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Deprecated Features

Serena announces End of Development for Dimensions Connect for Remedy. Customers who still need to use this product should continue to use Dimensions CM 2009 R2.

With Serena's orchestrated ALM strategy, Serena intends to deliver comparable and better ALM - ITSM integration through an orchestrated SBM solution within 12 months.

Installing this Release

For information about installing this release please refer to the following documentation:

• Serena Dimensions CM 12.1 Installation Guide for Windows
• Serena Dimensions CM 12.1 Installation Guide for UNIX

Upgrading Previous Dimensions CM Installations

If you have installed and are using Dimensions CM 10.1.3, 2009 R1, R1.01, or R2, you should run the Dimensions CM 12.1 installer to upgrade to this release. The Dimensions CM 12.1 installer will upgrade these existing Dimensions CM installations.

Checking the Presence of the UNIX "uncompress" Utility

Certain Dimensions CM for UNIX installation activities rely on the UNIX uncompress utility and this must be present on the UNIX machine. Most UNIX machines will have this installed as standard, and its presence can be checked with commands such as:

$ which uncompress, $ uncompress -h

If your UNIX machine does not have uncompress installed, your system administrator will need to install it before you can proceed with the installation of Dimensions CM for UNIX.

Upgrading Dimensions Connect for Business Manager (SBM)

You must install the Dimensions Connect for SBM integration code whenever you upgrade the Dimensions server to a new version. For example, if you upgrade the Dimensions server to a new version such as 12.1, you must install the 12.1 version of Dimensions Connect for SBM as well. If you do not, the integration may not work as expect with supported versions of SBM. For more on installing and using Dimensions Connect for SBM, please see the Dimensions CM Connect for Serena Business Manager User's Guide.

Server Memory Requirements

The following memory is required for a server installation:

• Minimum: 1 GB
• Recommended: 3 GB

Roles Required for SQL Server 2008

Before installing Dimensions Server, the following SQL Server roles need to be allocated to the user running the install against SQL Server 2008:

• public
• sysadmin

Due to enhanced security on SQL 2008, this will also have to be done for local administrator accounts as there is no longer a BUILTIN\Administrators Login to automatically give you administrative rights on SQL Server.

Shut Down Tomcat Before a Server Upgrade

Serena Software recommends that the Serena Common Tomcat should be explicitly shut down before commencing any Dimensions software upgrade. Unfortunately, the upgrade installer is not able to automate this, so the person doing the upgrade must do it manually. If this is not done, then the Web archive (.war) files used by the upgraded Dimensions CM Web tools may not expand correctly, causing missing files in these tools.

Stopping Dimensions on Windows

When you stop the Dimensions Service on windows, the dmschedule and dmemail processes may continue to run for a period after the other processes have exited. You should ensure that these processes have actually terminated before performing an upgrade or patch installation.

Closing the Microsoft Management Console

On Windows platforms, it is recommended that you make sure that the Microsoft Management Console (i.e. Services, Computer Management, etc.) is closed before starting an installation or upgrade. (This is the option accessed from the Windows Control Panel, or on certain versions of Windows is part of the Control Panel Administrative Tools option.)

Delay After Starting the Installer

On first starting the installation, there may be a delay of up to a minute before the first dialog appears. It may take some time for the installer to process various files in between the appearance of installer screens during the upgrade process.

Unable to Connect to Database

If during the installation, you receive an error message stating that Dimensions CM is unable to connect to the database, but it does not inform you of the reason, check the following:

• Ensure that you have entered the correct database password, and Oracle DSN if applicable.
• Ensure that the locally or remotely located RDBMS database used by Dimensions CM is active ("up") by establishing that it is running, or that you can connect to it, for example using standard RDBMS database utilities, such as sqlplus.

For more details, see the section Pre-Installation Tasks and Considerations for your platform in the Installation Guide.

Windows Oracle Installation on Servers with SQL Server

If you are installing this version with SQL Server on Windows, and Oracle was installed on the system at the time of the original Dimensions installation, you will need to remove a registry key before running the installation. To do so, run regedit and remove the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Serena\Dimensions\10.x\Install\INSTALL_OracleSid

Note: Make sure that you back up your registry before making any changes using via Registry | Export Registry File.

Oracle DBA User

It is no longer necessary to use the Oracle SYSTEM user. The installer will prompt the user to enter the Oracle DBA user, which no longer has to be the default value of SYSTEM.

In addition, the following commands no longer require DBA privileges: CRDB, DELV, DLDB, EXPM, GRTV, INCR, INSV, LSGV and REKV

Installation Fails if There is no C: Drive (Windows)

The Dimensions CM Windows installer will fail before loading the first window in the install wizard if there is no C: drive on the machine. To work around this problem use the subst command to create a virtual C: drive.

