Contents

• 1.0 What's New
• 2.0 Software Compatibility Requirements
• 3.0 Installation Considerations
• 4.0 Upgrade Considerations
• 5.0 Known Issues

1.1 What's New in Serena Release Manager 4.0

Serena® Release Manager is the orchestrated solution for application release management that enables you to plan, manage, and automate the deployment of applications into test, pre-production, and production environments with one-click deploy, start-to-finish traceability, and end-to-end visibility.

1.2 Features

Features of Serena Release Manager include the following:

• Simplified release control
• Integration of Serena Release Control, Release Vault, and Release Automation
• Visual calendar views
• Integration with the Serena Orchestrated ALM set of solutions

Serena ALM 4.0 provides a powerful, user-friendly, role-based user experience for Release Manager, Requirements Manager, Development Manager, and Dashboard. It includes:

• Foundational building blocks for custom extensions and future ALM releases
• A common architectural approach and implementation for all ALM suites
• A single installer with a simplified user experience

New features of Serena Release Manager 4.0 include the following:

• Definitive Media Library Support
• Introduce deliverables into the release vault from Serena and non-Serena products
• Identify already-validated deliverables, such as vendor software, as definitive media
• Automatically flag deliverables as definitive media when they have passed a benchmark testing stage, such as user acceptance
• Scheduled Deployment
• Enable scheduling deployment tasks at a given date and time
• Extended Serena Release Automation

For details of supported versions of the products in the Serena Release Manager suite, supported platforms, and third party integrations, see the Serena Release Plan on the Serena Customer Support website on the product roadmap under Supported Platforms.

To get to this information from the Serena Support website main roadmap page, select Release Manager and then select your version.

You should plan your installation and configuration according to the detailed documentation provided with each product in the Serena Release Manager suite. The documentation provided with Serena Release Manager guides you through the process.

To take advantage of the new Vault Request and Vault Template functionality, you must use Dimensions CM 12.2.1.1. The patch for Dimensions CM 12.2.1.1 is available on the Serena Customer Support Knowledgebase in Patch P2682.

3.1 Licensing

Use the following methods to apply licenses for the Serena Release Manager suite of products.

• Serena Release Control: Use Serena License Manager.
• Dimensions CM: Use Serena License Manager.
• Serena Release Automation: Obtain a license from Serena Support. See the Serena Release Automation User's Guide.
• Serena Release Automation, Powered by Nolio: Obtain a license from Serena Support. See the Serena Release Automation (Nolio) Installation and Administration Guide.

3.2 System Requirements

The system requirements for successful installation and execution of Serena Release Manager depend on your organization's usage requirements. You should determine your organization’s specific needs using the detailed documentation for SBM, Dimensions CM, and Serena Release Automation. For more details, see the Serena Release Manager Installation and Configuration Guide.

3.2.1 Server Considerations

For optimal performance, Serena recommends that SBM and Dimensions CM be installed on separate physical servers.

The upgrade from Serena Release Manager version 3.5 to version 4.0 is a manual process as documented in the Serena Release Manager Installation and Configuration Guide in "Serena Release Manager Upgrade".

Configuration Differences

The primary configuration differences between versions 3.5 and 4.0 are as follows:

• The following new configuration files in the classes directory store the table values for Serena Release Automation:
• ra-client.properties
• ra-client-connection.properties
• The following user ID and password information has been added in the dm-client-connection.properties file:
• DIM_SERVICEUSER = serviceuser
• DIM_SERVICEUSERPASSWORD = serviceuserpassword
• The following information has changed in the dm_qlarius.properties file to more accurately represent its purpose:

Old	New
requests.provider.name = DIM_QLARIUS deploy.units.provider.name = DIM_QLARIUS deploy.units.provider.description = Dimensions Deployment Unit Provider for QLARIUS product FILTER_DEPLOY_UNITS_BY_STATUSES = VERIFIED,DEPLOYED,CAPTURE	requests.provider.name = DCR_QLARIUS vault.provider.name = DIM_QLARIUS vault.provider.description = Dimensions Vault Provider for QLARIUS product FILTER_VAULT_BASELINES_BY_STATUSES = CREATED VAULT_TARGET_PRODUCT = VAULT VAULT_TARGET_PROJECT = VAULT:V_RLM_PROJECT VALT_DML_STAGE = LIVE

• The zmf_packages.properties file is now named rlmzmf_packages.properties file to distinguish the Release Manager (RLM) ZMF package information from the similar Development Manager (DVM) ZMF package information.
• The following information has been changed in rlmzmf_packages.properties to more accurately represent its purpose and to distinguish the RLM ZMF package information from the similar DVM ZMF package information.

