About this Release
These Release Notes give an overview and additional information on the latest Release Control plugin releases.
See the What's New tab for a complete list of the latest new features in each of the plugins.
For information about earlier versions of the plugins, see:
- For Release Control 6.2.3, see the November 2018 Plugins Release Notes
- For Release Control 6.2.2, see the September 2018 Plugins Release Notes
- For Release Control 6.2.1, see the November 2017 Plugins Release Notes
- For Release Control 6.2, see the June 2017 Plugins Release Notes
- For Release Control versions earlier than 6.2, see the August/November 2016 Plugins Readme
Supported Configurations
Although plugin support is typically backward compatible, due to architecture changes, plugin versions released in June 2017 will work only with Release Control 6.2 or later and plugin versions released in December 2017 will work only with Release Control 6.2.1 or later.
Earlier versions of the plugins will not work with Release Control 6.2 or later without manual updates.
Detailed information about supported platforms and software configuration is available in the Supported Platform List.
Third-party Tools
For more information regarding third-party software copyrights and license information, see the Attribution Report.
What's New
For information on changes included in this release, see the following sections.
ALM Plugin
The Micro Focus ALM plugin has been added to this release. This plugin enables you to:
- Link new or existing ALM defects with release packages or trains.
- Link existing ALM requirements with release packages or trains.
- Update existing ALM defects while executing tasks.
Enhancements
The following enhancements are included in the latest plugin releases:
- Jenkins 3.4
-
Added support for Jenkins running in Redhat OpenShift so that infrastructure deployed in the cloud can be leveraged.
-
- Dimensions CM 3.4
- Added support for promoting and deploying baselines or requests in the same action.
- Deployment Automation 3.3
- Added support for deployment packages to include functionality added in DA 6.2. You can now build more sophisticated deployment procedures and orchestrate them from Release Control.
Upgrades
All supported versions of the plugins are installed with new installations of Release Control version 6.2.4.
- Existing versions are not automatically upgraded.
- You are alerted that upgrades are available, and you can manually upgrade a plugin instance when you are ready.
- Multiple versions of plugins can be added to your Release Control implementation, and you can create configurations based on each of those versions.
For documentation for the plugins, see the Documentation Center.
Before you upgrade your plugins, review the following sections, and then proceed with the upgrade.
- Manually Upgrading Plugins
- Post Upgrade Activities for Plugins
- Related Upgrades
- Troubleshooting Plugin Upgrades
- Upgrading from Custom or Earlier Versions of Plugins
Manually Upgrading Plugins
After you upgrade to Release Control version 6.2.4 from version 6.2 or later, or after you manually install the latest plugins in Release Control version 6.2 or later, the earlier versions of plugins are retained. You can manually upgrade plugin instances at your convenience.
When new plugin versions are available, an alert appears at the top right of the Release Control Administration UI.
Click the alert icon and then click Show to view the list of plugins that require upgrade.
Post Upgrade Activities for Plugins
You must do the following after upgrading to the latest versions of the plugins, especially if upgrading from a version earlier than version 6.2.
- If you have existing deployment tasks for the upgraded plugins, in each release package in the Deployment Tasks tab, edit and save the deployment tasks to populate them with the provider data that was stored differently in the earlier release.
- If you have plugin configurations that were created using the August 2016 version of the CA Nolio (now CA Release Automation) plugin, you must change the notification URL or use polling only. For details, see the plugin documentation on the Documentation Center.
- If you have existing requests or deployment units for the upgraded plugins, in each release package in the Requests or Deployment Units tab, click Reload Request Data or Reload Deployment Unit Data respectively to pick up any new data available due to plugin changes.
Troubleshooting Plugin Upgrades
After upgrading, you may encounter one of the following issues:
- Custom columns you added are no longer in the table
The columns in the Deployment Units and Requests tabs no longer show fields previously configured in the RLC Custom Columns auxiliary table Default DU Custom Columns and Default Request Custom Columns entities. This means those table entries may have reverted to the defaults. This happens if you upgrade without deselecting the Include entity data check box in the Entities step when promoting the Release Data process app.
If this occurs, you will need to reconfigure the default custom column entries as needed.
- New configuration fields don't appear in the existing
configurations
After upgrading, the new configuration fields for some plugins do not appear in existing plugin configurations in the Release Control Administration, so it isn't possible to configure them. If you do not do this after upgrading the Dimensions CM plugin, an example error message you may get is the following:
Could not resolve placeholder 'deploy_unit_custom_attributes' in string value "${deploy_unit_custom_attributes}"
If this occurs, you will need to open each existing configuration in the Release Control Administration, click Update Configuration, then re-open the configuration and configure the new fields as needed.
If you need to determine the exact version and build number of a plugin, view the manifest.mf file in the META-INF folder in the plugin JAR file archive.
Upgrading from Custom or Earlier Versions of Plugins
Any custom plugins are automatically backed up in the ..\Program Files\Micro Focus\Release Control\rlc_lib_backup directory when upgrading to Release Control 6.2.1 from version 6.1.0 or 6.1.1.
If you're upgrading from 6.0.1, you must manually back up your custom plugins before upgrading SBM.If you want to upgrade your custom plugins or want to upgrade earlier versions of the plugins, see Knowledgebase item S142171.
Known Issues
For issues related to the core solution, see the latest Release Control Release Notes on the Documentation Center.
These issues are applicable to upgrades to plugin versions 3.3 and to Silk Central version 1.1 from the previous versions.
For issues applicable to earlier versions of the plugins, see the appropriate versions of the Release Notes or Readme as follows:
November 2018 Plugins Release Notes: Plugin versions 3.3, ALM Octane Plugin version 1.0
September 2018 Plugins Release Notes: Plugin versions 3.2
November 2017 plugins Release Notes: Plugin versions 3.1, Silk Central version 1.0
June 2017 plugins Release Notes: Plugin versions 3.0
August/November 2016 Plugins Readme: Plugin versions 1.0, ChangeMan ZMF version 1.0–1.2
Plugin issues known to exist in the latest plugins at the time of release are as follows.
ALM Octane Plugin
- In Memo type fields, such as Description, multiple lines are not displayed separately, but instead as one line. Workaround: use HTML tags such as <br/> (DEF321925).
- Task execution for Update Work Item Action may fail if you use editable and final field types when a value has already been specified, for example, Author. You can only set the values for these field types once (DEF321984).
- If you disable the Tech Preview API
(DEF321985):
- You will not be able to use some services, such as create and update the Quality Story type.
- Some editable multi-target properties will not display all their values.
- rlc.log will contain warnings such as:
User doesn't have permissions to use gherkin_automated_run API.
- Search item action: reference properties will not display the correct value, only the ID.
Atlassian JIRA Plugin
- No known issues
CA Nolio Plugin
-
To avoid constraint violation errors, deployment tasks with Create and Run Deployment Plan actions must have unique Plan Name and Build number property values across group environments or in parallel tasks (DEF322995).
ChangeMan ZMF Plugin
- No known issues
- No known issues
Dimensions CM Plugin
- No known issues
Jenkins Plugin
- No known issues
- The plugin is very slow on the sample database when loading a list of defects or requirements. Minimize the number of items to be displayed or reduce the network latency between the RLC and ALM servers to below 50ms (DEF326990).
- No known issues
Silk Central Plugin
- No known issues
Legal Notice
The only warranties for products and services of Micro Focus and its affiliates and licensors ("Micro Focus") are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Micro Focus shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.
Contains Confidential Information. Except as specifically indicated otherwise, a valid license is required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.