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Serena Release Control Plugins Readme
This readme file contains information about the latest plugins release. Last updated on 2016-12-06.

Contents

About this Release

This readme gives an overview of the latest Serena Release Control plugin releases. This includes the following:

  • November 2016: ChangeMan ZMF plugin only
  • August 2016: Atlassian JIRA, CA Nolio, ChangeMan ZMF, Dimensions CM, Jenkins, and ServiceNow plugins

Release Control 6.1.1 supports these plugin versions, and the August 2016 versions of the Dimensions CM , SBM, and Nolio plugins are automatically installed with it.

To use Release Control 6.1 or 6.0.1 with these plugins, you must install the patch for the version you are using. For details, see the following:

Refer to the What's New tab for a complete list of the latest new features in each of the plugins.

Note: All plugins were updated in the Release Control 6.1 release to work with the supported version of SBM.

Helpful Links

What's New

For information on changes included in this release, see the following sections.

Enhancements

The following enhancements are included in the latest plugin releases:

Atlassian JIRA Software Plugin
  • With this new plugin you can do the following:
    • Add JIRA requests to release packages.
      • Projects displayed on the form are limited to those that match the project filter.
      • Status filters displayed are those configured on the configuration.
      • Date/time fields use your SBM locale.
      • Searches are limited to your search criteria.
    • View JIRA requests that have been added.
      • View requests in the Requests tab.
      • Open the item in JIRA by clicking the name link.
    • Synchronize request data from JIRA using the Reload Request Data button.
CA Nolio Plugin
  • Support for deployment plan executions
  • Additional and changed configuration fields include the following:

    • Nolio Url Process Execution Overview Node (existed, but was called Nolio Url Execution Overview Node)

    • Nolio Url Deployment Execution Overview Node
    • Nolio Notification Url
    • Job State Success (existed, but should have the value SUCCEEDED added to support deployment plan execution success)
    • Job States Failure (existed, but should have the value FAILED added to support deployment plan execution failure)
    • Deployment Stages
    • Connection Timeout
    • Job Polling Timeout
    • Job Polling Interval
    • Nolio Default Job Name Prefix

    For descriptions and example values for the configuration fields, refer to "CA Nolio Plugin Configuration Details" in the Plugin Index or this plugin's Quick Reference PDF.

ChangeMan ZMF Plugin

  • (November 2016) Support for ChangeMan ZMF 8.1.2 through the ZMF Connector 6.1.2 release.
  • (August 2016) Support for the following:
    • Schedule change package promotion
    • Update change package deployment date
    • Hold change package deployment
    • Release previously held change package deployment
  • (August 2016) It is now possible to successfully complete the following actions on a change package from Release Control if it is allowed in ChangeMan ZMF:
    • The deployment task will be completed if the requested action was not executed because the change package was already in a particular state or was already approved by a particular Approver.
    • A Freeze action will be completed for a change package that is already in FRZ state.
    • A Revert action will be completed for a change package that is already in DEV state
    • A Reject action will be completed for a change package that is already in REJ state
    • An Approve action will be completed for a change package that is already approved by the same Approver.

In Release Control versions 6.0, 6.0.1, and 6.1, these actions caused the deployment tasks to fail.

Deployment Automation Plugin
  • No changes
Dimensions CM Plugin
  • A new Request plugin with support for promoting, demoting, and deploying Dimensions CM requests
  • Addition of the following properties to the Default plugin:
    • Baseline - Custom Attributes
    • Request - Custom Attributes
Jenkins Plugin
  • With this new plugin you can create deployment tasks to execute Jenkins jobs.
    The following parameter types are supported:
    • The Jenkins Boolean Parameter is linked to the Release Control Boolean Parameter.
    • The Jenkins Choice Parameter is linked to the Release Control Select Parameter.
    • The Jenkins String Parameter is linked to the Release Control Text Parameter.
    • The Jenkins Text Parameter is linked to the Release Control TextArea Parameter.
    • The Jenkins Password Parameter is linked to the Release Control Password Parameter.
    • Unsupported Jenkins parameter types are shown on the task creation form as a selection field that is labeled accordingly.
SBM Plugin
  • No changes
ServiceNow Plugin
  • With this new plugin you can do the following:
    • Add ServiceNow items to release packages as requests.
      • Objects displayed on the form are limited to those that match the table filter.
      • Date/time fields use your SBM locale.
      • Searches are limited to your search criteria.
    • View ServiceNow items that have been added.
      • View items in the list.
      • Open the item in ServiceNow by clicking the name link.
    • Synchronize request data from ServiceNow using the Reload Request Data button.