Old	New
deploy.units.provider.name = ZMF_PACKAGES deploy.units.provider.description = ChangeMan Deployment Unit Provider for ZMF packages RELATE_DU_ITEMID_TO_ZMF_PACKAGE_WORKREQNO = Y RELATE_RP_PROD_DEPLOY_DATE_TO_ZMF_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DATE = Y	vault.rlm.baseline.provider.name = RLMZMF_PACKAGES vault.rlm.baseline.provider.description = ChangeMan ZMF packageS Vault Baseline Provider for RLM RELATE_RLM_DU_ITEMID_TO_ZMF_PACKAGE_WORKREQNO = Y RELATE_RLM_RP_PROD_DEPLOY_DATE_TO_ZMF_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DATE = Y

Solutions are available for known issues in the Serena Customer Support Knowledgebase. These solutions provide details about the issue and list associated fixes as they become available. Generally available fixes can be downloaded from the solution page online.

Issues known to exist in Serena Release Manager 4.0 are as follows:

1. If you are using Internet Explorer 8 as your Web browser, you must select Compatibility View in the IE Tools menu. Otherwise, some user interface elements, such as the Gantt view of the release train calendar, may not be displayed properly.
2. If you are using the Firefox version 13 Web browser, you cannot manually enter sequence numbers when trying to re-order a list of deployment tasks. (DEF221479)
3. You cannot log out of the ALM Configurator once logged in through SSO. To resolve this issue, you must clear your Web browser cache. (DEF216580)
4. If you navigate to the ALM Configurator while logged into Serena ALM, and the user you are currently logged in as does not have permission to use ALM Configurator, you will receive an Axis2 error. To log onto the ALM Configurator, you must log out of the Serena ALM user interface, and then log into the ALM Configurator with an authorized user ID. (DEF222075)
5. If the ALM Configurator cannot save information to one of the configuration files, there is no obvious feedback. If you do not receive a successful message after saving, you should verify that your changes were made in the configuration files. (DEF222109)
6. If you attempt to save ChangeMan ZMF deployment tasks in deployment process templates, the forms are incomplete. You must create ChangeMan ZMF deployment tasks from release packages only. (DEF220545)
7. If you are using SBM as a DCR provider for a release package, the RLM administrative user ID must have access to Dimensions CM as well as to SBM or Release Manager will not display SBM projects. (DEF225157)
8. You cannot log into the Serena ALM Configurator if your system has an expired SSO certificate. If you receive an error similar to "ALF SSO Gatekeeper error", you must reset the expired certificate as documented in Serena Release Manager Installation and Configuration, "Troubleshooting". (DEF224185)
9. For the SSM integration, the release train workflow does not pass the Implementer value to the SSM Change Request workflow. The workaround is to set the Implementer value in a transition override for these transitions, preferably to the same user ID specified in the itsm.connection.properties file. (DEF222088)
10. If you are using Internet Explorer as your Web browser, in vault requests and vault templates, filters added in the Options tab are not saved. (DEF226349)
11. Documentation Issue: In the Serena Release Manager Installation and Configuration Guide, in "Configuring Release Automation Communication in Release Manager", the parameter value entries should be corrected as follows. In the ra-client.properties file, values for parameters ra.server.postDeployUrl and ra.server.childStatusPutUrl should be the URL to the server where the Serena ALM Web services are running. The URL must be the full server name; localhost is an invalid value. (DEF231868)

12. Documentation Issue: In the Serena Release Manager Installation and Configuration Guide, in "Configuring Access to the Configurator", Step 3, use rlm.config.service.authdUsers instead of alm.config.service.authdUsers. (DOC232952)