About this Release
Welcome to Deployment Automation version 6.3 See the What's New tab for a list of new features in the latest release.
If you have an existing installation that you want to upgrade, see Installing.
Supported Configurations
Detailed information about supported platforms and software configuration is available in the Supported Platform List.
Third-party Tools
For more information regarding third-party software copyrights and license information, refer to the Attribution Report.
Deployment Automation
What's New
For information on changes included in this release, see the following:
Enhancements and New Features
The following enhancements and new features are included in this release.
- User Interface
The user interface has been updated to the latest Micro Focus standards and includes the following improvements:
-
Design: all pages have been updated with new styles, colors, and icons.
- Navigation: the focus is now on key data and operations, easier access to the top level, and support for breadcrumbs.
- Dashboard: now displayed in the card view and includes a contextual search.
- Scrolling: data is automatically requested from the server when you scroll in dialog boxes and wizards.
- Process designer: improved search and enhanced user experience.
- Process wizards: a more intuitive process request and improved process scheduling capabilities.
- Process request pages: render faster during execution polling with an emphasis on important data.
-
-
Conditional transitions
You do not need to add 'Switch' steps to make simple conditional transitions. You can embed conditional expressions into transitions, which simplifies process design and provides a more intuitive view of processes.
-
Performance improvements
Performance has been improved in:
- Displaying process and agent lists
- Opening processes
- The component page
For details about new features, installation, and configuration see the Deployment Automation User's Guide or User's Help on Documentation Center.
Defect Fixes
See the Knowledge Base for a list of defects fixed in this release.
Installing
Sonatype Nexus source type installation instructions and properties.
z/OS agent installation instructions.
Shell plugin installation instructions.
Server Upgrades
This section provides important information for upgrades to the Deployment Automation 6.3 server. Review the following sections before you upgrade.
Backing Up Deployment Automation
Before upgrading the server, you should back up your current server as follows:
- Stop Common Tomcat.
- 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.
- Back up your database. If Derby is used this step can be omitted.
- 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 6.1.5 and later is:
Windows: C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\common\tomcat\8.5\webapps\da\conf
UNIX/Linux: /opt/MicroFocus/da/common/tomcat/8.5/webapps/da/conf
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
- 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.
- 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 6.1.5 and later is:
Windows: C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\common\tomcat\8.5\webapps\da
UNIX/Linux: /opt/MicroFocus/da/common/tomcat/8.5/webapps/da
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
- 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 6.1.5
- Serena Release Automation versions 5.1 and 5.1.1
If you are upgrading from a version earlier than 6.1.5 to 6.3, 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 6.1 to 6.1.3, upgrade to 6.1.4, then to 6.1.5, and then to 6.3.
- For version 6.0, you can upgrade directly to 6.3.
- For versions 5.1 to 5.1.6, upgrade to 6.0, then to 6.3.
- 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 6.3 as indicated in the previous list item.
For any other upgrade scenarios, please contact Support for assistance.
To upgrade a Deployment Automation server:
- Before beginning the upgrade, back up your current server as detailed in Backing Up Deployment Automation.
- Download and run the version 6.3 server installer.
-
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.
- 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
- Continue with Server Configuration Upgrades as needed.
Server Configuration Upgrades
Common Tomcat is version 8.5 in Deployment Automation version 6.1.5 and later. Some changes you should be aware of if you are upgrading from a version earlier than 6.1.5 are as follows:
- The 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, such as Dimensions CM and ZMF Connector, to the new directory structure.
- 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.
Known Issues
For a complete and up-to-date list of issues found in this release of Deployment Automation, see the Knowledge Base.
Issues known to exist at the time of release are as follows:
- uBuild source configuration type
uBuild is no longer supported. Workaround: use the Deployment Automation API to develop your own plugin to support uBuild.
- OpenJDK
Deployment Automation 6.3.0 uses OpenJDK. A server installation cannot be completed if the glibc dependency is missing. Solution: install the glib dependency for your operating system, for example:
CentOS: yum install glibc.i686
Ubuntu: apt-get install libc6.i686
- Running DA installer on CentOS
To run the DA installer on a minimal CentOS, run this command in a terminal: yum install bc
-
z/OS agent cannot be upgraded from server
The z/OS agent cannot be upgraded from the Deployment Automation server.