Upgrade

Important: If you are using Release Control 6.0.1 or 6.1, before upgrading the plugins, ensure you have applied the patch for the version you are using. For details, see the following:

This section provides important information for upgrades to the following versions of the Release Control plugins:

  • CA Nolio Plugin 1.1
  • ChangeMan ZMF Plugin 2.1
  • Dimensions CM 1.1

For documentation for these plugins, see the Documentation Center.

Before you upgrade, review the following sections, and then proceed with the upgrade.

Plugin Upgrades

The plugins can be used with Release Control 6.0.1 and above. Following are instructions for upgrading plugins in versions 6.0.1 and above.

Upgrading Plugins in Release Control 6.1.1 or 6.1

Important: Release Control 6.1.1 automatically upgrades to the August 2016 versions for Dimensions CM , SBM, and Nolio plugins. You do not need to upgrade those until there is a newer version available that you want to use.

To upgrade the plugins, do the following:

  1. (For Serena plugins) Download the latest version of the plugin archive that you want to install from the support.serena.com Downloads Release Control plugins page.
  2. In SBM Configurator, select the Manage Services tab and stop SBM Tomcat.
  3. Navigate to the Tomcat default\webapps\rlc\WEB-INF\lib directory. For example:

    C:\Program Files\Serena\SBM\Common\Tomcat 7.0\server\default\webapps\rlc\WEB-INF\lib

  4. Back up the previous versions of the plugin jar files you are upgrading. For example:

    rlc-client-zmf-6.1.0.0-2.0.jar

    and

    rlc-provider-zmf-6.1.0.0-2.0.jar

  5. Remove the previous versions of the plugin jar files you are upgrading.
  6. Extract and copy the latest plugin jar files for the plugin to that directory. For example:

    rlc-client-zmf-2.1.jar

    and

    rlc-provider-zmf-2.1.jar

  7. In SBM Configurator, select the Manage Services tab and start SBM Tomcat.

    In the Release Control Providers administrator page, if you have already added the plugin, the plugin and its configuration will automatically use the upgraded jar files.

  8. If you are upgrading the Dimensions CM or Nolio plugin and have existing configurations, you must open and update the configurations by clicking Update Configuration. This adds the new properties to the configurations. You can then edit the configurations to configure the new properties as needed.
  9. In Release Control, 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 plugin changes.

Upgrading Plugins in Release Control 6.0.1

To upgrade the plugins, do the following:

  1. (For Serena plugins) Download the latest version of the plugin you want to upgrade from the Downloads Release Control page on support.serena.com.
  2. In SBM Configurator, select the Manage Services tab and stop JBoss.
  3. Navigate to the default\deploy\rlc.war\WEB-INF\lib directory. For example:

    ..\Serena\SBM\Common\jboss405\server\default\deploy\rlc.war\WEB-INF\lib

  4. Back up the previous versions of the plugin jar files you are upgrading. For example:

    rlc-client-zmf-6.0.1_snapshot.jar

    and

    rlc-provider-zmf-6.0.1_snapshot.jar

  5. Remove the previous versions of the plugin jar files you are upgrading.
  6. Extract and copy the latest plugin jar files for the plugin to that directory. For example:

    rlc-client-zmf-2.1.jar

    and

    rlc-provider-zmf-2.1.jar

  7. In SBM Configurator, select the Manage Services tab and start JBoss.

    In the Release Control Providers administrator page, if you have already added the plugin, the plugin and its configuration will automatically use the upgraded jar files.

