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SBM 11.6 Release Notes
This file contains known issues and other important information for Solutions Business Manager (SBM). This file also contains information that might not be available in other SBM documentation. Last updated on 2019-05-31.

Contents

About this Release

SBM 11.6 is the version that immediately follows SBM 11.5. All of the features, changes, and fixes that were made in SBM 11.5 can be found in SBM 11.6. SBM 11.6 supports new installations—you do not need to install a previous version of SBM before installing this version.

If this is a new installation, download SBM from the Support and Services page, and then follow the instructions in the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide, which is available on the Documentation Center.

Important Notes

Note the following important information about this release:

  • ***SBM 11.6 requires License Manager 2.3 or higher. You must upgrade to version 2.3 or higher before you upgrade SBM.***
  • As of SBM 11.5, the SBM User Workspace interface has been removed. This means end-users now work with items exclusively in SBM Work Center. Note that users do not need to change any bookmarks or favorite URLs; all requests sent to http://serverName/tmtrack/tmtrack.dll? are automatically directed to the SBM Work Center shell.
  • Solution releases prior to and including Service Manager / Request Center 5.2 and Release Control 6.0 will not run properly on SBM 11.6 and these versions are not supported.

    You will need to upgrade the solution framework for each solution to newer, compatible versions before you can use them.

  • If you have Professional licenses and use Version Manager and SBM 11.6 simultaneously, you must update your Version Manager configuration to avoid potential licensing issues. For more information, refer to solution S140767.
  • SBM has been rebranded—Serena Business Manager (SBM) is now Solutions Business Manager (SBM). Serena Work Center is now SBM Work Center. A new logo appears in SBM Work Center.
  • SBM is now certified against Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Note that SBM requires that both IPv4 and IPv6 stacks are present on each server, though IPv4 can be disabled.
  • SBM 11.6 is available in U.S. English only.

Supported Upgrade Paths

Upgrades to SBM 11.6 are only supported from SBM 10.1.5.4 or higher. Refer to the following list for guidance on upgrading from your current version.

Contact Support if you need to download the SBM 10.1.5.4 installer.

  • Upgrading from 11.X

    If you are upgrading from 11.X or later, refer to Upgrades from 11.X.

  • Upgrading from 10.1.5.4

    If you are upgrading from 10.1.5.4, refer to Upgrades from 10.1.5.4.

  • Upgrading from Prior Versions
    • 10.1.X

      Upgrade to 10.1.5.4 first, and then upgrade to 11.6.

    • 2009 R4

      Upgrade to any version between 10.1.5.4 and 11.0.1.1, and then upgrade to 11.6.

      Use the upgrade instructions in the corresponding readme for the first upgrade, and then upgrade to 11.6 using the instructions in either Upgrades from 10.1.5.4 or Upgrades from 11.X, depending on the version you upgraded to.

    • Pre-2009 R4

      Follow the upgrade instructions in solution S138037 to upgrade to 10.1.5.4.

    • TeamTrack 6.6.1.X

      Follow the instructions in the Moving to SBM guide (available in the SBM Documentation Set.zip on the Documentation Center) to upgrade to SBM 10.1.5.4 first. In addition, refer to solution S137372 to learn about the upgrade preparation utility. After you have upgraded TeamTrack to SBM 10.1.5.4, follow the instructions in Upgrades from 10.1.5.4 to upgrade to SBM 11.6.

    • Tracker

      For information on migrating your Tracker data to SBM, refer to the "Migrating Tracker Data to SBM" solution (S138468).

Build Numbers

The following component build numbers apply to this version:

  • SBM Work Center: 11.06.00.00.2606 (Build 1361)
  • SBM Composer: 11.6 (Build 719)
  • SBM System Administrator and SBM Application Administrator: 11.06.00.00.2606 (Build 1361)
  • SBM Application Repository: 11.06.00.00.2606 (Build 603)
  • SBM Configurator: 11.06.00.00.592
  • Database version: 1160000038
  • Documentation: English – 11.6 | Japanese – 2009 R4.01 (translated content applies to SBM 2009 R4.01)

Helpful Links

Documentation Center

SBM 11.5 Release Notes

Supported Platforms

Third-Party Tools

Statement of Direction for SBM User Workspace

Statement of Direction for 32-bit SBM Clients

Contact Us

For specific product issues, contact Support at https://www.microfocus.com/support-and-services/#SBM.

Additional technical information or advice is available from several sources:

What's New

The following features have been added in this release.

Create Custom Work Center Themes

Work Center themes can now be specified in Application Administrator. Administrators can select a predefined system theme, or create a custom theme in which they define color values for UI elements in Work Center. Once administrators have created a custom theme, they can apply it to Work Center or export it for use in other SBM environments.

Administrators can enable users to override the default theme setting in their user profile.

For details on themes, refer to the SBM Application Administrator Guide or help.

ChatOps Server in SBM

  • The ChatOps server component has been added to SBM. You can now enable and configure Micro Focus ChatOps on your SBM server using SBM Configurator, which simplifies the setup of the ChatOps integration. If you are upgrading a distributed installation, you will see the ChatOps server component listed on the same server that hosts SBM Common Services.

    For details, refer to the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide or SBM Configurator help.

  • Support for using Microsoft Teams as a Chat Server has been added in this release. Note that the current version of Microsoft Teams is in beta format.
  • Users can now submit items from within a chat session. For details, see the SBM Work Center Guide or help.

PostgreSQL Database Support

SBM is now supported with PostgreSQL, an open source database. For details on PostgreSQL, see https://www.postgresql.org/. For details on configuring SBM with PostgreSQL, see the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide or SBM Configurator help.

