Release Notes 24.0

Video: Release Overview

This video gives you a tour of the new features and enhancements that are included in AAI V24.0.

Introducing AAI v24

AAI version 24.0.0 heralds a new generation of Automation Analytics & Intelligence as a purely browser-based web solution.

Feature Highlights

The following feature highlights were introduced to AAI with v24.0.0.

Default System Dashboard

When a new user logs into AAI, the Dashboard page appears with two pre-defined and pre-loaded dashboard tabs that make up the new System Dashboard. These default dashboard tabs present every user an immediate overview of what is happening in their automation environment in an already compiled and digestible form without needing to know anything about working with AAI. Specifically, the System Dashboard is made up the following Dashboard tabs:

• Business Overview

  This dashboard tab, which the Dashboard opens onto, contains a new Business Area Monthly Performance widget that shows the Jobstream Performance Over the Last Year in one glance on a heat map of percentage of jobstream run successes per month.

• System Overview

  This dashboard tab contains widgets of other data insight types that support monitoring and analysis: Job Status, Completions Status, Processing Load, and Trending Jobs.

From there, they can start to navigate through the data and discover how AAI depicts and presents the different aspects of their automation business processes. Seasoned users can add more tabs for widgets based on data insights they've created or have been shared with them. For information, see The Default Dashboard.

Data Insights

Two new data insights were introduced:

• Business Area Monthly Performance

  This data insight gives you a quick, visual overview of the monthly performance of business areas over the past year on its color-coded heat map, which immediately shows you red zones of SLA failures to green zones of SLA successes. These are based on the percentage of SLA success per month over the last 12 months. You can drill down to sub-business areas and further down until the jobstream level to home in on the trouble areas and trouble times over the last year. For information, see The Business Area Monthly Performance Data Insight.

• Jobstream Runs

  This data insight supports monitoring, triage, and reporting by providing a detailed list of jobstream runs within a date range, where you see execution states, status on SLA compliance, alerts, and much more. With comprehensive jobstream run data in one place, this data insight is useful for operators, jobstream administrators, and business process owners. For information, see The Jobstream Runs Data Insight.

In addition, these general enhancements to the printing options have been introduced to all data insights:

• Renamed Printing tab to Report Settings

  The previous Printing tab was renamed Report Settings to reflect the purpose of the tab options.

• Custom PDF output

  You can now produce PDF output of a data insight in the exact layout and formatting that you want by uploading an xml file with all the report specifications into the Report Settings tab of any data insight definition. For information, see Using a Custom PDF Template in Report Settings for Data Insights.

Support for Automic Automation Sync Objects

Automic Automation SYNC objects whose definitions result in a wait time dependency are now supported and can be depicted on the Gantt chart. Furthermore, a new Resource Wait Time field has been introduced in the Job Properties that exclusively appears with Automic Automic Automation jobs to capture the effect of that kind of SYNC object dependency.

Web Service for the AAI Configuration Tool

The AAI Configuration Tool now has browser-based access over a web service called Webswing. Because of this, you no longer need to connect to the AAI server via a secure shell protocol (SSH) to manage your system configurations. For Linux users, this also means that you don't need X11 to use the AAI Configuration Tool UI. (You still need it for the Linux GUI Installer or Upgrader.)

Except for the access over an internet browser, the tool works exactly as it always has. For information, see Configuring Your AAI System.

GenAI Filter Assistant

A GenAI Filter Assistant enables you to build filter statements by entering natural language queries rather than going through a structured selection of criteria through menu options. You can build up a filter by entering simple filter queries incrementally or entering a complex filter query in one statement, such as, "Show me all jobstreams with more than 100 runs in the last two days and that failed and had no alerts." This optional feature must be toggled on to make it available to all users wherever they see a standard filter menu. For more information, see Filtering with the AI Filter Assistant.

In-Product Custom Help Content

AAI now allows you to add your own custom help content to the AAI Help panel using Broadcom's own Integrated Content Experience (ICE) Admin tool. This capability helps you provide your users with in-product help content about using individual AAI pages that is specific to your organization. You can supplement the default AAI Help with custom content, in which you can embed links to other resources that you want to direct your users to, including links to videos, or even completely replace the existing content with content of your own creation. For more information, see Creating Custom In-Product Help.

