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Serena Release Control 6.1.1 Readme
This readme file contains information about this release. Last updated on 2016-12-05.

Contents

About this Release

Welcome to Serena Release Control version 6.1.1.

This version contains defect fixes, but does not contain any new features. Serena Release Control 6.1.1 has all the features, changes, and fixes that were made in Serena Release Control 6.1. It also includes the patch changes made in 6.1.0.1.

In addition to this readme, the documentation for Release Control 6.1 applies to this release.

Please note the following important information:

  • Before installing Release Control, please consult the Serena Release Control Installation and Setup Guide on Serena Documentation Center for the detailed process. There are required steps before and after running the installer to complete a working Release Control solution.
  • Before you install Release Control 6.1.1, you must ensure you are running SBM 11.0.1.1 or higher. SBM 10.1.5.x and lower do not support Release Control 6.1.1. SBM installations are documented in the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide and SBM upgrades are documented in the SBM readme.
  • When installing Service Manager 5.2.1 and Release Control 6.1.1 on the same SBM system, you must install Service Manager first. The two solutions share some files, and there is a later version of these in Release Control 6.1.1. For more details, refer to Serena Support Knowledgebase solution S141771.
  • Updated plugins were made available in August and November 2016. For details, refer to the Release Control Plugins Readme on the Documentation Center.

New Installations of Serena Release Control

If this is a new installation, download Serena Business Manager version 11.0.1.1 or higher from http://www.serena.com/support and then follow the instructions in the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide to install and configure Serena Business Manager. After you have verified that Serena Business Manager is installed successfully, download Serena Release Control version 6.1.1 from http://www.serena.com/support and follow the installation and configuration instructions in the Serena Release Control Installation and Setup Guide.

Installer Components

The installer delivers these components:

  • Solution Files – You import the Serena Release Control 6.1 solution file in Application Repository. The Release Control solution file contains the following process apps:
    • RLC - Approvals
    • RLC - Environment
    • RLC - Manual Deployment Task
    • RLC - Release Data
    • RLC - Release Package
    • RLC - Release Train
    • RLC - Sample Request
    • RLC - Task Templates
  • Framework Files – The framework files augment your underlying SBM installation and enable certain features in the Release Control process apps. The framework files include new templates, images, and code.
  • Provider Plugins – The Provider plugins installed with Release Control enable integration with other products for request and deployment information and execution. You configure Provider server and database settings in the Release Control Providers administrator page.
  • Release Control SDK Files – The Release Control SDK files installed with Release Control enable you to write your own custom Provider plugins.

Supported Configurations

Detailed information about supported platforms and software configuration is available in the Supported Platform Matrix. (In the row for this release, click the link in the Platform Matrix column.)

  • SBM Support:

    Serena Release Control 6.1.1 is not supported for SBM versions earlier than 11.0.1.1.

  • SBM Interfaces

    Serena Work Center is required for Release Control.

  • Web Browsers

    Internet Explorer 8, 9, and 10 are not supported for Release Control.

    Compatibility mode must be deselected in all versions of Internet Explorer.

Third-party Tools

For more information regarding third-party software copyrights and license information, refer to the files under "Downloads" or "News" at http://www.serena.com/support.

Upgrades

This section provides important information for upgrades to Release Control 6.1.1.

About Upgrades

The upgrade process consists of two phases: the installation upgrade and the solutions upgrade.

  • In the installation upgrade phase, you run the Release Control 6.1.1 installer and configure your installation using SBM Configurator. This installs the newest versions of the framework files, and configures your installation to use the new files.
  • In the solution upgrade phase, you import the new solution file and decide if you will preserve or overwrite any modifications that you have made to the process apps.
Note: You should at minimum run the installation to upgrade the framework. You will benefit from performance improvements and any framework issues that were fixed. If you decide not to do the solution upgrade phase, you will not have access to process app modifications made in this release.