Note: Using PostgreSQL with SBM and SSM is not supported yet, but should be supported in an upcoming SSM release.

Work Center Search Improvements

  • Users can now save a collection of facet selections as a search filter. This enables users to reuse facet selections for another search.
  • Users can now select which projects and sub-projects to search in by selecting specific projects under My Project Items before performing a search. The project selections are saved in the browser's local storage.
  • An X icon was added to the search input field to enable users to easily clear a search phrase.
  • Work Center search can now autocomplete a search phrase based on a user's recent search history. Users can enable this option in their Work Center Search settings.
  • Users can now configure the Top match search setting to enforce a hard limit on the total number of search results that are returned. Users can also adjust the Items per page setting to limit the maximum number of search results that are displayed.
  • Users can now show or hide the Refined By section on the Search page.
  • To improve search performance, users can now collapse unused facets or select Collapse All to maximize the performance even further.
  • The Last Modifier is now displayed on the report search results page.
  • User, Multi-User, Single Selection, Multi-Selection, Single Relational, and Multi-Relational fields can now be used as facets on the Work Center search results page for a single application. To use these fields as facets, a designer must select the Appears on searches for this table option on the field, and then deploy the process app.

Reporting Improvements

  • Users with the Create/Edit/Delete SLA reports and Run SLA reports privileges can now create and run custom SLA reports based on Listing, Distribution, Advanced Distribution, and Summary reports. When SLA fields are enabled, they appear in these reports as selections in columns to display, sort by lists, and search filters. The fields are prefixed by "(SLA)", and can be translated using the String IDs system auxiliary table.
    Note: SLA items now include a duration column, which enables users to output this value in reports. The duration calculates the time in seconds between the SLA start date and the actual completion date, while taking into account the calendar specified for the SLA.
  • Users can now create a report with both Basic Conditions and Advanced SQL Conditions in a single report. This enables users to specify simple query-by-example conditions without having to add them to the advanced SQL condition. Additionally, this enables users to define basic conditions using Query At Runtime parameters in combination with advanced SQL conditions.
  • Query At Runtime support is now available with Advanced SQL. This means users can now use a Query At Runtime condition in their advanced SQL statement using the format: %QAR{{Table.Column, User text}}%. For details, refer to the SBM Reporting Guide or Work Center help.
  • Users can now sort rows in Distribution reports by count. Users can order rows by name, total value, or maximum value, and then sort in ascending or descending order.
  • Users can now choose to display percentages instead of the number of items in Distribution reports.
  • A new grid-based HTML template (gridlist.htm) is available for Listing reports. This template includes a static header section, which keeps the report title, column titles, and Actions drop-down list always visible. It also provides automatic pagination.

Manage Orchestrations in Application Administrator

Administrators can now use Application Administrator to view and manage orchestrations that are running, in queue, or cancelled. This provides an interface for administrators to force stop an orchestration if necessary. For details, refer to the SBM Application Administrator Guide or help.

Additional Changes

The following sections describe additional features that have been changed or added to this release.

SBM Work Center Changes

  • SBM Work Center Improvements
    • An Applications search box has been added to Side Menu Categories tab on the user Settings page.
    • The Copy URL to Clipboard option has moved from the Actions drop-down list to a button on submit and state forms. When a user clicks Copy URL to Clipboard, the URL is now automatically added to the clipboard without requiring the user to click CTRL+C.
    • The Start of Week setting under Settings | Locale now applies to additional areas of Work Center including the Calendar view date picker, the On Date setting for scheduled reports, the Start date and End date for a backlog, and the Time Period date picker in Change History reports.
    • The Search page now persists if a user opens the Search page and then switches application contexts.
    • Users can now move multiple links or folders at once using the Bulk Update feature.
    • The mention feature has been enhanced. Now, in fields with rich text enabled, users can start typing a user name after the @ symbol, and a list of users appears. After a user is selected, the user's name will appear as a link in the state form, and will open the contact card when clicked. The @ symbol and login ID text are hidden, but a user mention notification is still triggered. For more information on the mention feature, see the SBM Work Center Guide and SBM Application Administrator Guide or online help.

Administrator Changes

SBM Application Administrator Changes

  • Project Service Level Agreement (SLA) Enhancements
    • The standard SBM notification engine is now used for SLA notifications. The notification UI is displayed when you define an SLA action, and includes most of the standard options available. If you are upgrading and have existing SLAs, you can switch to the SBM notification engine by removing the current SLA notification rules and then re-adding them.
    • You can now designate "(Current User)" in an SLA notification rule. This triggers a notification to the owner of an item when that item is at risk or in violation of the SLA.
    • The SLA Items Panel has been moved to Application Administrator in Work Center Settings, and is now available for both on-premise and on-demand users with the Manage SLA Items system privilege.
    • The SLA widget now displays "No SLA Status" when an SLA item is marked as an exception. In previous releases, the widget was empty.
  • Access Type of Logged in User Displayed in UI

    The access type (Regular User or Managed Administrator) of the logged in user is now displayed next to the user's name in the upper right corner of Application Administrator.

  • New Runtime Statistics Reports

    The following reports have been added to the Reports Graph tab under Runtime Statistics. These new reports enable administrators to view the most popular reports for a specified application or user.

    • Most active reports for application by run count – Displays the most popular reports for an application in terms of run count in the specified time period.
    • Most active reports for application by report duration – Displays the most popular reports for an application in terms of total report duration in the specified time period.
    • Most active reports for user by run count – Displays the most popular reports for a user in terms of run count in the specified time period.
    • Most active reports for user by report duration – Displays the most popular reports for a user in terms of total report duration in the specified time period.
  • Localize Notification Names

    Administrators can now use the Localization page to export, translate, and import notification names. Translated names appear in the Subject line of a notification message according to the recipient's locale.