Registry Keys not Deleted During Uninstallation (Windows)

Some Dimensions CM installation-specific information is retained in the registry for reuse on subsequent installations. If you have removed all Dimensions CM products from your system, you may also wish to remove this registry information. To do so, backup your Windows registry, run regedit, and remove the following key and its contents:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Serena\Dimensions\10.x

UNIX Installer Sometimes Displays Certain Letters in Passwords

The UNIX installer sometimes displays certain letters in passwords. Typically, only one letter is visible. This is a known InstallShield issue. This only affects the on-screen display of passwords during installation. Passwords will not be stored in clear text as a result of the installation.

Checking that the Installation Has Completed

On Windows platforms there is a small possibility that the installation may not in fact have worked even though the installation has appeared to complete successfully. It is recommended that you check that the expected software is listed in the Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs window following the installation. Select the entry (such as Serena Dimensions CM Server) and click on the 'Click here for support information' link to check the version number. 

Error Messages when Uninstalling UNIX Client

If you are uninstalling the UNIX 12.1 client from a directory beneath the root directory of the installation that you are uninstalling, you may receive some spurious messages, such as:

/opt/serena/dimensions/12.1/common/tomcat/6.0/conf/server.xml exists on this system and it has been modified since installation. Do you want to remove this file?

and

rm: cannot determine if this is an ancestor of the current working directory /tmp/istemp495138092221 bash-2.05# id uid=0(root) gid=1(other)

The uninstallation will nevertheless complete successfully and the messages can be ignored. Additionally, the following errors can be safely ignored:

cat: cannot open /tmp/istemp4482139051720/chunk2 , /tmp/istemp4482139051720/chunk1: No such file or directory , /tmp/istemp4482139051720/chunk2: No such file or directory

Upgrading Windows Agent

If you are upgrading a Windows Agent from version 10.1.3, 2009 R1.01, or 2009 R2, you must first uninstall the existing agent before installing the 12.1 Windows Agent.

Upgrading Visual Studio

If you have a previous version of the Visual Studio integration installed, you must uninstall it before running the Dimensions 12.1 installer (which now includes the installation of the new Visual Studio integration).

Installation Fails if Path Includes Reserved OS Words

If you customize the installation path, do not include reserved operating system terms such as “nul” in the path. Installation will fail in this case.

Dimensions CM integration for Remedy issue

The synchronization service for the Remedy integration is not currently available for CM12.1. The approach that should be taken is to use the integration from CM2009R2. Note - the integration requires that a Dimensions CM2009R2 client be installed. The CM12.1 client must not be installed on this machine. The CM200R2 client and Remedy integration are available on the CM200R2 download site. If you are already running the CM2009R2 Remedy integration no action is necessary. This issue will be addressed in a patch or future release.

Windows Synchronize wizard - delivering files or directories with names containing non-ASCII characters into a stream

You may experience problems when using Desktop Client, Windows Explorer integration or Visual Studio integration to deliver files or directories named with non-ASCII characters into a stream. To work around the issue you can use the Web Client or dmcli command-line client to deliver these files. This issue will be addressed in a patch or future release.

Demote erroneously reports an error when deployed items have already been removed by clean from non-default areas

The demote check will erroneously report items as currently deployed to the area the non-default area after a clean has been run on the area and demote will be executed. This occurs because the demote checks fail to properly determine that the items being demoted are no longer present in the area following a clean. The workaround to this problem is to make the area non-default, then repeat the demote operation, an error

COR3600031E Rollback cannot be performed

will be reported for the demote and should be ignored for this work around, finally change the area back to a non-default area.

Scheduled deployment of requests with child requests sometimes fail to deploy

Scheduled deployment of a requests does not deploy anything if the parent request or any child request does not have any items revisions related to it. This only applies to scheduled promote and deploy of requests with deployment of child requests. To successfully perform a scheduled promote or deploy with child requests, the parent and children must all have at least one related item revision. The workarounds to this are:

• Execute the deployment as soon as possible without scheduling.

  or

• Explicitly schedule the promote or deployment of the parent and every child request and schedule each request with no deployment of child requests.

Large deployments to many areas fail on first deployment for project after the database upgrade

This problem only occurs on upgraded databases, not new database installs. The problem is seen only on the first deployment to areas on an upgraded database where hundreds of items are deployed to several tens of areas. The problem is not seen for newly defined areas, or smaller deployments. The workaround is to precede a large first deployment with either:

• A much smaller first deployment, e.g. update or refactor an item already on each of the areas.

  or

• To issue the following command from the dmcli client:

  XDATA UPGRADE /PARAM=(CLASS=WORKSET,NAME=<project or stream name>,UPGRADE_TYPE=PVN)

  where <project or stream name> should be replaced by the name of the actual project or steam.

Deployment areas recommended to be defined with credentials

Dimensions CM 12.1 now does deployment and build operations in deployment areas asynchronously, so if you intend to use this functionality, you should ensure you define a user name and password (or a credential set) on the deployment areas in question.

Action Driven Promotion requires administrator privileges on Windows 2003

Dimensions CM 12.1 uses an embedded event process to perform action driven promotion. If you intend to use this functionality on a Windows 2003 system the Dimensions CM users must be members of the local administrators group.