Pre-Upgrade Steps

Before you begin the upgrade process:

  1. Upgrade SBM to version 11.0.1.1 or higher before beginning the Release Control upgrade. For details, see the Readme for your version of SBM on the Documentation Center. The upgrade will NOT work on earlier versions of SBM.
    Important: When upgrading from SBM 10.1.5.x to SBM 11.0 or above, the rlc.war file and any plugin jar files will be deleted by the SBM installer along with the JBoss folder. If you have custom plugins you must backup these files manually; otherwise they will be deleted.
  2. Backup your existing database before you run the Release Control installer.
  3. If you want to preserve any changes you have made in your process apps, use the Compare feature in SBM Composer to create a comparison report. (If you do not want to preserve your changes, or if you did not customize the apps, skip this step). You will use this report to help you merge your modifications into the new apps. For details on using the Compare feature, see the "Comparing and Merging Process Apps" topic in the SBM Composer Guide.
  4. Create a backup of the installation directory structure for SBM on your SBM Application Engine machines.
  5. Download the latest version of Release Control from the Downloads Release Control page on support.serena.com.

Installation Upgrade

The instructions in this Readme are for upgrading your installation from version 6.1 to 6.1.1. For upgrading from earlier versions, see Upgrading from Earlier Versions.

Upgrading from Version 6.1

To upgrade your Release Control framework from version 6.1 to 6.1.1:

  1. Run the Release Control version 6.1.1 installer on the server or servers that have the following SBM components enabled:
    • SBM Application Engine
    • SBM Application Repository
    • SBM Common Services
    Note: If these SBM components are enabled on separate servers, you must run the installer on each server.
    The "Welcome to the Install Wizard" message appears. Click Next to continue.
  2. Allow the installation to complete. Once the installation is finished, click Configure to launch SBM Configurator.
  3. Click Apply to apply the solution files to SBM. This stops the services, updates various configuration files on the server, and prepares the system for use.
  4. Click Close to close SBM Configurator, which forces it to start all necessary services.
  5. Give the services time to restart, and then log in to Work Center using the following URL:
    http://serverName/workcenter
    Important: Launching Work Center immediately after clicking Apply and closing SBM Configurator is an important part of the upgrade process. This enables SBM Application Engine to import the new framework files.

Earlier versions of Release Control solution files are deleted and in SBM Application Repository, the Installed Solutions section shows only the latest version.

You have now upgraded the framework files and completed the installation upgrade phase. To upgrade your process apps to the latest versions, you must continue with Upgrading the Solution and Process Apps.

Upgrading the Solution and Process Apps

You should not upgrade the process apps if you are upgrading from Release Control 6.1 and are already using the 6.1 process apps, because this release includes the 6.1 versions.

If you are running the Release Control 6.0.1 process apps, there is no need to do the solution upgrade phase of the upgrade unless you want the one change made to the Manual Deployment Task process app. It has been changed to address a hanging issue that occurs when many deployment units are linked to a deployment task. If you want this change, you can deploy the new Manual Deployment Task process app.

Note: For instructions on how to fix the hanging issue in the application without promoting the new process app, refer to Serena Support Knowledgebase item S141791.

If you are running earlier versions of the process apps, see Upgrading from Earlier Versions.

If you want to upgrade your process apps, continue with this section. If you do not want to upgrade your process apps, and prefer to continue working with an earlier version that you have customized, continue to Upgrading Without Promoting New Process Apps.

To upgrade your process apps:

After you have finished the installation upgrade phase, launch SBM Application Repository, and then import the Release Control 6.1 solution file. The snapshots and process apps are available for deployment or promotion after the import is finished.

For each process app, choose one of the following two options:

  • Compare, merge, and deploy the process apps

    If there are custom modifications that you made to the process apps that you want to preserve, review the comparison report that you generated as part of the pre-upgrade process. Use SBM Composer to compare and merge your changes into the new process apps, and then deploy them.

  • Promote the process app snapshots
    1. In SBM Application Repository, promote the new versions of the snapshots in any order without comparing and merging, which will overwrite your modifications (if any). Promoting the snapshots places the latest contents of the solution, including all reports, notifications, process apps, and auxiliary table data, onto your SBM Server.