  • Replace data in Multi- type fields

    When you import data from a spreadsheet, you can now select this option to overwrite Multi-User, Multi-Group, Multi-Selection, and Multi-Relational fields instead of adding selections.

  • Use $FIELDVALUE() Notification tag in $MAILHEADERPARAM() tag

    You can now use the $FIELDVALUE() notification tag as a sub-tag to provide a Text or User field value to the $MAILHEADERPARAM() tag.

SBM Application Repository Changes

  • User Settings Promoted Automatically

    All user settings are now automatically promoted, including the user icon, the Restore Saved Form Data setting, the Notification Polling Interval, and the Start of the Week setting.

Installation and Configuration Changes

  • SSL Configuration Tab

    The Use secure connection option for SQL Server has been moved to a new SSL sub-tab on the Database Servers tab in SBM Configurator. The SSL tab is also available for configuring secure connections between SBM and PostgreSQL.

    If you select Use sample database, you can select Use secure connection and enter SSL configuration options for SQL Server or PostgreSQL.

  • Configuring SSO Protected Hosts

    For systems that use SSO to manage user sessions, you can now use SBM Configurator to define hosts that have SSO protected applications via the SSO Protected Hosts sub-tab under Authentication. This enables you to control which servers users can log in from.

    For new installations and upgrades, the Enable SSO redirection protection option is selected by default, with each of the known SBM component server host names listed. This means SSO will refuse to accept requests or redirect to hosts that are not in the list.

Orchestration Changes

  • Changes to renew -redeploy
    The following changes have been made to the Orchestration Engine renew utility:
    • When renew -redeploy is called, the Orchestration Engine tables (ODE and EM) are now truncated and the deployment directory is automatically cleaned up. This removes orchestrations and event maps that have been removed from existing applications and ensures that they will no longer consume system resources after the next Tomcat restart.
      Important: If you are upgrading SBM, it is recommended that you run renew -redeploy after the upgrade is finished. This automatically undeploys any orchestrations that have been removed from your process apps. This can free resources on disk and in memory for retired orchestrations that have been left over from previous SBM versions.

      After you run renew -redeploy, restart SBM Tomcat on the Orchestration Engine server (and on all nodes in an Orchestration Engine cluster).

    • The renew -redeploy command now includes the renew -eventmap option by default.
    • You can optionally now use renew -orchestrationsOnly to exclude the event map on deployment.
  • Removal of renew -clear

    With the changes that were made to renew -redeploy, the renew -clear command is no longer used. This means the clear.bat file has been removed from the installDir\SBM\Common\Misc\renew\renew_templates directory.

  • Gzip Events

    SBM can now accept compressed events that are sent in Gzip format.

Web Services Changes

  • FetchRequiredFields

    You can now include the FetchRequiredFields option in the GetAvailableSubmitTransitions call to return a list of required fields that must be completed in a Submit transition in order to successfully submit an item.

  • PostProjectInternalName

    You can now use the PostProjectInternalName option in the extendedData element of the TransitionItem call to override the destination project for a Post transition.

Miscellaneous Changes

  • SBM ModScript Changes

    The following improvements have been made to SBM ModScript:

    • New methods to use when the default submit transition is not the desired transition:

      • ProjectBasedRecord.StartSubmitToProjectUsingTransition
      • ProjectBasedRecord.FinishSubmitToProjectUsingTransition
      • ProjectBasedRecord.QuickSubmitToProjectUsingTransition

    • Constructors, operators, and methods have been added to TimePoint.

    • Moved VarRecord.GetFieldValueString() and like methods to AppRecord.

    • Variant no longer interacts with "long", migrate to int or int64_t.

    • Added documentation for the Map, Pair, Range, String, and Vector classes.

    • Added the following member functions to the string class:
      • reserve()
      • replace()
      • replaceAll()
      • replaceFirst()
      • replaceFirst()
      • replaceLast()
      • truncate()
      • ltrim_self()
      • rtrim_self()
      • trim_self()
      • reverse_self()
      • toUpperASCII()
      • toLowerASCII()
      • toUpper()
      • toLower()
      • left()
      • mid()
      • right()

Upgrades from 11.X

Review this section for upgrades to SBM 11.6 from earlier versions in the 11.x line.

To test the upgrade, mimic your current installation on a separate set of servers. This test installation should include all of the environments used by your system. Upgrade and test this installation before upgrading your production installation. To upgrade successfully, you must upgrade each server and client machine to SBM 11.6.

Requirements and Changes

Before you upgrade to SBM 11.6, read the following important information:

  • SBM 11.6 requires License Manager 2.3. You must upgrade to version 2.3 before you can upgrade to SBM 11.6.
  • As of SBM 11.5, the SBM User Workspace interface has been removed. This means end-users now work with items exclusively in SBM Work Center. Note that users do not need to change any bookmarks or favorite URLs; all requests sent to http://serverName/tmtrack/tmtrack.dll? are automatically directed to the SBM Work Center shell.

  • The HTML5 Support option in Application Administrator is now automatically selected on upgrade. This means if you were not using HTML5 features in SBM prior to the upgrade, they will be available to your users by default after the upgrade is finished. For details on HTML5 features in SBM, see the SBM Application Administrator Guide.

    If you need to disable HTML5 support, edit the Work Center Settings in Application Administrator and clear the Enable HTML5 Features check box. However, note that disabling HTML5 is not recommended, as future enhancements and non-critical fixes will be focused on SBM with HTML5 enabled.

