Published Release Notes

CyberArk password vault support added for Pega database

With the CyberArk password vault, you can store your systems' passwords in a secure, central location and retrieve them from that location instead of directly entering credentials into the systems. This support is available only for IBM WebSphere environments.

For more information, see Pega Platform deployment guides.

Support added for multiple mashups

You can now include multiple mashups on a single webpage or browser, even if the mashups have different application and authentication requirements. Use mashups to embed a Pega Platform™ application as a gadget on your website. For example, you can embed Web Chatbot and Self-Service Advisor on the same website.

For more information about mashups, see Configuring the Mashup channel.

MBeans deprecated in favor of Pega API

The use of MBeans for cluster management has been deprecated, although MBeans will continue to function for legacy deployments. The recommended best practice for automating system management is to use the Pega API. For more information, see Pega API.

Specify the scope for rolling back rules and data to a restore point

Create restore points to save the state of all rules and data in your system at a significant point in time, for example, before you import an application. Roll back to that restore point to return the system to that state. Now, you can filter which rule and data instances are returned to their previous state:

• System: Roll back every rule and data instance that has a history record.
• User: Roll back rule and data instances modified by a specific user. If any rule was changed by more than one user, you will see an error message and must use the system rollback.
• Application: Roll back rule and data instances in a specific application.

For more information, see Using restore points to enable error recovery.

Client-server deployment of Hazelcast

Pega Platform™ now supports the client-server model for the Hazelcast service, which provides cluster communication and distributes Pega Platform features across nodes. This optional deployment model introduces independent scalability for both servers and clients in Pega Platform, improving stability for deployments that use a large number of nodes.

The Hazelcast client-server model is intended for select environments running Pega Platform 8.4 across a large number of nodes and should be deployed only when directed by Global Client Support.

Automatically update dependent applications to use the latest versions of built-on applications

You can now automatically update dependent applications to use the latest versions of built-on applications. When you import an archive that you created from a product rule, you can update all dependent applications to be built on the latest application versions in the archive.

For more information, see Updating dependent applications with the latest versions of built-on applications.

Alerts for long-running queue processor and job scheduler activities

Pega Platform™ now saves an alert in the performance alert log when a queue processor activity or a scheduled job runs longer than the configured threshold value. Use the alerts to identify potential performance issues with long-running processes.

The alerts are enabled by default. You can change the alerts for dedicated queue processors and job schedulers at the rules level. For standard queue processors, you can also set the threshold value for the Queue-For-Processing command in an activity. You disable the alerts in dynamic system settings.

For more information, see:

• PEGA0117 alert: Long-running queue processor activity
• PEGA0118 alert: Long-running job scheduler activity

Introduction of Search and Reporting Service

Pega Platform™ now uses Search and Reporting Service, which is an independent microservice. The new enhancement provides a convenient way to manage your application data, and is easier to maintain. For example, because of the cloud-based architecture of Search and Reporting Service, any bug fixes and performance improvements occur seamlessly, and have no impact on your overall experience in Pega Platform.

For more information, see Search and Reporting overview.

Ability to restrict access to the Import wizard

You can now restrict access to the Import wizard so that users implement an automated pipeline to deploy changes between environments such as staging and production. Deployment Manager is one method by which to create pipelines. By using pipelines to propagate changes, users can apply a standardized and automated deployment process for migrating their applications.

For more information, see:

• Ensuring that users migrate applications with a pipeline by restricting the Import wizard
• Understanding model-driven DevOps with Deployment Manager

Optimized data schema upgrade

Several improvements have been made to optimize the speed of the data schema upgrade to help you experience minimal downtime during upgrade to Pega Platform 8.5™. The data schema upgrade process optimizations include the following improvements:

• Optimized database index creation during upgrade
• Optimized synchronization process to detect duplicate rules during the application import process
• A new upgrade setting for Pega Cloud® Services operators that reduces the time to upgrade clients that run large Pega applications, such as the CRM Suite

For more information, see Limit upgrade downtime with data schema upgrade improvements (8.5).