  8. If you are upgrading the Dimensions CM or Nolio plugin and have existing configurations, you must open and update the configurations. This adds the new properties to the configurations. You can then edit the configurations to configure the new properties as needed.
  9. In Release Control, if you have existing requests or deployment units for the upgraded plugins, click Reload Request Data or Reload Deployment Unit Data respectively to pick up the changes.

For details on adding plugins and plugin configurations, refer to the documentation for your plugin on the Documentation Center.

Related Upgrades

You need to upgrade other related products if you upgrade these plugins.

  • You must apply the patch for your version of Release Control.
  • If you upgrade the ChangeMan ZMF plugin, you may also need to upgrade the ZMF Connector. For upgrade instructions, see the latest ZMF Connector Readme on the Documentation Center.

Troubleshooting Upgrades

After upgrading, you may encounter one of the following issues:

  • The columns in the Deployment Units and Requests tabs no longer show the fields you had 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.

  • After upgrading, the new configuration fields for some plugins do not appear in existing plugin configurations in the Release Control Providers administrator page, so it isn't possible to configure them. If this occurs, you will need to open each existing configuration in the Release Control Providers administrator page, click Update Configuration, then re-open the configuration and configure the new fields as needed. 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 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.
  • If your plugin doesn't appear for selection when you try to add a deployment task, deployment unit, or request for that plugin, ensure you have filled in all provider names for that plugin. For example, the Nolio plugin does not have a default name for Execute - Provider Name, so it will not appear on the list if you don't fill in that field.
  • If after you upgrade your plugin you see that fields are incorrectly duplicated when adding or editing a request, you may have not properly applied the patch to your Release Control version. See the top of this section for links to the patch readmes.

Known Issues

Plugin issues known to exist at the time of release are as follows.

Atlassian JIRA Software Plugin

  • The JIRA Due Date custom column field is shown as plain text without any conversion. (DEF288213)

    The JIRA Due Date is not converted to the SBM locale as other dates for the JIRA plugin are. It is shown as plain text and has the value passed from JIRA.

CA Nolio Plugin

  • After upgrading, the new configuration fields do not appear in existing Nolio plugin configurations. (ENH284975)

    After upgrading, you must open each existing Nolio plugin configuration in the Release Control Providers administrator page and update the configuration by clicking Update Configuration. Open the configuration again to see and configure the following new fields:

    • Nolio Url Deployment Execution Overview Node
    • Nolio Notification Url
    • Job State Success (add the value SUCCEEDED to support deployment plan execution success)
    • Job States Failure (add the value FAILED to support deployment plan execution failure)
    • Deployment Stages
    • Connection Timeout
    • Job Polling Timeout
    • Job Polling Interval
    • Nolio Default Job Name Prefix

    For descriptions and example values for the configuration fields, refer to "CA Nolio Plugin Configuration Details" in the Plugin Index or this plugin's Quick Reference PDF.

  • Nolio array values are always treated as text strings by the Release Control Nolio provider. (DEF288820)

    Nolio array values are always treated as text strings; therefore, Nolio processes with INT and BOOL array types cannot be properly executed in Release Control.

  • If you try to create a deployment plan in a deployment task for an application that has no deployment plans, the task will fail. (DEF288874)

    If you use the Create and Run Deployment Plan action for a Nolio application that does not yet have a deployment plan, the deployment task will fail. To workaround this, you must create at least one deployment plan in the Nolio application before running the Release Control deployment task.

  • Incorrect data types may be passed through to Nolio if entered incorrectly in Release Control.

    If you enter a property for Nolio using an incorrect data type, the plugin cannot give you feedback on the type you should use, and it will be passed through to Nolio as you entered it. For example, if you enter text for a property that should have a Boolean value, Nolio will automatically treat it as false.

