Published Release Notes

PEGA0055 alert detects clock drift in a multi-node clustered environment

Clocks in most of the hardware platforms run at different rates, and the PEGA0055 alert detects the clock drift on any of the nodes in a multi-node cluster. The alert is triggered when the clock drifts from the average time of the clocks in the cluster by an amount that exceeds the time threshold configured in the prconfig.xml file. You can use a network time protocol service or daemon to correct the clocks by referring to a standard external Internet time service, for example, nist.gov.

For more information, see PEGA0055 alert: Clock drift exceeded the configured time threshold.

New default system setting for SQL queries

A prconfig system setting, reporting/useLayerCakeSchemaChanges, is now enabled by default to improve the performance of SQL queries. Additionally, this setting can also be configured to disable an optimized query as a prconfig setting.

Previously, this setting was set to false by default. Starting in this release, to set this from true to false, you must explicitly add an entry in the prconfig.xml file.

For more information, see Startup check removes custom DB triggers.

Startup check removes custom DB triggers

The process for performing updates to the pr_sys_updatescache and pr4_rule_vw tables has been restructured to increase system processing efficiency. In previous releases, database (DB) triggers were used to perform updates to these tables. These updates are now performed directly within the Pega 7 engine and the DB triggers have been eliminated.

Accordingly, Pega 7 now checks at startup for any user-created triggers that are added after installation. If any triggers of this type are found, they are automatically removed.

For related information, see Custom DB triggers are dropped during upgrade.

Call functions by using the library qualified syntax

When calling a function, in addition to the existing fully qualified and unqualified function calls, you can now use the library qualified syntax:

@LibraryName.FunctionName(arg1, arg2... argn)

An example of using the library qualified syntax to call a function

Using library qualified notation helps prevent accidental library conflicts (such as when two libraries with the same name are located in different rulesets), because the library from the ruleset listed higher in the operator runtime ruleset list is selected for resolution.

For more information, see Methods for calling a function.

FTPS added to FTP server

When using FTP Secure (FTPS) in an FTP Server record, you can securely transfer files by using TLS/SSL. A new Security section has been added to the Edit FTP Server configuration page for enabling and configuring FTPS.

For more information, see FTP Secure for FTP server records.

JavaMail API upgrade has potential SMTP configuration error

The JavaMail API has been upgraded from 1.4.1 to 1.5.2 in this release. This improvement provides greater compatibility and secure connectivity with leading industry email servers.

During the upgrade process, there is a known issue for some configurations of email servers, including Microsoft Exchange Server, that requires the use of an additional setting. After upgrading to this release, if you experience authentication failures when attempting to send email or test SMTP connectivity, do one of the following:

• Recommended: Review the Microsoft Exchange email server settings to ensure proper configuration for SMTP authentication. In some cases, the use of port 587 instead of the traditional default SMTP port 25 has been shown to address this issue.
• Create the following Dynamic System Setting with the value "true," and then restart email listeners:

Owning Ruleset: Pega-IntegrationEngine

Setting Purpose: javamail/NoAuthMechanismsRetry

After any email server configuration or upgrade, it is recommended that email listeners are re-tested without using this Dynamic System Setting.

See About Email Account data instances for information on configuring email account records.

Enhanced error handling in data pages

All error details in data pages are captured in one easy-to-remember location on the data page. New functions for handling errors from the data layer without using a post-load activity allow you to handle errors without guardrail violations. A new template error handling transform helps to simplify error handling from your response data transforms.

For more information, see Data page error handling.

Pega Connect-CMIS support for NTLM authentication

Support is now available for using Connect-CMIS rules and NTLMv1 authentication with enterprise content management (ECM) systems such as Microsoft Sharepoint. This capability is provided by the underlying Apache Chemistry OpenCMIS libraries that impose the following restrictions:

• Only a single NTLM-enabled CMIS connector can be used per node (JVM).
• Only Basic Authentication and NTLMv1 are supported as authentication methods with Connect-CMIS.

Enhanced interoperability with enterprise content management products

The Content Management Interoperability service (CMIS) capabilities of the Pega 7 platform now provide enhanced interoperability with enterprise content management products. This improvement uses modern web services components that require a Pega platform running Java 7 or higher when CMIS connectivity through SOAP web services are utilized.

Decision Data Store data sets can be used only on DNodes

Data flows that contain Decision Data Store data sets as the primary or secondary source must be created and executed only on DNodes.