Published Release Notes

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

Cannot create new data tables after update

Data tables have been replaced by a new local data storage format. You can upgrade old-style data tables to use the new local data storage format, but the new format is not compatible with earlier versions of Pega 7 in which data tables could be created.

You can still edit legacy data tables by using the old data table functionality. However, to create new data tables, you must use the Data Explorer and Data Designer.

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.

Work attachment indexing fails with IBM SDK Java 6

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.

WSDL generation error prevents invocation of SOAP services

Status

A Known Issue was introduced in the 8.4.2 Pega Platform patch release, which impacts both upgrades and new installations of that version.

Description

Due to changes introduced in the SOAP functionality for the case-mismatch error in SR-D98509/INC-119725, the WSDL is being generated for SOAP services with an incorrectly-capitalized element, which prevents the service from being invoked.  The element should be “name” instead of “Name”.

Workaround

Clients must perform the following workaround after they define a new SOAP connector in Pega Platform:

1. To download the WSDL from Pega Platform:
   1. After using the SOAP Wizard (Dev Studio > Configure > Integration > Services > Service Wizard) the WSDL URL is shown at the bottom right of the Dev Studio screen.
   2. Click the URL to display the XML.
   3. Save the WSDL file to your local system.
2. In the text editor of your choice, modify "Name" to "name" in every <element “name” = … > tag in the WDSL.
3. Save your changes to the local file.
4. To reload the WSDL into Pega Platform:
   1. In Dev Studio, open the Configure menu.
   2. Select Integration > Connectors > Create SOAP Integration.
   3. In the New SOAP integration wizard, select Upload WSDL from File.
   4. Complete the upload using the wizard prompts.

This is a design-time issue, not a run-time issue; therefore, clients only have to perform this workaround process once. Existing SOAP services should not be impacted; however, if clients modify an existing SOAP service definition by re-running the wizard, clients must reapply the workaround for Pega Platform to recognize the SOAP definition changes.  

Resolution

This issue will be addressed in the Pega Platform Patch Release 8.4.3.  Clients who upgrade to that version or later should not see this issue.