Published Release Notes

Required Oracle optimization parameter

To optimize performance, set the Oracle parameter optimizer_index_cost_adj to a value between 20 and 25. If this value is not set, the system can run exceedingly slowly, potentially blocking users from login.

Split schema upgrade instructions missing properties

If you upgraded from 5.x, 6.x, or 7.x using the instructions in previous versions of the upgrade guide, you may have neglected to set the properties below in your migrateSystem.properties file when you migrated your upgraded schema to the source system:

pega.rules.objects.generate=true

pega.rules.objects.apply=true

If these properties were not set during an upgrade that splits the schema, your environment does not have the indexes, triggers, and primary keys on the rules tables.

To check for this issue, see if the pr4_base and pr4_rule rules tables in your existing rules schema are missing primary keys. If they are, use the SQL scripts in the ResourceKit\MigrationRecoveryScripts directory of the release to cleanup duplicate rules that were created due to this issue. Follow the steps below to run the scripts.

To run the scripts on Microsoft SQL, Oracle, or PostgreSLQ

1. Take down any app servers using the affected schema.
2. Backup your database.
3. Replace all instances of @RULES_SCHEMA in <database>_cleanDups.sql with the name of the schema that contains the pr4_base table.
4. Run the <database>_cleanDups.sql script on the database with vendor tools (sqlPlus, SQL Server Management Studio, etc).
5. Replace all instances of @RULES_SCHEMA in <database>_fix_vw_table.sql with the name of the schema that contains the pr4_base table.
6. Run the <database>_fix_vw_table.sql script on the database with vendor tools (sqlPlus, SQL Server Management Studio, etc).
7. Generate and apply the ddl using the command line generateDDL command. Check the installation guide for your database or the upgrade guide for details about how to use the generateDDL command line script.
8. Rebuild the indexes for the tables in your rules schema using vendor tools. This is necessary so that your system runs at an optimum speed.
9. Optionally upgrade to the latest release, at this point your database is ready to be upgraded or used depending on your needs.

To run the scripts on DB2 for LUW or z/OS

1. Take down any app servers using the affected schema.
2. Backup your database.
3. Run the <database>_cleanDups.sql script on the database with vendor tools (UDB CLP, Data Studio, etc) to create the CLEANSE_RULES_DUPS stored procedure.
4. Run the query Call CLEANSE_RULES_DUPS(‘<rulesSchema>’); where <rulesSchema> is the name of schema that contains the pr4_base table.
5. After the previous step is complete drop the CLEANSE_RULES_DUPS procedure.
6. Replace all instances of @RULES_SCHEMA in <database>_fix_vw_table.sql with the name of the schema that contains the pr4_base table.
7. Run the <database>_fix_vw_table.sql script on the database with vendor tools (UDB CLP, Data Studio, etc).
8. Generate and apply the ddl using the command line generateDDL command. Check the installation guide for your database or the upgrade guide for details about how to use the generateDDL command line script.
9. Rebuild the indexes for the tables in your rules schema using vendor tools. This is necessary so that your system runs at an optimum speed.
10. Optionally upgrade to the latest release. At this point your database is ready to be upgraded or used depending on your needs.

Synchronized database and application server settings

Configure your database and application server to use the same time zone and character encoding to avoid conflicts.

System Management

The PRPC installer has been enhanced to handle additional error conditions related to partial installs and duplicate keys; additionally, the hotfix rollback feature has been improved, and the Rulebase compare tool now supports HTTP(S) environments.

• Rollback feature has been enhanced.
• RuleBase Compare will work for secure (HTTPS) environments as well as  non-secure (HTTP) environments.
• Install will gracefully handle the presence of a duplicate key during import.
• When install fails, system will set tables back to original state.
• Remote MBean methods will now work on multi-servant load-balancing systems.
• Enhancements were made to harnesses in Split Schema systems.

Extract data from Pega Cloud to an on-premises database

You can now use Pega^® Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) to extract data from Pega Cloud to an on-premises relational database management system. Extracting data from Pega Cloud directly to an on-premises database improves efficiency by eliminating the need for file extraction and the development of a file extraction infrastructure.

For more information, see Extracting data from Pega Cloud to an on-premises database.

Improved connection pooling performance

HikariCP is now used for connection pooling for databases that are configured by using a URL. HikariCP improves connection pooling performance; however, more database connections might be used than in previous versions of Pega^® Platform.

As a result of the switch to HikariCP, you cannot use the System Management Application (SMA) to get diagnostic data from your application. For instructions about how to get diagnostic data by using REST services, see Obtaining connection pool diagnostic data by using REST services.

No longer supported translator configuration options

The following translator configuration options are not needed and are no longer supported. If you previously configured any of these system settings, remove them from the system settings to avoid a warning message. For example, if you set translator/useparserfamily, the following message is displayed at startup: "Translator option, 'translator/useparserfamily' is not needed and no longer supported. Remove this from the system settings."

• translator/useparserfamily
• translator/usecodegenerator
• translator/usenativedouble
• translator/optimization/use71BlockAnalysis
• translator/optimization/use71ConstantFolding
• translator/optimization/use71AssignmentTypeSimplification
• translator/optimization/use71IntrinsicFunctions
• translator/use71PropSetGeneration
• translator/use71ParserAssignment
• assembly/model/useBlock4ContiguousSets
• /translator/pandc/comparepandcalgorithms
• /translator/pandc/use6xalgorithms
• /Compatibility/CheckForTopLevelClassMismatch

In addition, the com.pega.pegarules.generation.parseoverride bootstrap option is no longer supported. Remove this option from the system settings.

System state data is saved for 90 days

System state data is now saved to the database for 90 days and can be downloaded as a JSON file. Having previous system state data available is useful for debugging system problems. Operators with the pzSystemOperationsObserver privilege can download system state data from the Cluster Management landing page for either the entire cluster or a single node. In addition, the PersistClusterState and PersistNodeState agents have been added to the Pega-RulesEngine ruleset for persisting system state data to the database.

For more information, see Downloading the system state.

PegaDATA connection settings now required in the prconfig.xml file

If you use the default prconfig.xml file that is included with Pega^® Platform, and you have not removed the PegaDATA connection settings, no action is required. If you use a custom prconfig.xml file, for example, for running tests, ensure that the database connection settings for PegaDATA are not blank.

For more information about the connection settings, see PegaDATA connection settings in the prconfig.xml file.

Node classification replaces NodeID-based configuration

For simpler cluster administration and better application resiliency, Pega^® Platform is moving toward a node classification model. Although agents will continue to work by using NodeIDs for several upcoming releases, use node types instead of NodeID configuration for agents, listeners, and decisioning services for more efficient operations and upgrades.

For more information, see Node classification.