Contents

Enhancements and New Features

The following enhancements and new features are included in this release.

• Custom source configuration types

  You can now create your own source configuration types to use with Deployment Automation.

• Online users view

  You can now easily see all users that are online at any given time.

• Version import queue view

  You can now easily see any version imports that are in progress. Enhanced messaging gives feedback to ensure you don't inadvertently request an import more than once for a version import that is in progress.

• Enhanced plugins

  The following plugins have been enhanced in this release:

  • FileUtils: Improved descriptions make the utility more self-documenting
  • Web Services: The Invoke REST Service step Request method now includes the PATCH option
  • Jenkins HPI (Hudson Plug-in Interface) for Deployment Automation; see the Community website for details
• Enhanced timeline

  Timeline views have been enhanced to give more information and to link to related UI pages to save you time.

  Enhancements include the following:

  • From the grid view you can now see the number of requests for each month.
  • In the month and year calendar views, you can click anywhere in a block to show the list of requests for that date block in a tabular view. Columns shown, depending on the view and selection, include:
    • Status
    • Time
    • Name (click to go to the process request page)
    • Application (click to go to the application page)
    • Component (click to go to the component page; for component processes only)
    • Process Version (new)
    • Environment (click to go to the application environment page)
    • Deployment Owner

  For more information, see "Viewing Timelines" in the Deployment Automation User's Guide or User's Help on Documentation Center.

• Version descriptions during run process selection

  When you are running a process, when you expand the drop-down to select a version, there is now a tooltip with the description of each version. To see the tooltip, keep pointing to that version selection until the description appears.

• Database views for more flexible reporting

  The commands to create views are included with this release, to enable you to create your own deployment reports. The views include information on:

  • Application processes
  • Component processes

  For information on creating the views, see Knowledgebase item S142262.

• Support for Tomcat 8.5

  Application server support for Deployment Automation is now Tomcat version 8.5. This is implemented in Common Tomcat as part of the installation.

  • This provides support for the latest security options.
  • Existing server configuration is now copied to the new Common Tomcat upon upgrade.
• Support for ALM Connector 6.1.3

  The Deployment Automation ChangeMan ZMF plugin now integrates with ChangeMan ZMF through ALM Connector 6.1.3.

  For details on the ALM Connector 6.1.3 release, see its Release Notes.

For details on the new features and installation and configuration, see the Deployment Automation User's Guide or User's Help on Documentation Center.

Defect Fixes

In addition to the enhancements, a number of defects were addressed.

Visit the Knowledge Base to see the defects fixed in this release.

Backing Up Deployment Automation

Before upgrading the server, you should back up your current server as follows:

1. Stop Common Tomcat.
2. Run the following backups in any order.
   Note:

   • These backups should be done in a single session while Common Tomcat is stopped so that the data stays in sync.
   • The default profile and installation locations are different in version 6.1.4 and later than in earlier versions of Deployment Automation.
   1. Back up your database. If Derby is used this step can be omitted.
   2. Back up your Deployment Automation profile folder and its subfolders.

      The default location of the profile for Deployment Automation version 6.1.4 and later is:

      Windows: C:\Users\username\.microfocus\da

      UNIX/Linux: /opt/MicroFocus/da/username/.microfocus/da

      where username is the name of the system user under which the server was installed

      The default location of the profile for Deployment Automation versions earlier than 6.1.4 is:

      Windows: C:\Users\username\.serena\ra

      UNIX/Linux: /opt/serena/sra/username/.serena/ra

      Tip:

      To find the location of your profile for earlier versions of Deployment Automation, view the installed.properties file under the da or serena_ra web application and look at the installLocation property. You can find the installed properties in the Common Tomcat web application conf folder.

      The default location for the installed.properties file for Deployment Automation version 6.1.4 is:

      Windows: C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\common\tomcat\8.0\webapps\da\conf

      UNIX/Linux: /opt/MicroFocus/da/common/tomcat/8.0/webapps/da/conf

      The default location for the installed.properties file for Deployment Automation versions 6.0 to 6.1.3 is:

      Windows: C:\Program Files\Serena\common\tomcat\8.0\webapps\serena_ra\conf

      UNIX/Linux: /opt/serena/sra/common/tomcat/8.0/webapps/serena_ra/conf

   3. If you have any subfolders in your profile that are virtual links pointing to external storage such as relocated CodeStation directories, you should back up those external storage locations as well.
   4. Back up your da or serena_ra web application. It is recommended that you back up the entire webapps folder, but at minimum back up the web application folder and its subfolders.