  • If you have defined custom authenticators and identity transformers for SBM in the configuration.xml file, each entry is preserved after upgrade and should appear in SBM Configurator as long as they are defined in the correct section of the configuration.xml file. If you have mistakenly placed authenticators outside of the correct sections in this file, your custom authentication settings will not be preserved. Therefore as a precaution, if you have defined custom authenticators, back up your current configuration.xml file before you perform the upgrade. You can refer to this file to rebuild your custom authenticators in SBM Configurator after the upgrade is finished if necessary.
  • If you used HTTP Basic Authentication to manage user sessions prior to the upgrade, SBM Configurator automatically converts this to SSO once the upgrade is finished. The HTTP Basic Authentication option has been deprecated and is no longer available in SBM Configurator because there are more secure options for managing user sessions.

    Electronic signatures are now authenticated according to what is selected for Web services authentication in SBM Configurator if you are using Windows Authentication or Third-Party Authentication System for Browser authentication. Prior to 11.1, electronic signatures were always authenticated against the internal SBM database.

    If you need assistance with re-enabling legacy behavior for either setting, please contact Support.

  • In order to prevent notifications from being sent for changes that have not happened recently, SBM now deletes notification events that are older than 90 days that contain a THREADID during the database upgrade. To check if you have events that will be deleted, refer to the SQL queries in solution S140945.
  • Work Center search operates on pre-built indices that may change for each SBM release. The Work Center search index is rebuilt when Tomcat is started for the first time after the upgrade. The complete indexing operation can take ample time to finish for very large databases; however, some search results in Work Center begin to appear immediately and the number of results continues to grow while the initial indexing operation works toward completion.

    You can view the overall progress of the indexing operation in the ssf.log file located on the server that hosts SBM Common Services. The log file is located here:

    installDir\SBM\Common\tomcat\server\default\logs
  • For SQL Server systems, ensure that SQL Server Replication is not enabled. If replication is enabled, the upgrade process fails with an error: Cannot drop the table 'TS_XXXX' because it is being used for replication.
  • For Oracle systems, note the following:
    • You must ensure that the required roles and privileges for the SBM schema user are up-to-date. Refer to solution S133641 for details.
    • You must perform the database upgrade using either the SBM DSN or a system DSN that uses the "Oracle for SBM" driver. If your system used the Mashup2009 DSN prior to the upgrade, that DSN is automatically converted to use the new "Oracle for SBM" driver.

Planning for the Upgrade

The upgrade process you will follow depends on the type of installation you currently have:

  • Single Server Installation – All of the SBM components are installed on a single server.

    For single server installations, you will run the suite installer on your server and then upgrade the databases using SBM Configurator.

  • Distributed Installation – The SBM components are installed on multiple servers that comprise a single production environment.

    For distributed installations, you will run the suite installer on each server, and then use SBM Configurator to upgrade the databases.

  • Multi-environment installation – The SBM components are installed on single or multiple servers that are separated into multiple SBM environments (such as development, test, and production).

    The process for upgrading multiple environments (used in a path to production model) depends on which environment hosts SBM Application Repository and which environment you plan to upgrade first (Test/Staging first or Production first).

    • If SBM Application Repository is part of the Test environment and you plan to upgrade Test first

      In this setup, each environment uses a single instance of Application Repository that is installed in the Test environment. You will upgrade the Application Engine and Orchestration Engine databases in the Test environment first. After the upgrade in Test is finished, you will not be able to deploy to Production from Application Repository until you upgrade the Production servers and databases.

    • If SBM Application Repository is part of the Production environment and you plan to upgrade Test first

      In this setup, each environment uses a single instance of Application Repository that is installed in the Production environment. You will upgrade the Application Engine and Orchestration Engine databases in the Test environment first. After the upgrade in Test is finished, you will not be able to deploy to Test from Application Repository until you upgrade the Production servers and databases.

    • If SBM Application Repository is part of either Production OR Test and you plan to upgrade all environments at the same time

      If you plan to upgrade all environments at the same time (one immediately after the other), upgrade the instance that hosts Application Repository first (likely Production). This will allow you to upgrade the other environments that do not have SBM Application Repository without installing a temporary instance.

Pre-Upgrade Steps

Follow these steps before you perform the upgrade.

  1. Verify that SBM 11.X or later is installed on the System Information tab in SBM Configurator.
  2. Back up your existing databases.
  3. Back up the SBM installation directory structure on the Application Engine server.
  4. Back up the Smart Search index directory on the SBM Common Services server. If you need to revert the upgrade for any reason, you will restore the index from this backup (because the index is rebuilt as part of the upgrade).
  5. Consider consulting with your DBA to assess the current table indexes in the SBM databases. Because significant database schema changes do not necessarily coincide with each database upgrade, table indexes are not automatically rebuilt as part of the upgrade process. Over time, indexes can report excessive fragmentation, which could negatively impact performance if they are not rebuilt periodically.
  6. Create a new database space in your DBMS to host the Configuration Settings database if you did not create it in a prior release. As of SBM 10.1.5, you can use this database to store configuration settings across your entire SBM installation in one centralized location.
  7. Stop the IIS and SBM Tomcat services on each SBM server.
  8. Download the new suite and client installers from the Support and Services page.

Upgrading the Installation and Databases

Follow these steps to upgrade an SBM server.
  1. Extract the server installation files, and then launch the suite installer. An installer message prompts you to confirm that you are upgrading your system. Click Next to continue.
  2. The Ready to Upgrade dialog box appears. Click Upgrade Now to begin upgrading the server installation. At the end of the installation upgrade, click Configure to launch SBM Configurator.
    Note: If you are prompted to restart your server, SBM Configurator launches automatically once the server has restarted. If you decline, you will not be able to run SBM Configurator until the server has been restarted.
  3. Decide if you will use the Configuration Settings database if you have not done so already. If you have a distributed installation, it is highly recommended that you use the Configuration Settings database, because it enables you to easily synchronize configuration settings between each SBM server without requiring you to export and import configuration snapshot files.