  • Release Control cannot get process properties according to process version, so only the latest published are available to Release Control.

    Only user input properties that were published in the latest version or latest tag will be available in Release Control; this is Nolio API limitation.

ChangeMan ZMF Plugin

  • You cannot use non-ASCII characters in the deployment task comment field. (DEF274902)

    If you create a deployment task using the ChangeMan ZMF plugin, and enter a comment that has non-ASCII characters, the deployment will fail.

  • If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, and you have configured the custom ZMF widget to use with this plugin, the list of ZMF deployment units in the ZMF view widget do not always display. (DEF285825)

    In Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, the list of ZMF deployment units in the ZMF view widget do not always display. To work around this issue, you should press F12 to open the web browser console.

  • After upgrading the plugin, promote and demote deployment task Promotion Environment field selection is empty on the user interface. (DEF288998)

    After upgrading the plugin, prior selections for the Promotion Environment field are no longer displayed when viewing or editing promote and demote deployment tasks. The tasks are valid and can still be deployed because valid selections are stored in the database.

  • Your local computer's time zone must be the same as the SBM user profile time zone for promote scheduling time. (DOC288895)

    To create a valid schedule for a ChangeMan ZMF promote task, ensure your local computer's time zone and your SBM user profile time zone are the same.

  • Audit deployment tasks do not show as completed if the audit return code is 20. (DEF275298).

    If you execute a deployment task that audits a change package, and the ChangeMan ZMF started task is somehow terminated during the execution, the audit return code returned to ZMF Connector is 20. In this situation, the audit task does not show as completed in Release Control, even if it is ultimately completed successfully in ChangeMan ZMF.

  • If you are using this plugin with the createdate custom column field, after adding a deployment unit, the associated field will be empty until you reload the deployment unit data. (DEF288288).

    If you have added the ChangeMan ZMF provider-specific createdate custom column field, when you add a new ChangeMan ZMF deployment unit to a release package in the Deployment Units tab, the associated field in the deployment unit list will be empty until you click Reload Deployment Unit Data to populate it.

  • The createdatetime custom column field still appears on the list of fields available for ChangeMan ZMF, but it has been deprecated and will always be empty after you upgrade to this release of the plugin. (DEF288288).

    If you have added the ChangeMan ZMF provider-specific createdatetime custom column field, after you upgrade the plugin, existing deployment units using that field will have no values for that column.

  • In the ChangeMan ZMF Plugin 1.0 Quick Reference in "Installing Plugins", the jar file names given are not correct.

    The names of the plugin jar files you should install depend on which version of the ZMF Connector you are using as follows:

    • If you are using Release Control 6.1 or 6.0.1 with ZMF Connector 6.1.1, you should install the 2.1 version of the ChangeMan ZMF plugin.
    • If you are using Release Control 6.1 or 6.0.1 with ZMF Connector 6.1, you should install the 2.0 version of the ChangeMan ZMF plugin.
    • If you are using Release Control 6.1 or 6.0.1 with ZMF Connector 6.0, you should install the 1.0 version of the ChangeMan ZMF plugin.

    See the ZMF Connector 6.1.1 or 6.1 Readme for Supported Configuration information.

Deployment Automation Plugins
  • No known issues.

Dimensions CM Plugins

  • When using the Dimensions CM default plugin, if you promote a baseline in Release Control, demote in Dimensions CM, and then promote again in Release Control, the second deployment in Release Control will fail. (DEF288674)

    When using the Dimensions CM default plugin, if you promote a baseline in Release Control, demote in the Dimensions CM web client, and then promote again in Release Control, the second promotion in Release Control will be skipped, causing the second deployment to fail. This is due to the fact that Dimensions CM uses a cached connection, and the information about the demote done in Dimensions CM won't be available to Release Control until the cache period expires.