AAI Server 24.0.0

This release of AAI includes enhancements for both end users and administrators, as well as a number of bug fixes.

Enhancements for Users

For operators, jobstream administrators, and business process owner the following features and enhancements were added with this release:

• Alerts are surfaced on jobstream pages

  Alerts that are triggered during jobstream runs are not only listed on the Alerts tab of a jobstream details, they now appear throughout AAI where there is jobstream run information:

  • On the Gantt chart for a jobstream run a badge for the alert is added at the top of the timeline chart at the moment when the alert was triggered. Alert details appear on mouseover.

  • The total number of alerts that were triggered on a jobstream run appears in a button icon that's color-coded to indicate the highest severity level among those alerts on pages that list jobstream runs: The Jobstream Runs Grid view and all three views on the Run Details tab of a jobstream details, and the new Jobstream Runs data insight. This button opens a panel with a table listing the individual alerts and their details.

• Several views of job run averages and trends

  The Average Runs tab of a job's details page has been reorganized with Average Runs and Last Run statistics clearly grouped together, and to include three views of job run history. In addition to the averages per day of the week and a graphic of the moving average over time, a third view with a graph of the job trend history was added. For information, see Job Details - Average Runs.

• Job dependencies fully depicted

  On the Related Jobs and Jobstreams tab of a job's details page, the Job Hierarchy section has been enhanced to allow you to choose how man levels of Parentage, Predecessor jobs, Successor jobs, and Children jobs that you want to see. The parentage hierarchy is graphically represented for quick comprehension, and the tables in the other categories now show Job Type and Parentage for each listed job. Finally, an export function was added, so that you can capture the data in a downloaded CSV based on the levels of jobs that you want to include. For information, see Job Details - Related Jobs and Jobstreams.

• Gantt view enhancements

  The following enhancements to the Gantt chart navigation and functionality were added:

  • The toolbar was reorganized into grouped menus of view options.

  • You can now choose to hide the Jobs data table and have a full page for the Gantt timeline.

  • When viewing a jobstream run on the Gantt chart, you can open the jobstream details in a new tab.

  • When machine usage data is available for a jobstream run, you can now view the Machine Usage data on a graph above the timeline and you have the option to view the machine details on a separate page. For information, see Viewing Jobstream Machine Usage on the Gantt View.

  • When virtual resource usage data is available for a jobstream run, you can now view the Virtual Resources data on a graph above the timeline and you have the option to view the virtual resource details on a separate page.For information, see Viewing Jobstream Virtual Resource Usage on the Gantt View.

• New scheduler-specific dependencies depicted on the Gantt view

  • As mentioned in the Feature Highlights section at the beginning of these release notes, Automic Automation SYNC objects whose definitions result in a wait time dependency are now supported and can be depicted on the Gantt chart. Furthermore, a new Resource Wait Time field has been introduced in the Job Properties that exclusively appears with Automic Automic Automation jobs to capture the effect of that kind of SYNC object dependency.

  • CA7 end-to-end dependencies in jobstream runs are now depicted on the Gantt chart with successor lines going from the end of the predecessor job to the end of the successor job, rather than the beginning of the successor job, as with typical for dependency relationships.

  For information on these, see Seeing Scheduler-Specific Dependencies on the Gantt View.

• View toggle for Dashboard widgets

  The Dashboard widgets were enhanced to include toggle buttons to switch among views showing just the graph, just the table, or both, as you have on data insights.

• Enhancements of Data Presentation in Data Insight and Widget Columns

  To ease viewing the data on data insight and widget data columns the following enhancements were made:

  • Required columns can also be hidden

  • When the full data cannot be shown within the column width, and ellipsis (... ) indicates that the data overflows.

  • Minimum width is never less that the column header or any standard value format, such as in date and time columns.