      When promoting, do the following:

      1. For Entities, select the Merge conflicts check box to preserve changes that you made to the existing application.

        For example, if you want to keep the user roles that you added to an application, select the Merge conflicts check box to preserve them in the target environment after the promotion. If Merge conflicts is not selected, the existing entities will be deleted in the target environment.

      2. Also for Entities, deselect the Include entity data check box to preserve changes that you made to the default RLC Custom Column auxiliary table entries, Default DU Custom Columns and Default Request Custom Columns. If you do not do this, these entities will be replaced in the target environment with default fields, and you will need to reconfigure the fields as needed.

    2. In Application Administrator, give any new privileges needed. For more information, refer to "Creating Groups and Assigning Roles and Privileges" in the online Help or Serena Release Control Installation and Setup Guide.

Once you successfully deploy the merged process apps or promote the new process app snapshots, the upgrade is finished and the system is ready for use.

Upgrading Without Promoting New Process Apps

There are no additional upgrade requirements if you do not promote the new process apps. It is recommended that you import the solution in case you want to import the process app snapshots later.

Plugin Upgrades

Updated plugins were made available in August and November of 2016. One of the available Release Control patches must be applied before using these plugins. For details, refer to the Release Control Plugins Readme on the Documentation Center.

Installed Plugins

For plugins that are installed by the Release Control 6.1.1 installer, the August 2016 versions of the jar files are installed. This includes the SBM, SDA, and Dimensions CM plugins.

  • In the Release Control Providers administrator page, the plugin and its configuration will automatically use these versions of the jar files.
  • If you have existing configurations of the Dimensions CM or Nolio plugin that were added with versions of the plugin earlier than the August 2016 versions, 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.
  • 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.

Additional Plugins

It is recommended that you upgrade all other plugins to the August or November 2016 versions, as these have been certified with this release.

To upgrade additional 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. 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

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

    rlc-client-zmf-6.0.1.0-snapshot.jar

    and

    rlc-provider-zmf-6.0.1.0-snapshot.jar

    Note: If you have just upgraded to SBM 11.x, the default plugin jar files installed with Release Control will be the only ones in the SBM Tomcat directory unless you have restored them from the SBM JBoss directory backup.
  4. Remove the previous versions of the plugin jar files you are upgrading.
  5. Extract and copy the plugin jar files for the plugin to that directory.
    Note: If you are using the ChangeMan ZMF plugin, copy the jar files appropriate for your version of ZMF Connector. For information on supported configurations of ZMF Connector, Release Control, and the Release Control ChangeMan ZMF plugin, refer to the latest ZMF Connector Readme on the Documentation Center.
  6. In SBM Configurator, select the Manager 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.

  7. 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.

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

Related Upgrades

You may need to upgrade SBM before upgrading to this version of Release Control.

  • For versions of SBM that support this version, refer to Supported Configurations.
  • For upgrade information for SBM, see the SBM documentation on Documentation Center.
    Note: For documentation on SBM 11.0.1.1, refer to the 11.0.1.1 Readme and the 11.0.1 documentation.

Troubleshooting Upgrades

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

  • Some transitions are not working properly, such as associating child release packages to parents.

    Check to see if your target server URLs have changed. If so, you must re-promote or redeploy the process apps in SBM Composer.

  • 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.

Upgrading from Earlier Versions

  • Upgrade from Release Control version 6.0 is not supported.
  • If you are upgrading from a version earlier than 6.0.1, please contact Serena Support.

Fixed Issues

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

Known Issues

For a complete list of known issues and potential workarounds, refer to the Knowledge Base.

Issues known to exist at the time of release are as follows:

  1. Notifications for deployment tasks with sequence numbers greater than 1 aren't processed until all other parallel tasks are started.

    Processing of notifications from external systems is delayed when parallel deployment tasks are used. To minimize delays, use fewer parallel tasks, so that less time is needed to start the sequence. Avoid using parallel tasks with Release Control Jenkins plugin version 1.0.