    On the Database Servers tab, enter database connection information for the Configuration Settings database that you created as part of the pre-upgrade process.

  4. Verify your configuration settings, and then click Apply. SBM Configurator detects the current upgrade process and upgrades the file system by merging existing configurations from your previous installation into the new installation files.
    Important: You must click Apply to save these changes before you upgrade the database. Once the file system is upgraded, you can run SBM Configurator again anytime thereafter to verify or modify your configuration settings as needed.
  5. Open the Database Servers tab in SBM Configurator, and then click Upgrade Database.
    Tip: If any errors occur during the Application Engine database upgrade, review the upgrade log here: 
    installDir\SBM\Application Engine\log

    If an ORA-00904 message appears in the Application Engine upgrade log after you finish upgrading the Application Engine database, refer to solution S141358 for a description of the problem and a resolution.

    After the database is upgraded successfully, verify that the services are started in the Manage Services tab. Instruct Application Repository users to clear the cache in their Web browsers before they attempt to access SBM Application Repository.

  6. On each client machine, run the client installer. The client executable contains SBM Composer and is intended to be run only on client machines. Previous versions of SBM Composer are upgraded automatically and do not need to be uninstalled prior to upgrading. The new version is installed in the same location.

Post-Upgrade Tasks

Review the following information and make any necessary changes after you have upgraded your servers and databases:

  • SBM Configurator warns you if your installation currently uses default certificates (which should be replaced) or if your current certificates will expire soon.
    Important: To properly secure your installation, you must generate new key pairs even if you do not plan to use SSO. If you do not generate new key pairs, the default certificates that the STS inherently trusts are used. To increase security, launch SBM Configurator and generate new unique certificate for all components. For details, see "Securing SBM" in the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide.
  • HTML rendering and Rich Text editing is enabled by default for all notes in your system after the upgrade. To disable these features for notes, clear the Render HTML in Notes check box located on the HTML tab of the Settings dialog box in SBM System Administrator.
  • User credentials in SBM Application Engine Web service calls that use Basic authentication are now handled exclusively by SBM Application Engine itself, instead of IIS. This configuration is common if your SBM system is set up with NT Challenge Response for end-user authentication. After upgrade, this means that you must now specify the Windows domain for Web service calls in SBM Configurator, otherwise the domain that the IIS server machine is installed on is used for user validation.

  • The Require appended text option, available for Journal fields on the Attributes tab (field Property Editor) and the Field Overrides tab (workflow Property Editor) now works as intended. When the Required and Require appended text options are selected, users must append text to the field during a transition. When only Required is selected, users do not need to append text if there is an existing entry.

    In past releases, selecting only the Required option would require users to append text to an existing entry. Now, the Require appended text option must also be selected to require users to append text.

  • After the upgrade is finished, it is recommended that you run the redeploy.bat file located here: 
    installDir\SBM\Common\Misc\renew
    This automatically undeploys any orchestrations that have been removed from your process apps. This can free resources on disk and in memory for retired orchestrations that have been left over from previous SBM versions.

    After you run the .bat file, restart SBM Tomcat on the Orchestration Engine server (and on all nodes in an Orchestration Engine cluster).

Upgrading Customizations and Integrations

Review the following information for help with upgrading custom changes and integrations.

  • If you made custom modifications to any HTML templates, e-mail templates, or online help files, you must merge your changes into the newly-upgraded files, and then use SBM System Administrator to Put Files in Database. All templates and images in the database are replaced by files on your local machine as part of this operation. Backup templates are stored on the installDir\SBM\Application Engine server here:

    installDir\SBM\Application Engine\Backup<version>-<date>-<time>
  • If you configured your system to use anonymous events prior to the upgrade, you must either add credentials to your events (preferred) or you must select the Allow Anonymous Events check box in SBM Configurator and enter an SBM user name and password to use anonymous events after the upgrade.

Upgrades from 10.1.5.4

Review this section for upgrades to SBM 11.6 from 10.1.5.4.

To test the upgrade, mimic your current installation on a separate set of servers. This test installation should include all of the environments used by your system. Upgrade and test this installation before upgrading your production installation. To upgrade successfully, you must upgrade each server and client machine to SBM 11.6.

Requirements and Changes

Before you upgrade to SBM 11.6, read the following important information:

  • SBM 11.6 requires License Manager 2.3. You must upgrade to version 2.3 before you can upgrade to SBM 11.6.
  • As of SBM 11.5, the SBM User Workspace interface has been removed. This means end-users now work with items exclusively in SBM Work Center. Note that users do not need to change any bookmarks or favorite URLs; all requests sent to http://serverName/tmtrack/tmtrack.dll? are automatically directed to the SBM Work Center shell.
  • SBM 11.6 requires 64-bit Windows servers. If you are using 32-bit servers prior to the upgrade, you must install SBM 11.6 on one or more 64-bit machines, and then upgrade the databases using the 64-bit installation. As part of the upgrade, review and upgrade any scripts and APIs that were originally created on a 32-bit operating system to ensure that they also run on a 64-bit system. For example, if you have any scripts that load .dll files, those .dll files must be upgraded to run on a 64-bit machine.

  • The HTML5 Support option in Application Administrator is now automatically selected on upgrade. This means if you were not using HTML5 features in SBM prior to the upgrade, they will be available to your users by default after the upgrade is finished. For details on HTML5 features in SBM, see the SBM Application Administrator Guide.