  • When using the Dimensions CM Request plugin, descriptions of Dimensions CM requests are limited to a display of 255 characters in the associated Release Control deployment units. (DEF287399)

    If you use a description of longer than 255 characters in a Dimensions CM request and associate it to Release Control as a deployment unit, only the first 255 characters will be displayed in the description field in Release Control.

  • Parallel deployment tasks may show as incomplete in Release Control even if they complete successfully in Dimensions CM. (DEF289039)

    If you run parallel deployment tasks that run very quickly in the external system, such as in Dimensions CM, where the notification about their completion is received just after the task is started, this can result in the task status remaining unchanged, and therefore showing incomplete, even though it completed successfully in the external system.

  • If you define a multi-string attribute in a Dimensions CM request that you associate with a request in Release Control, only the first line of the attribute is displayed in Release Control. (ENH287814)

    Only single field, single value attributes can be displayed as custom column fields for the Dimensions CM plugin. Single field multi-value and multi-field attributes are not supported.

  • If you use the custom attribute of date type with the custom column auxiliary table and the Dimensions CM server is in a different time zone than the SBM locale, the date shown in Release Control incorrectly differs from that in Dimensions CM. (DEF288212)

    If you use the custom attribute of date type with the custom column auxiliary table and the Dimensions CM server is in a different time zone than the SBM locale, the date shown in Release Control differs from that in Dimensions CM. The date is converted rather than simply using the date format of the SBM locale as it should.

  • After upgrading, the new configuration fields do not appear in existing Dimensions CM plugin configurations. (DEF287827)

    After upgrading, you must open each existing Dimensions CM plugin configuration in the Release Control Providers administrator page and update the configuration by clicking Update Configuration. Open the configuration again to see and configure the following new fields:

    • Baseline - Custom Attributes
    • Request - Custom Attributes

    For descriptions and example values for the configuration fields, refer to "Dimensions CM Plugin Configuration Details" in the Plugin Index or this plugin's Quick Reference PDF.

  • If you are using the Dimensions CM plugin and HTTPS with Dimensions CM versions prior to 14.3 and SBM versions 11.0 or higher, you must do additional configuration for the integration to work. (DEF284638)

    If you are using SBM 11.0 or higher with a version of Dimensions CM prior to 14.3 and secure connections are required, ALF events from Dimensions CM are not properly received and processed by SBM.

    For details on working around this issue, refer to Serena Support Knowledgebase item S141725.

Jenkins Plugin

  • You cannot run parallel deployment tasks for the Jenkins plugin. (DEF288697)

    If you configure deployment tasks with the same sequence number for parallel deployment to the same environment, error messages such as following occur:

    ERROR 20-07-2016 09:05:03 [http-nio-8085-exec-3] [GeneralMapper:17] - Exception occurred during call REST method:

    java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: There is no TaskExecution with id: 5b5f3bfb-365d-4173-87e6-49c5e4d2adb8

  • You cannot configure Release Control deployment tasks for Jenkins jobs that have a Run parameter. (DEF288842)

    If you have a Jenkins job that has a Run parameter and try to set up a deployment task for that job in Release Control, you will get a Parameter Not Supported error.

SBM Plugin

  • After deploying manual deployment tasks on a remote instance of SBM, any deployment units linked to them will not display when you open the executed tasks on the remote instance. (DEF281972)

    If you create a manual deployment task on a remote instance of SBM, link deployment units to it, and deploy it, the Deployment Units tab in the executed task will be empty when you open it on the remote instance.

  • If you are using manual deployment tasks and your computer is set to a different locale than the one you have set in your SBM profile, the DATETIME field will show the date and time of the local computer after deployment of the deployment task instead of the one in SBM. (DEF285874)

    If you are using the DATETIME extended field with the SBM plugin and the locale for the SBM user is set to something different than that of your local computer, the resulting date and time shown in the manual deployment task item after deployment will be based on the local computer's locale rather than the one in SBM as it should. To get the DATETIME field to show the correct value, users must have their local computer's locale set to the same locale as their SBM user's profile.

ServiceNow Plugin
  • No known issues.

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