  2. The field name font is no longer shown in bold. (DEF283609)

    Due to a style change in SBM 11.x, field names are no longer shown in bold font. If you want the fonts to be bold, you must open up each of the process apps and add bold to the label style in SBM Composer.

  3. If you install Service Manager 5.2.1 after installing Release Control 6.1, you may encounter form sizing issues in Release Control.

    When installing Service Manager 5.2.1 and Release Control 6.1 on the same SBM system, you must install Service Manager first. Otherwise, you may encounter form sizing issues in Release Control. The two solutions share some files, and there is a later version of these in Release Control 6.1. If you install Service Manager 5.2.1 after installing Release Control 6.1, you will overlay these files and impact Release Control functionality. If you install Release Control 6.1 last, there is no impact to Service Manager 5.2.1, as the files are backward compatible. For more details, refer to Serena Support Knowledgebase solution S141771.

  4. The number of deployment units displayed for deployment path executions is limited to 20 by default. (DEF282296)

    If you have more than twenty deployment units deployed in an execution, the quick view in the deployment path will show only the first twenty by default.

    To work around this, do the following:

    1. In Work Center, click the user icon in the upper right and select Settings from the drop-down menu.
    2. In the navigation pane, select Display.
    3. Change Items Per Page to the maximum you prefer.
  5. The NOT STARTED execution will be selected if any deployment task in a parent release package is failed before a child package execution is started. (DEF282309)

    If any deployment task fails that is associated with the parent release package, when you deploy the parent release package again and then click the Execute child package link on the Deployment Tasks tab to complete a task, the NOT STARTED execution is selected by default. You must select the correct execution from the Task Execution drop-down selection.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. If you add exit criteria to a release train and then delete the approval for it or if you cancel submission of exit criteria, the release train cannot move forward. (DEF282109)

    A release train cannot move forward if you do either of the following:

    • Add exit criteria to the release train and then delete the approval for the exit criteria
    • Begin submitting exit criteria, don't save the changes, and cancel the submission

    You will receive an error message similar to the following:

    "Exit Criteria has not been met. The workflow cannot move forward until exit criteria have been completed."

    To work around this, you must create another exit criteria item for the corresponding stage and approve it. This will allow the release train to move forward.

  9. If you are using the Release Control 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.

  10. If you are using the 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.

  11. If you the ChangeMan ZMF plugin and Single Sign-On (SSO) with Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, the list of change packages in the Deployment Units tab does not always display. (DEF285825)

    In Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, the ChangeMan ZMF change package list does not always display in the deployment units widget. To work around this issue, you should clear your web browser cache and refresh the page.

  12. If you are using the Release Control ChangeMan ZMF plugin with ChangeMan ZMF version 8.1.1 or 8.1.1.01, the plugin validation does not allow a change package to be deployed if there is a promote task for the DEV state. (DEF285785)

    Even if your ChangeMan ZMF rules allow promote from the DEV state in ChangeMan ZMF, the ChangeMan ZMF plugin validation doe not allow this from Release Control. To work around this issue, you should freeze first, and on the next environment you will be able to promote.

  13. If you are using the Release Control ChangeMan ZMF plugin, the time zone set in the Release Control Providers administrator page is not applied to the deployment unit Install Date. (DEF285945)
    If your time zone for ChangeMan ZMF is different than that of the Release Control server, and you enter the time zone in the Release Control Providers administrator page for the Release Control ChangeMan ZMF configuration, it is not applied to the deployment unit Install Date.
    Note: This column appears only if you have added the ChangeMan ZMF custom columns to the deployment unit entry in the RLC Custom Columns auxiliary table.
  14. If you are using the Release Control ChangeMan ZMF plugin, 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.

  15. If you are using the Release Control ChangeMan ZMF plugin with the createdatetime custom column field, after adding a deployment unit, the associated field will be empty until you reload the deployment unit data. (DOC286854).

    If you have added the ChangeMan ZMF provider-specific createdatetime 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.