    If you need to disable HTML5 support, edit the Work Center Settings in Application Administrator and clear the Enable HTML5 Features check box. However, note that disabling HTML5 is not recommended, as future enhancements and non-critical fixes will be focused on SBM with HTML5 enabled.

  • If you have defined custom authenticators and identity transformers for SBM in the configuration.xml file, each entry is preserved after upgrade and should appear in SBM Configurator as long as they are defined in the correct section of the configuration.xml file. If you have mistakenly placed authenticators outside of the correct sections in this file, your custom authentication settings will not be preserved. Therefore as a precaution, if you have defined custom authenticators, back up your current configuration.xml file before you perform the upgrade. You can refer to this file to rebuild your custom authenticators in SBM Configurator after the upgrade is finished if necessary.
  • If you used HTTP Basic Authentication to manage user sessions prior to the upgrade, SBM Configurator automatically converts this to SSO once the upgrade is finished. The HTTP Basic Authentication option has been deprecated and is no longer available in SBM Configurator because there are more secure options for managing user sessions.

    Electronic signatures are now authenticated according to what is selected for Web services authentication in SBM Configurator if you are using Windows Authentication or Third-Party Authentication System for Browser authentication. Prior to 11.1, electronic signatures were always authenticated against the internal SBM database.

    If you need assistance with re-enabling legacy behavior for either setting, please contact Support.

  • In order to prevent notifications from being sent for changes that have not happened recently, SBM now deletes notification events that are older than 90 days that contain a THREADID during the database upgrade. To check if you have events that will be deleted, refer to the SQL queries in solution S140945.
  • Work Center search operates on pre-built indices that may change for each SBM release. The Work Center search index is rebuilt when Tomcat is started for the first time after the upgrade. The complete indexing operation can take ample time to finish for very large databases; however, some search results in Work Center begin to appear immediately and the number of results continues to grow while the initial indexing operation works toward completion.

    You can view the overall progress of the indexing operation in the ssf.log file located on the server that hosts SBM Common Services. The log file is located here:

    installDir\SBM\Common\tomcat\server\default\logs
  • As part of the database upgrade and migration to the new ODE BPEL engine, data in the CL_CONTEXT_VALUE and CL_LOG tables is deleted. New indexes are added to the CL_CONTEXT_VALUE and CL_LOG tables on upgrade to prevent time outs from occurring when you try to view Common Log data in SBM Composer or SBM Application Repository. In order to add the new indexes, these tables will be emptied during the upgrade process.
    Important: If you need to view Common Log data that was present prior to the upgrade, ensure that you have backed up these tables.
  • For SQL Server systems, ensure that SQL Server Replication is not enabled. If replication is enabled, the upgrade process fails with an error: Cannot drop the table 'TS_XXXX' because it is being used for replication.
  • For Oracle systems, note the following:
    • You must ensure that the required roles and privileges for the SBM schema user are up-to-date. Refer to solution S133641 for details.
    • You must perform the database upgrade using either the SBM DSN or a system DSN that uses the "Oracle for SBM" driver. If your system used the Mashup2009 DSN prior to the upgrade, that DSN is automatically converted to use the new "Oracle for SBM" driver.
      Important: The underlying driver in the DSN that ships with SBM was changed in SBM in 10.1. If you currently use the Mashup2009 DSN with SBM, you do not need to do anything—the DSN will be updated automatically. If you created your own custom DSN with the "Oracle for SBM" driver prior to upgrading to SBM 10.1 or later, then you must recreate the DSN and use the new "Oracle for SBM" driver that ships with SBM after the upgrade is finished.

Planning for the Upgrade

The upgrade process you will follow depends on the type of installation you currently have:

  • Single Server Installation — All of the SBM components are installed on a single server.

    For single server installations, you will run the suite installer on your server and then upgrade the databases using SBM Configurator. The databases are upgraded in two phases—in phase one, the Application Engine database is upgraded; once it completes successfully, phase two begins. In phase two, you are prompted to enter the SBM user name and password of your primary system administrator or an SBM user that has the Remote Administration privilege to upgrade the Orchestration Engine database.

  • Distributed Installation — The SBM components are installed on multiple servers that comprise a single production environment.

    For distributed installations, you will run the suite installer on each server, and then use SBM Configurator to upgrade the databases. When you begin the Orchestration Engine database upgrade on the server that hosts SBM Orchestration Engine, you are prompted to enter the SBM user name and password of your primary system administrator or an SBM user that has the Remote Administration privilege. This scenario requires that you start the SBM services and that you perform the database upgrades in a certain order. This is explained in more detail below in Upgrading the Databases.

  • Multi-environment installation — The SBM components are installed on single or multiple servers that are separated into multiple SBM environments (such as development, test, and production).

    The process for upgrading multiple environments (used in a path to production model) depends on which environment hosts SBM Application Repository and which environment you plan to upgrade first (Test/Staging first or Production first).

    • If SBM Application Repository is part of the Test environment and you plan to upgrade Test first

      In this setup, each environment uses a single instance of Application Repository that is installed in the Test environment. You will upgrade the Application Engine and Orchestration Engine databases in the Test environment first. After the upgrade in Test is finished, you will not be able to deploy to Production from Application Repository until you upgrade the Production servers and databases.

    • If SBM Application Repository is part of the Production environment and you plan to upgrade Test first

      In this setup, each environment uses a single instance of Application Repository that is installed in the Production environment. You will upgrade the Application Engine and Orchestration Engine databases in the Test environment first. After the upgrade in Test is finished, you will not be able to deploy to Test from Application Repository until you upgrade the Production servers and databases.

