Published Release Notes

Default value of the threadpoolsize agent affects batch indexing

After you patch Pega Platform to version 8.5.2 or higher, the system changes the default value of the threadpoolsize agent, which controls the number of concurrent activities (threads) in the system, from 5 to 15. Batch indexing in Pega Platform™ does not require all 15 threads, so you can change the agent value to increase system performance by managing the indexing/distributed/batch/numworkers dynamic system setting.
If your deployment does not support that setting, and batch indexing does not use Queue Processors, the system uses the threadpoolsize value for batch indexing instead.

For more information, see Editing a dynamic system setting.

Additional upgrade scripts for new columns

In Version 6.2, additional columns (Major, Minor, and Patch) containing ruleset Version information were added to 15 tables in the PRPC database. When upgrading from a pre-Pega 7 release, scripts must be manually run after the upgrade to populate these columns.

These scripts are located in the Resource Kit, under Additional Upgrade Scripts.

• If upgrading to a single schema, run both scripts.
• If upgrading to a split schema, run the _data script against the data schema and run the _rules script against the rules schema.

Choose the scripts for your database type:

• db2zos_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• db2zos_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

• mssql_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• mssql_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

• oracle_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• oracle_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

• postgres_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• postgres_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

• udb_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• udb_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

Source field not displaying in data transform

On the Data Transform rule form when using the Update Page action, if the Relation value is updated to “with values from”, the Source field will not be displayed.

(Note that for existing data transforms where the Source field has already been completed, this situation should not occur.)

Workaround

1. Below is a data transform that has been configured to use Update Page.
   
2. If a user were to choose an alternate source by updating the ‘with values from’ Relation value, they would not be prompted to provide a page name in the Source field.
   
3. At this point, to be able to enter the Source page value, the user has to save the rule, which results in an error because the source page value is blank. This causes the field to appear.
   
4. Once the field has appeared, the Source page value can be provided, and the form can be saved successfully.
   

Required Oracle optimization parameter

To optimize performance, set the Oracle parameter optimizer_index_cost_adj to a value between 20 and 25. If this value is not set, the system can run exceedingly slowly, potentially blocking users from login.

Split schema upgrade instructions missing properties

If you upgraded from 5.x, 6.x, or 7.x using the instructions in previous versions of the upgrade guide, you may have neglected to set the properties below in your migrateSystem.properties file when you migrated your upgraded schema to the source system:

pega.rules.objects.generate=true

pega.rules.objects.apply=true

If these properties were not set during an upgrade that splits the schema, your environment does not have the indexes, triggers, and primary keys on the rules tables.

To check for this issue, see if the pr4_base and pr4_rule rules tables in your existing rules schema are missing primary keys. If they are, use the SQL scripts in the ResourceKit\MigrationRecoveryScripts directory of the release to cleanup duplicate rules that were created due to this issue. Follow the steps below to run the scripts.

To run the scripts on Microsoft SQL, Oracle, or PostgreSLQ

1. Take down any app servers using the affected schema.
2. Backup your database.
3. Replace all instances of @RULES_SCHEMA in <database>_cleanDups.sql with the name of the schema that contains the pr4_base table.
4. Run the <database>_cleanDups.sql script on the database with vendor tools (sqlPlus, SQL Server Management Studio, etc).
5. Replace all instances of @RULES_SCHEMA in <database>_fix_vw_table.sql with the name of the schema that contains the pr4_base table.
6. Run the <database>_fix_vw_table.sql script on the database with vendor tools (sqlPlus, SQL Server Management Studio, etc).
7. Generate and apply the ddl using the command line generateDDL command. Check the installation guide for your database or the upgrade guide for details about how to use the generateDDL command line script.
8. Rebuild the indexes for the tables in your rules schema using vendor tools. This is necessary so that your system runs at an optimum speed.
9. Optionally upgrade to the latest release, at this point your database is ready to be upgraded or used depending on your needs.

To run the scripts on DB2 for LUW or z/OS

1. Take down any app servers using the affected schema.
2. Backup your database.
3. Run the <database>_cleanDups.sql script on the database with vendor tools (UDB CLP, Data Studio, etc) to create the CLEANSE_RULES_DUPS stored procedure.
4. Run the query Call CLEANSE_RULES_DUPS(‘<rulesSchema>’); where <rulesSchema> is the name of schema that contains the pr4_base table.
5. After the previous step is complete drop the CLEANSE_RULES_DUPS procedure.
6. Replace all instances of @RULES_SCHEMA in <database>_fix_vw_table.sql with the name of the schema that contains the pr4_base table.
7. Run the <database>_fix_vw_table.sql script on the database with vendor tools (UDB CLP, Data Studio, etc).
8. Generate and apply the ddl using the command line generateDDL command. Check the installation guide for your database or the upgrade guide for details about how to use the generateDDL command line script.
9. Rebuild the indexes for the tables in your rules schema using vendor tools. This is necessary so that your system runs at an optimum speed.
10. Optionally upgrade to the latest release. At this point your database is ready to be upgraded or used depending on your needs.

Synchronized database and application server settings

Configure your database and application server to use the same time zone and character encoding to avoid conflicts.

Updated Word merge support with Microsoft Silverlight plug-in

Starting in this release, Pega 7 features that integrate with the Word merge capability are now cross-browser. ActiveX controls (which are only compatible with Internet Explorer) have been replaced with Microsoft Silverlight. This plug-in must be downloaded separately from Microsoft because it is not shipped with Pega 7.

Common features that are affected by this change include the Specification form and Case Type landing page.

Prior to using these features, see the release note Word merge support with Microsoft Silverlight plug-in for more information about setting up their client systems.

Twitter data sets no longer supported

Twitter is deprecating several APIs, which will disrupt the Twitter data set functionality. Twitter data sets will not be able to fetch any tweets or direct messages. This issue affects all applications that use Twitter data sets to connect to social (mainly Pega Customer Service applications).

This change applies to the current and earlier releases of Pega Platform™ that make use of Twitter data sets and it impacts all environments, including Pixar, VM, and Pega Labs instances.

Twitter connectors will be fully functional at a later date. For now, the best practice is to de-emphasize social media in your data sets.