 1 GB
• Maximum Heap Size (Xmx): 12 GB (8 GB minimum)

If your application server is using the Oracle JVM, also add the PermSize and MaxPermSize settings:

• PermSize (-XX:PermSize): at least 256MB
• MaxPermSize (-XX:MaxPermSize): at least 512MB

Set the JVM memory options to increase the amount of system memory allocated to the application server running Pega 7 by selecting Designer Studio > System > Operations > System Management Application and then selecting a listed node.

See the Pega 7.1.7 Installation Guides for more information about how to make these setting changes.

When using Oracle 12.1.0.1, left outer joins in reports may return incorrect results

When using  Pega 7 with Oracle 12.1.0.1 , reports that use left outer joins may return incorrect results.

This is an Oracle known issue.  To resolve this behavior, upgrade to Oracle 12.1.0.2, apply the Oracle patch 16726638 by requesting it directly from Oracle, or, for Microsoft Windows installations, apply Windows Bundle patch 12.1.0.1.15 or later.

For more information in this behavior, see: https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?_afrLoop=392085808201943&id=1957943.1

The System Management Application is supported only on Microsoft Internet Explorer

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) is required for the System Management Application (SMA). No other browser is supported.

Create and modify tenants only from the Tenant Management landing pages or SOAP operations

When creating or modifying tenants, do not use any of the following methods:

• Creating a new tenant definition from the Data-Admin-Tenant list
• Using the Save As feature to create a tenant from an existing tenant
• Creating a tenant from the rule form from the Action > Create menu

Although these methods might appear to work, the resulting tenants have no associated metadata and are not valid. Always use landing pages or SOAP operations to create or modify tenants.

Schema not found error when importing a Rule-Admin-Product file

If you import a Rule-Admin-Product file (RAP) file that includes a schema that has a view, grammar parsing changes can mean that the Pega 7 Platform is unable to find the schema.

To enable the Pega 7 Platform to find the schema:

1. Review the error message that indicates that the schema was not found and identify the following items:
   • The name of the schema that is causing the error
   • The table name in the format: wrong_schema_name.table_name...
   • The DDL that the Pega 7 Platform is trying to apply
2. Use the table name to identify the correct schema name in your system. This schema is usually your data schema, but might also be an external database.
3. Download the DDL.
4. Correct the schema name and save the DDL.
5. Manually apply the DDL.

Node description cannot match application server node name

A node's Short Description should not be the same value as the application server node name. If the node's Short Description is changed to be the same value as the application server node name, then the node description is automatically changed back to the original value after a system restart.

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.