    • If SBM Application Repository is part of either Production OR Test and you plan to upgrade all environments at the same time

      If you plan to upgrade all environments at the same time (one immediately after the other), upgrade the instance that hosts Application Repository first (likely Production). This will allow you to upgrade the other environments that do not have SBM Application Repository without installing a temporary instance.

    For information about warnings that may appear during a multi-environment upgrade, see "Handling Warnings with Multiple Environments" in S141802.

Tip: In any of these scenarios, if you plan to test the upgrade first by making a copy of the production database and installing SBM 11.6 on a test machine, the upgrade process will report failures related to your environment definition in Application Repository. You can either update the endpoint and target server information in SBM Application Repository and click Retry Upgrade in SBM Configurator or click Clear Warnings to proceed without making the changes to finish the upgrade.

If you are upgrading from a release prior to 10.1.2, use SBM Configurator to designate which server will host the SBM Logging Services component. By default, SBM Logging Services appears on an undefined server until you drag and drop it to the desired server. If you are upgrading from a release after 10.1.2, SBM Logging Services is enabled on the same machine as SBM Common Services by default. You can use SBM Configurator to move it to a dedicated server, if necessary (for example, if you set the logging level to TRACE for debugging purposes).

Pre-Upgrade Steps

Follow these steps before you perform the upgrade.

  1. Verify that SBM 10.1.5.4 or later is installed on the System Information tab in SBM Configurator.
  2. Back up your existing databases.
  3. Back up the SBM installation directory structure on the Application Engine server.
  4. Back up the Smart Search index directory on the SBM Common Services server. If you need to revert the upgrade for any reason, you will restore the index from this backup (because the index is rebuilt as part of the upgrade).
  5. Consider consulting with your DBA to assess the current table indexes in the SBM databases. Because significant database schema changes do not necessarily coincide with each database upgrade, table indexes are not automatically rebuilt as part of the upgrade process. Over time, indexes can report excessive fragmentation, which could negatively impact performance if they are not rebuilt periodically.
  6. If you store SBM item attachments on the file system, open SBM System Administrator and note the location of the attachments directory. You will enter the location in SBM Configurator later as part of the upgrade.
  7. Create a new database space in your DBMS to host the Configuration Settings database if you did not create it in a prior release. As of SBM 10.1.5, you can use this database to store configuration settings across your entire SBM installation in one centralized location.
  8. Stop the IIS and SBM Tomcat services on each SBM server.
  9. Download the new suite and client installers from https://www.microfocus.com/support-and-services/#SBM.

Upgrading the Installation

Follow these steps to upgrade an SBM server.
  1. Extract the server installation files, and then launch the suite installer. An installer message prompts you to confirm that you are upgrading your system. Click Next to continue.
  2. The Ready to Upgrade dialog box appears. Click Upgrade Now to begin upgrading the server installation. At the end of the installation upgrade, click Configure to launch SBM Configurator.
    Note: If you are prompted to restart your server, SBM Configurator launches automatically once the server has restarted. If you decline, you will not be able to run SBM Configurator until the server has been restarted.
  3. Decide if you will use the Configuration Settings database if you have not done so already. If you have a distributed installation, it is highly recommended that you use the Configuration Settings database, because it enables you to easily synchronize configuration settings between each SBM server without requiring you to export and import configuration snapshot files.

    On the Database Servers tab, enter database connection information for the Configuration Settings database that you created as part of the pre-upgrade process.

  4. Verify your configuration settings, and then click Apply. SBM Configurator detects the current upgrade process and upgrades the file system by merging existing configurations from your previous installation into the new installation files.
    Important: You must click Apply to save these changes before you upgrade the Application Engine and Orchestration Engine databases. Once the file system is upgraded, you can run SBM Configurator again anytime thereafter to verify or modify your configuration settings as needed.
  5. On each client machine, run the client installer. The client executable contains SBM Composer and is intended to be run only on client machines. Previous versions of SBM Composer are upgraded automatically and do not need to be uninstalled prior to upgrading. The new version is installed in the same location.

Upgrading the Databases

The database upgrade process occurs in two phases. Review the following important information before you begin.

  • The Orchestration Engine database upgrade is no longer automatically performed after you start the SBM services; instead, you must manually invoke the upgrade process by clicking the Upgrade Database link in SBM Configurator. This ensures that the Orchestration Engine database is not upgraded prematurely.
  • If SBM Application Engine and SBM Orchestration Engine are installed on the same server, the Orchestration Engine database upgrade is performed immediately after the Application Engine database upgrade.
  • If SBM Application Engine and SBM Orchestration Engine are installed on separate servers:
    • You must ensure that IIS is started on the SBM Application Engine server and SBM Tomcat is started on each of the other SBM servers. Both IIS and SBM Tomcat must be running and all components must be accessible from the SBM Orchestration Engine server before the Orchestration Engine database upgrade begins.
    • You must upgrade the Application Engine database on the SBM Application Engine server first, and then upgrade the Orchestration Engine database on the SBM Orchestration Engine server.
  • The Orchestration Engine database upgrade is performed by the renew utility using the user account that you specify when prompted. For details on this process and more information related to the Orchestration Engine database upgrade, refer to S141802.

When you are ready, open the Database Servers tab in SBM Configurator, and then click Upgrade Database.

Tip: If any errors occur during the Application Engine database upgrade, review the upgrade log here: 
installDir\SBM\Application Engine\log

If an ORA-00904 message appears in the Application Engine upgrade log after you finish upgrading the Application Engine database, refer to solution S141358 for a description of the problem and a resolution.

After the databases are upgraded successfully, verify that the services are started in the Manage Services tab. Instruct Application Repository users to clear the cache in their Web browsers before they attempt to access SBM Application Repository.