      The default location for Deployment Automation version 6.1.4 is:

      Windows: C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\common\tomcat\8.0\webapps\da

      UNIX/Linux: /opt/MicroFocus/da/common/tomcat/8.0/webapps/da

      The default location for versions 6.0 to 6.1.3 is:

      Windows: C:\Program Files\Serena\common\tomcat\8.0\webapps\serena_ra

      UNIX/Linux: /opt/serena/sra/common/tomcat/8.0/webapps/serena_ra

3. Continue with your upgrade.

Upgrading Servers

You can upgrade to this release from the following on Common Tomcat servers only:

• Deployment Automation versions 5.1.2 to 6.1.4
• Serena Release Automation versions 5.1 and 5.1.1

If you are upgrading from a version earlier than 6.1.4 to 6.1.5, we recommend upgrading as follows to ensure a smooth upgrade of the Common Tools, Tomcat and JRE. This is especially important for servers on UNIX/Linux.

• For versions 6.0 to 6.1.3, upgrade to 6.1.4 and then to 6.1.5.
• For versions 5.1 to 5.1.6, upgrade to 6.0, then to 6.1.4, and then to 6.1.5.
• For versions earlier than version 5.1, first upgrade from that version to version 5.1 as documented in the version 5.1 Deployment Automation User's Guide, and then upgrade to version 6.1.5 as indicated in the previous list item.

For any other upgrade scenarios, please contact Support for assistance.

To upgrade a Deployment Automation server:

1. Before beginning the upgrade, back up your current server as detailed in Backing Up Deployment Automation.
2. Download and run the version 6.1.5 server installer.

3. UNIX/Linux Only: As part of the upgrade installation process for a Deployment Automation UNIX/Linux server system, you must specify the owner of the Deployment Automation installation.

   You must ensure that the user specified is also the owner of the Common Tomcat instance, especially when Common Tomcat hosts other applications in addition to Deployment Automation. The owner is the user name used to run the Common Tomcat process. During the upgrade, folders inside the Common Tomcat instance are configured as owned by the specified owner, and if the user name and owner do not match, the Common Tomcat process may not be able to read them or write to them.

   The ownership of the entire Common Tomcat installation is set to the specified user name.

4. Access the web interface using the new URL format:

   http(s)://<serverName>:<port>/da

   where serverName is the server where the Common Tomcat resides that hosts Deployment Automation and port is the Common Tomcat port.

   Use http for non-SSL and https for SSL installations.

   For example: http://myhost:8080/da

5. Continue with Server Configuration Upgrades as needed.

Server Configuration Upgrades

Common Tomcat is upgraded from 8.0 to 8.5 in Deployment Automation version 6.1.5. Some details and actions you may need to take are as follows:

• The new default directory structure is as follows:
  • Windows: C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\common\tomcat\8.5
  • UNIX/Linux: /opt/MicroFocus/da/common/tomcat/8.5
• All connectors, such as port number, customization, and SSL configuration are automatically identified and updated in the new Common Tomcat directories during the server upgrade.
• You must manually copy any additional applications running under Common Tomcat to the new directory structure, such as Dimensions CM and ZMF Connector.
• If you are using SSO, you must configure SSO again, including setting the parameters in the gatekeeper-core-config.xml file.

  You must set these parameters by copying the corresponding strings from the earlier version of the gatekeeper-core-config.xml file. Copying and replacing the entire file from the earlier Common Tomcat installation does not work.

About Notification Schemes

The new notification schemes are added to existing schemes during the server upgrade. To keep backward compatibility, if changes for a scheme are detected, the upgrade does not affect that scheme; otherwise, the scheme is upgraded to the latest version.

About JRE Versions

The Deployment Automation 6.1.5 server and agent are installed with JRE 8.0 on all platforms.

• Servers support only Java version 8.0 (Java JRE or JDK 1.8.0.25 or later)
• Agents and agent relays support Java 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 (Java JRE or JDK 1.6.0.43 or later, 1.7.0.25 or later, 1.8.0.25 or later)

About JDBC Files

The required JDBC driver files that are used by Deployment Automation versions 6.0 and later to connect to the Deployment Automation database are provided by the installer. This means you do not have to download the drivers before you perform a new Deployment Automation install. If you are upgrading from an earlier version and you modified the standard JDBC drivers, the upgrade process preserves your existing JDBC files and connection information, and automatically copies the files to the appropriate directory location for you.

About Agent and Agent Relay Upgrades

For details on upgrading Deployment Automation agents and agent relays, see the Deployment Automation User's Guide or online Help.

About Plugin Upgrades

For details on upgrading Deployment Automation plugins, see the Deployment Automation User's Guide or User's Help.

About Custom Source Configuration Type Upgrades

Any upgrades you make to your custom source configuration types are done in the corresponding Java code. As a best practice you should load your updated Jar file into a test Deployment Automation system and test the upgraded functionality before loading it into your product system, since it is an extension of the product.

If you load a source configuration type Jar file with a different set of source configuration types than those used when it was originally loaded, some of the source configuration types may be deleted from Deployment Automation. You will receive a warning, and if you confirm the deletion, you will need to reconfigure any components that use the deleted source configuration types.

For details on creating and loading Deployment Automation custom source configuration types, see the Deployment Automation Integration Guide or online Help.