Enhancements for AAI Administrators

For AAI administrators the following features and enhancements are included with this release:

• System Alerts

  As part of the final feature parity with the thick client, you can now define System Alert Settings in the Settings area of AAI, where you can define the email subscribers to receive alert notifications. For SNMP notifications, you can see the triggered alerts on the System Alerts page under the System area in AAI. For convenience you can link directly back to the alert definitions. For information, see System Alerts.

• PostgreSQL support for AutoSys schedulers

  You can now define a PostgreSQL database type for you AutoSys schedulers in AAI.

• Default admin password changes managed seamlessly

  Changing the default admin password no longer needs to be followed up with a configuration change. As an admin , you can now simply change the password on the interface just as any password without touching configuration parameters. Parameters are changed automatically.

• Action menu for Schedulers

  An Action menu with Edit and Delete options was added for each scheduler on the Schedulers list on the System Monitoring page (previously called the System page) so that how to take these actions on a scheduler definition are clearer and more accessible.

• System page renamed to System Monitoring and moved

  The System section of the navigation panel was reorganized to add the new System Alerts page. With this, the previous link to the System page has been renamed System Monitoring and moved to be a subsection under the System menu on the same level as the System Alerts link.

Bug Fixes

This AAI version includes the bug fixes listed below:

• Enhanced changing the password for the default admin user so it works like any other password reset in the user profile without having to also update a hidden system parameter.

  Associated ticket: DE153044

• Fixed an issue to ensure that when you update the Autosys Archive Path in the Advanced tab of the Edit dialog, the changes are retained when you re-open the dialog.

  Associated ticket: DE129387

• Fixed an issue to ensure that when an Automic job is deleted, its associated calendars are deleted from the database with no constraints. To resolve this, AAI now creates a unique calendar for each Automic Universal scheduler job.

  Associated ticket: DE129932

• Fixed an issue where one Airflow jobstream run showed multiple, duplicate runs with the same run time on the Jobstream Runs Timeline view.

  Associated ticket: DE129935

• Fixed an issue on the Basic Information tab of a job's details page that caused internal html tags to display in the Custom Dependency value.

  Associated ticket: DE119778

• Fixed an issue to ensure that complex criteria in the advanced job search which include "not null" criteria are correctly honored.
  

• Fixed an issue that the AutoSys filewatcher was not able to detect a CA7 generated file it was watching for. This was resolved with the enhancement to support end-to-end dependencies in CA7-AutoSys cross-scheduler jobstreams.

  Associated ticket: DE120900

• Fixed an issue with the Collector service for the Audit History so that when the connection to an Oracle SID fails, it will fallback to try to connect to the Oracle service instead.

  Associated ticket: DE129944

• Fixed an issue on the Completion Status data insight to ensure that the correct status colors appear on the tiles.

  Associated ticket: DE155161

• Fixed an issue on the Job Status data insight that caused the Next Predicted Start Time and Next Predicted End Time columns to be empty of data

  Associated ticket: DE156522

• Fixed an issue so that deleted AutoSys jobs no longer appear on the Job Status data insight.

  Associated ticket: DE153357

• Fixed an issue with the filters for Simulated runs on the Jobstream Runs pages so that the filter settings persist for each user from one session to the next and each user's filter settings remain insulated from bleedthrough from any other user's settings.

  Associated ticket: DE154873

• Confirmed that, although simulations can only be run for AutoSys schedulers, if a simulated AutoSys jobstream has cross-scheduler dependencies with CA7 jobs, these will also be depicted in the simulated runs.

  Associated ticket: DE154874

• Fixed an issue to ensure that forecasted simulation runs are represented correctly by adding 24 hours to the requested simulation date range in the forecast calculations.

