Update Existing Applications wizard will run for every upgrade
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
The upgrade process from a PRPC 5.x or 6.x system to Pega 7.1.7 now automatically runs the Update Existing Applications wizard. This may extend the time that the upgrade process takes to complete, depending on the version you are upgrading from and the number of rules in your application.
Upgrading to Pega 7.1.7 with an Oracle database requires new role permissions
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
When upgrading or updating from a prior version to Pega 7.1.7, if your system uses an Oracle database, an additional role is required to support the Reversability functionality. In addition to the Oracle privileges specified in the Install Guides, the role SELECT_CATALOG_ROLE is required. Verify that this role is present before beginning the upgrade or update.
IBM WebSphere Application Server V8: Edit the URL for Enabling System Management Application
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
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.
Action required by admins for improved search
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
Starting November 13, 2014, after updating to or upgrading from a prior version to Pega 7.1.7, your system administrator must manually build all indexes for Elasticsearch before the system can automatically switch from Lucene to Elasticsearch.
It is recommended that you begin this manual re-indexing process for all enabled index types as soon as your update or upgrade is complete. The search landing page refers to Elasticsearch settings; during re-indexing, however, Lucene search continues to function to ensure that there is no interruption in search functions. When planning the re-indexing, be aware that the initial re-indexing requires significant resources on the host node and can be a lengthy process, depending on the number of rules and work objects in your system.
See the Pega 7.1.7 Upgrade Guide for information about manually indexing Elasticsearch.
Open ports required for cluster communication
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
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>
Recommended heap sizes
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
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 and then selecting a listed node.
See the Pega 7.1.7 Installation Guides for more information about how to make these setting changes.
Updates no longer require redeploying the prweb.war file or the application server-specific EAR file
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
Updating from Pega 7.1.7 to later versions of Pega 7 no longer requires that you redeploy the prweb.war file or the application server-specific EAR file.
Note that upgrades from versions prior to Pega 7.1.7 still require that you redeploy these files.
The System Management Application is supported only on Microsoft Internet Explorer
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
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
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
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 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.
Work attachment indexing fails with IBM SDK Java 6
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
Indexing of work attachments fails when you use IBM SDK Java 6 with Pega 7.1.7 through Pega 7.2. The workaround is to switch to IBM SDK Java 7 or Oracle JDK Java 1.6. You can also disable attachment indexing from the Search landing page; however, if you do this, you are not be able to search the content of attachments.