Post-Upgrade Tasks

Review the following information and make any necessary changes after you have upgraded your servers and databases:

  • SBM Configurator warns you if your installation currently uses default certificates (which should be replaced) or if your current certificates will expire soon.
    Important: To properly secure your installation, you must generate new key pairs even if you do not plan to use SSO. If you do not generate new key pairs, then the default certificates that the STS inherently trusts are used. To increase security, launch SBM Configurator and generate new unique certificate for all components. For details, see "Securing SBM" in the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide.
  • If you store SBM item attachments on the file system, enter the location of the attachments directory on the Common Services tab. This enables SBM Common Services to return attachments in Work Center search results. If you store attachments in the database, skip this step.
  • HTML rendering and Rich Text editing is enabled by default for all notes in your system after the upgrade. To disable these features for notes, clear the Render HTML in Notes check box located on the HTML tab of the Settings dialog box in SBM System Administrator.
  • As part of the upgrade, SBM reviews the existing JBoss configuration and allocates the same amount of memory to Tomcat that was previously allocated to JBoss. After the upgrade, if you need to adjust the amount of memory that is allocated to Tomcat, perform the following steps:
    1. Stop the SBM Tomcat service.
    2. Navigate to installDir\SBM\Common\tomcat\bin, and edit the common_config.bat file.
    3. Change the JVM_X_MAXMEMSIZE value as necessary.
    4. In the same \bin directory, execute the update_tomcat_config.bat file.
    5. Start the SBM Tomcat service.
  • After the database upgrades are finished, use the Reset Administrative User Access wizard in SBM System Administrator if your database does not contain at least one Regular User or Managed Administrator account with Remote Administration privilege. This wizard enables you to define at least one user as your primary system administrator (an account that has Regular User or Managed Administrator product access with Remote Administration privilege) who can log in to SBM Application Administrator. For details, see the SBM System Administrator Guide.
  • User credentials in SBM Application Engine Web service calls that use Basic authentication are now handled exclusively by SBM Application Engine itself, instead of IIS. This configuration is common if your SBM system is set up with NT Challenge Response for end-user authentication. After upgrade, this means that you must now specify the Windows domain for Web service calls in SBM Configurator, otherwise the domain that the IIS server machine is installed on is used for user validation.

  • The Require appended text option, available for Journal fields on the Attributes tab (field Property Editor) and the Field Overrides tab (workflow Property Editor) now works as intended. When the Required and Require appended text options are selected, users must append text to the field during a transition. When only Required is selected, users do not need to append text if there is an existing entry.

    In past releases, selecting only the Required option would require users to append text to an existing entry. Now, the Require appended text option must also be selected to require users to append text.

Upgrading Customizations and Integrations

Review the following information for help with upgrading custom changes and integrations.

  • If you made custom modifications to any HTML templates, e-mail templates, or online help files, you must merge your changes into the newly-upgraded files, and then use SBM System Administrator to Put Files in Database. All templates and images in the database are replaced by files on your local machine as part of this operation. Backup templates are stored on the installDir\SBM\Application Engine server here:

    installDir\SBM\Application Engine\Backup<version>-<date>-<time>

    If you used custom HTML templates in your reports, the reports might not display properly after upgrade. Consider using the default template or modifying it as needed instead. For example, as of SBM 10.1.2, several changes were made to Summary Reports that might not display properly using a custom template from a prior release. Instead, either use the new default template or merge your changes into the default template to create a new custom template.

  • In SBM 10.1.2, the SSO Login Application (Federation Server) was merged with the SSO Security Token Service (STS) into a single SSO Security Server (also known as the Identity Provider (IDP)). This means that the ALFSSOLogin.war and TokenService.war directories were merged and replaced with a new idp directory on the SSO server.

    If you are upgrading from a release prior to 10.1.2 and you have created custom SSO integrations, you must review all URLs and calls to ensure that they use the latest directory names. For example, if your existing integrations call the Security Token Service (STS), you must ensure that the new idp directory is used.

    The endpoints of the SSO services must be changed accordingly. The relative URIs will stay the same, but since the application is new, the login application entry point will be http(s)://host[:port]/idp/login. For the STS, it will be: http(s)://host[:port]/idp/services/Trust.

  • If you configured your system to use anonymous events prior to the upgrade, you must either add credentials to your events (preferred) or you must select the Allow Anonymous Events check box in SBM Configurator and enter an SBM user name and password to use anonymous events after the upgrade.

Fixed Issues

A list of defects fixed in this version can be found in the Knowledge Base. You must have a user account to view items in the Knowledge Base. Register for a free account if you do not have already have one.

Known Issues

This section describes known issues and contains the following categories:

For a complete list of known issues and potential workarounds, refer to the Knowledge Base. You must have a user account to view items in the Knowledge Base. Register for a free account if you do not have already have one.

Administrator Issues

SBM Application Repository Issues

  • The following issue is only applicable if you had previously upgraded to 10.1 or 10.1.1.1. If you did not use either version prior to upgrading, then you can ignore this information.

    Values in promotion profiles that were created in 10.1 or 10.1.1.1 were set to All by default. Starting with 10.1.1.2, entities for new items (items added to a process app since the profile was created) will be set to None by default.

    In addition:
    • Profiles created prior to 10.1 that had entities set to None may have been incorrectly using All. These entities will be set back to None.
    • Profiles created in 10.1 or 10.1.1.1 that had entities set to the default All may also be set to None. These entities must be manually corrected.
    In general, it is recommended that you review your promotion profiles and adjust the settings accordingly.

Documentation Issues

  • The help that is included with SBM Configurator does not contain the latest updates for configuring ChatOps. For updated help with configuring ChatOps in SBM, see the SBM Configurator help or the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide on the Documentation Center.

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