- Pending approvals not completed before upgrade are revoked
Any pending approvals at the time of upgrade cannot be completed properly in the updated version due to architectural changes. You should complete them before upgrading if possible. Otherwise, after upgrading, you must rerun or reschedule the associated requests to initiate a new set of approvals.
- Deployment Automation
has limited support for IPv6 IP addresses
If you are using IPv6 IP addresses on your network, you must use hostname instead of IP address in Deployment Automation agent or agent relay configuration.
Following are known issues for IPv6 addresses:
- If you use IPv6 IP addresses in agent or agent relay
configurations, you must use brackets around the address and with the colon
character (:) escaped with a backward slash (\). For example:
[fc00\:\:a1f\:2007]
If you do not do this, the agent or relay does not connect and an error similar to the following appears in the log:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: hostname can't be null
- If you run a process using the agent or agent relay configured using an IPv6 address, the process fails.
- If you use IPv6 IP addresses in agent or agent relay
configurations, you must use brackets around the address and with the colon
character (:) escaped with a backward slash (\). For example:
[fc00\:\:a1f\:2007]
- Chrome web browser HTTPS connection fails on HPUX server
You cannot connect to Deployment Automation through HTTPS in a Chrome web browser if your Deployment Automation server is installed on HPUX. You can connect through other web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Firefox if you add an exception to the browser.
Workaround:
- In the in the
server.xml file, find the commented out
connector block that contains cipher attributes by
searching for the word
ciphers. This file is found in the following
directory by default:
C:\Program Files\Micro Focus\common\tomcat\8.5\conf
- Insert the entire ciphers= attribute into the connector block that is being used for HTTPS and save your changes.
- Restart Common Tomcat.
- In the in the
server.xml file, find the commented out
connector block that contains cipher attributes by
searching for the word
ciphers. This file is found in the following
directory by default:
- WebSocket error when initiating the Web client on a proxy
server
The client now requests a WebSocket connection upon initial connection to the server. If you receive a WebSocket error, you may need to configure your proxy server to support the WebSocket connection. In some cases, the proxy server may need to be upgraded. For more information, see Knowledgebase item S141934.
- Agents may not come back online after server upgrade
Due to changes to supported security protocols starting in version 6.1.1, Deployment Automation agents using earlier versions of Java, such as Java 6, may not be allowed to connect to the server after the upgrade. If your agents do not come online after the server upgrade, you will need to upgrade them by following the instructions in Knowledgebase item S141622.
- When a large number of agents are moved from one unidirectional
agent relay to another, agents of versions prior to 6.1.2 may not automatically
appear online
When a large number of agents are changed to point to a different unidirectional agent relay, agents of versions prior to 6.1.2 may not automatically come online. These may be listed as CONNECTED or OFFLINE.
To bring them online, in the Agents / Pools pane you can click the Test icon or you can restart the agents.
- Installer page disappears when installing the agent on RedHat 7.3
that uses the Adwaita theme
If you are using the RedHat 7.3 with the Adwaita theme and try to install the Deployment Automation agent, the installer page disappears and you cannot complete the installation. This is due to the fact that the Adwaita theme is missing some objects used by installer. This works fine with other themes, such as Oxygen. For details on changing the theme, see Knowledgebase item S142064.
-
Error configuring the
ALM Connector
6.1.3 services when running
encrypt.cmd
to encrypt the almsernet properties
When configuring the ALM Connector almsernet service, if you run encrypt.cmd to encrypt the almsernet_resource.properties files, the following error occurs:
Could not find or load main class com.serena.sernet.httpserver.util.Encrypt
To workaround this issue, you must edit the ..\webapps\almsernet\WEB-INF\encrypt.cmd file and change almsernet-8.1.0.jar to almsernet-8.1.2.jar.
Legal Notice
The only warranties for products and services of Micro Focus and its affiliates and licensors (“Micro Focus”) are as may be set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Micro Focus shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.
Except as specifically indicated otherwise, this document contains confidential information and a valid license is required for possession, use or copying. If this work is provided to the U.S. Government, consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.