Published Release Notes

Supported JDBC drivers

Pega 7.1.1 supports Java 6 and Java 7 SDKs only. Ensure that the JDBC driver you are using supports those versions of Java. See your database installation or upgrade documentation for additional information.

* JDBC drivers are only available from the DB2 for z/OS product. Additionally, you need db2jcc_license_cisuz.jar in the same directory as db2jcc4.jar.

** The db2jcc.jar has been deprecated and may not be supported in future releases.

*** This .jar file is required for PostgreSQL version 9.1.x.

Turn off saved connections in WebLogic

PRPC caches connections in thread-local storage. When using a WebLogic application server, set database/savedconnections to FALSE to avoid incorrectly saved, container-managed transactions. You can make this update through JNDI settings or by adding an entry to the prconfig.xml, for example:

<env name="database/savedconnections" value="false" />

IE8 hangs on large imports

IE8 users may experience a hung process when running the Designer Studio > Application > Distribution > Import wizard. This issue is related to low-capacity networks and large (300+ MB) archive files.

Although the processing symbol prevents you from proceeding to the next step in the wizard, the file is still imported to the server. As a workaround, you can:

1. Wait approximately eight minutes for the file to import.
2. Close and restart the wizard.
3. Click Next to skip the upload step.
4. Select the name of your file from the list of import files.
5. Complete the remaining steps in the wizard.

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". 

Adaptive Decision Manager installation changes to support delayed learning

To support delayed adaptive learning, Adaptive Decision Manager (ADM) has been enhanced with database schema changes and no longer relies on Hibernate. This change has an impact in the way ADM is set up in the Decision Management service layer: the jdbc/admDataSource resource is now superseded by jdbc/adm7DataSource.

Additionally, Pega 7.1.7 further simplifies the ADM deployment by providing a single enterprise application or web archive:

• Single EAR deployment archive that can used when deploying ADM on IBM WebSphere and Oracle WebLogic
• Single WAR deployment archive that can be used when deploying ADM on Tomcat and JBoss

Improved full text search

In Pega 7.1.7, Elasticsearch is used to provide full-text search functionality for rules, work, and data content, replacing the existing Lucene search functionality. In addition to providing search results two to five times more quickly than with Lucene Search, Elasticsearch is more scalable: with multi-threaded bulk and incremental indexing, it provides enhanced information about the search queue, the ability to host index files on multiple nodes, a more robust and expressive search parser, the ability to configure thresholds for alerts and search query time-outs, and automatic handling of replication and failover.

The search management user interface, where you can see length of queue and age of entries, which node hosts the search index, and where it is located.

After upgrading to Pega 7.1.7, the system administrator must manually migrate search functionality from Lucene Search to Elasticsearch. Note that during the switch-over and until the indexes are rebuilt, Lucene search continues to function and there is no interruption in search functions. For more information, see the Pega 7.1.7 Upgrade Guide.

Use JDBC 4 compliant drivers for better performance

For better performance, ensure that you are using JDBC 4-compliant drivers.  For more information on supported and non-supported JDBC drivers, please reference the Platform Support Guide.

Use Tomcat 7 for better performance

For better performance with a Tomcat web server, use Tomcat 7.

Tomcat 6 has a limitation that causes the server to treat the JDBC driver as if it were a JDBC 3-compliant driver, even if the system is using a JDBC 4-compliant driver. Customers using Tomcat will see better performance if they upgrade to Tomcat 7 and use a JDBC 4-compliant driver.

Engine will not start if the incorrect JDBC driver is used

The engine will not start up if the incorrect JDBC driver is used. The following configurations are unsupported:

• Using a Multi-tenant Oracle system with one of the Oracle JDBC drivers with issues (see the chart in the Platform Support Guide)
• Using a Multi-tenant system with a JDBC 3 compliant driver, OR with Tomcat 6 (for more information on using tomcat with Pega 7.1.7, see Use Tomcat 7 for best performance)
• Using Microsoft SQL Server with a JDBC 3 compliant driver, OR with Tomcat 6 (for more information on using tomcat with Pega 7.1.7, see Use Tomcat 7 for best performance)

When any of these unsupported configurations are encountered, Pega 7 will not start. Before this change, the engine would appear to start up properly, but would encounter issues during other parts of the engine startup or during actual use of the system.

View agent activity and status more efficiently

The Designer Studio > System > Operations menu has been updated with several additional tabs detailing system information pertinent to an active server node running on a system, along with its requestors, log utilities, and purge/archive utilities. The link to the System Management Application tool has also been moved to the Designer Studio > System > Operations menu in this release.

Previously, to understand your system, you had to access every node on your system individually. With this update, the information available on these tabs allows you to view all agents across a cluster to determine if an agent is active and in-depth details about the agent in a more efficient manner.

The System: Operations page displays agent information and status on a system

Access this menu by selecting Designer Studio > System > Operations. For more information, see the System Operations landing page.