AIX Upgrade installation does not set regression flag correctly

There is a configuration option which prevents regressions being applied during deployment operations. Following an upgrade of the Dimensions server on AIX the file $DM_ROOT/dm.cfg is not updated with the correct setting for this option.

The file should be modified to add the following:

###################################################################################

####################### Deployment Settings #######################################

###################################################################################

#

# allow regressions - N, Disallow regressions - Y #

DM_NO_DEPLOYMENT_REGRESSION Y

Performance issues with large imports into projects with deploy by default areas attached

Deployment to default development areas will slow down upload of items when many thousands of items are being uploaded into a project. Typically this might be during an initial load. It is recommended to avoid this slowdown that you should (i) use streams and not projects and (ii) detach any deploy by default areas for the Development stage until after the upload has completed. Once the upload completes, the areas should then be reattached with the populate option to ensure the areas are brought in sync.

Deployment does not work with some MBCS Asian character sets on Windows-based servers

There is an issue with the way file paths are read from the deployment configuration files on MBCS operating systems for some Asian character sets. This causes the deployment server to not start, which causes all deployment operations to fail. However, other Dimensions operations can be used successfully.

On Korean or Japanese Windows server installations modify the dm.cfg file and change the DM_DFS entry from

%DM_ROOT%dfs\

to

%DM_ROOT%dfs/

If the location of the DM_DFS entry has been changed from the default, then edit the entry to replace all "\" characters with "/" characters. Note that on Korean and Japanese installations the '\' character is displayed as the local currency symbol.

Rollback privileges

Access to all roll back operations is controlled through the use of the item roll back privilege. Although they are displayed through the user interface, the roll back request and roll back baseline privileges are not used, and will be ignored. Future releases of Dimensions will provide a single roll back privilege to control access to these operations.

CM_Typical Process Model issue - Delivering modifications completes with error

If you are using the CM_Typical demo process model, and you attempt to execute the deployment scenarios from the deployment guide, you will receive errors when delivering new revisions of certain files.

Please contact Serena support to resolve this issue, or consult the KB article below:

http://knowledgebase.serena.com/InfoCenter/index?page=content&id=D12197&actp=search&searchid=1299152166022

Default Grant Rules for Download Files from Project Privilege (ENH143377)

When you create a new base database, the default grant rules for the Update Files from Project/Stream and Deliver Files into Project/Stream privileges include the "User holds any role on the product owning the object" rule. As a result, there is a security issue where certain users are able to download and upload files from any project in the product including those to which they should not have access. To correct this, you must remove the "User holds any role on the product owning the object" rule from the grant rules for "Update Files from Project/Stream" and "Deliver Files into Project/Stream" privileges.

DM_CERT_FULL_HOSTAME Parameter (DEF15867)

There is a new variable that can be specified in the DM.CFG file that has not been documented in the Administrator’s Guide:

DM_CERT_FULL_HOSTNAME

Including this parameter forces the Dimensions CM server to specify its fully qualified domain name in certificates that it passes to remote nodes.

Compiler Versions for Sample Trigger Events (DEF11517)

There are a number of examples provided for the Dimensions CM Events Callout Interface. These are described in Chapter 5 of the Developer’s Reference.

Merging Items in the Visual Studio Rich Integration

With certain types of directory structures where solutions have individual work area metadata and are not under a higher level work area, using the item Merge option may result in the merged file being incorrectly shown as moved. To correct this, you may need to reopen the solutions from source control.

Remedy Integration Installer Issue

Remedy installation does not work correctly because the following file is set to read-only:

CM\Integrations\Remedy\conf\dmadapter.cfg

Make this file writable before installing in order to work around this issue.

Adding a Project to an Existing Visual Studio Controlled Solution

In certain circumstances, after adding projects to Visual Studio solutions that are already under source control, you must exit and restart Visual Studio before attempting to open and work with the modified solution. This is necessary any time the solution root has changed and therefore the solution source control bindings have been recalculated. It is also advisable to re-open the solution from source control to recreate the Dimensions metadata to match the new layout.

Adding Web Projects to Source Control in Visual Studio

Before adding Web projects to source control in Visual Studio, make sure that the project contains some content. Do not attempt to add an empty Web project to source control.

Dimensions for Eclipse running as “root” on Linux

Do not use the “root” account to run Eclipse with the Dimensions for Eclipse integration if you are using Dimensions Projects. This causes issues with file permissions. It is recommended to always use a non-root account to run Eclipse.

Error in ALM Integration Guide (DEF15867 IDD)

host = <Dimensions CM_host_name>
dmuser = <Dimensions CM_System_Administrator_User_ID>

Installing Dimensions for Eclipse into RAD and Eclipse

Before installing the new version of the rich integration to Eclipse IDEs, uninstall any previous versions. After uninstalling, ensure that the following directory has been removed:

<Dimensions installation location>\Integrations\RichEclipse3.x

The Dimensions 12.1 integration will be installed to a different location.

z/OS: Dimensions Agent Messaging

DM_MVS_START_QUIET YES