  Associated ticket: DE155072

The following component upgrades were made to resolve security vulnerabilities:

• Upgraded Apache Tomcat package (including tomcat-embed-core, tomcat-embed-el, tomcat-embed-websocket) from version 9.0.88 to 9.0.97 to resolve the following vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-6864

  • BDSA-2024-8736

  • BDSA-2024-4117

• Upgraded Spring Framework package from version 5.3.37 to 5.3.42 to resolve the following vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-5369

  • BDSA-2024-5371

  • BDSA-2024-5686

  • BDSA-2024-6258

  • BDSA-2024-7391

  • BDSA-2024-8653

  • CVE-2024-38820 (BDSA-2024-7393)

Database Schema Upgrade Summary from 6.5.4

The following new tables have been added with this release:

• ReportTemplate

• JobStreamPerformance

• UniversalResource

• UniversalResourceAction

• UniversalResourceHistory

The following tables have been modified with this release:

 

Table Name	Change Type	Column(s) Affected
Report	Add	reportTemplateId
Report	Add	useCustomTemplate
JobCondition	Add	universalResourceId
JobCondition	Add	startAction
JobCondition	Add	abendAction
JobCondition	Add	endAction
JobCondition	Add	cannotStartBehavior
JobCondition	Add	evaluationOrder
JobRun	Add	resourceWaitTime

AAI Connector Framework 24.0.0

The AAI Connector Framework contains the following bug fixes.

Bug Fixes

The following component upgrades were made to resolve AAI Connector Framework security vulnerabilities:

• Upgraded the Apache Tomcat version from 9.0.87 to 9.0.97 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-4117

  • BDSA-2024-6864

  • BDSA-2024-8736

• Upgraded the Netty version from 4.1.109 to 4.1.115 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-8565

• Upgraded the PathJson version from 2.7.0 to 2.9.0 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2023-3682

• Upgraded the Spring Boot version from 2.7.18 to 2.7.23 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-5686

• Upgraded the Spring Framework version from 5.3.34 to 5.3.42 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-5369

  • BDSA-2024-5371

  • BDSA-2024-6258

  • BDSA-2024-7391

  • BDSA-2024-8653

  • CVE-2016-1000027

  • CVE-2024-38820 (BDSA-2024-7393)

Airflow Connector 24.0.0

The Airflow Connector contains the following enhancements and bug fixes. The version number reflects an alignment with the AAI version 24.0.0 package.

Enhancements

Significantly improved the performance and accuracy of Airflow jobstream runs by collecting run data from the Airflow event logs.

Bug Fixes

The following component upgrades were made to resolve Airflow connector security vulnerabilities:

• Upgraded Apache Tomcat package (including tomcat-embed-core, tomcat-embed-el, tomcat-embed-websocket) from version 9.0.88 to 9.0.97 to resolve the following vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-6864

  • BDSA-2024-8736

  • BDSA-2024-4117

• Upgraded Spring Framework package from version 5.3.37 to 5.3.42 to resolve the following vulnerabilities::

  • BDSA-2024-5369

  • BDSA-2024-5371

  • BDSA-2024-5686

  • BDSA-2024-6258

  • BDSA-2024-7391

  • BDSA-2024-8653

  • CVE-2024-38820 (BDSA-2024-7393)

Automic Connector 24.0.0

The version number reflects an alignment with the AAI version 24.0.0 package.

Bug Fixes

The following Automic connector bug fixes were made with this release:

• Fixed an issue that caused inconsistent discovery of object headers in Automation Engine environments with multiple JWP Indexer Roles.

• Fixed an issue with increased load on the REST-API process by optimizing and reducing calls used to discover objects.

In addition, the following component upgrades were made to resolve Automic Automation connector security vulnerabilities:

• Upgraded the Spring Boot version from 2.7.18 to 2.7.23 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-5686

• Upgraded the Spring Framework version from 5.3.34 to 5.3.42 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • CVE-2016-1000027

  • BDSA-2024-7391

  • BDSA-2024-6258

  • CVE-2024-38820

  • BDSA-2024-7393

  • BDSA-2024-5369

  • BDSA-2024-5371

• Upgraded the Apache Tomcat version from 9.0.88 to 9.0.97 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-6864

  • BDSA-2024-8736

  • BDSA-2024-4117

• Upgraded the Netty Project version from 4.1.110.Final to 4.1.115.Final to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-8565

• Upgraded the json-path version from 2.7.0 to 2.9.0 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2023-3682

Control-M Connector 24.0.0

The Control-M Connector contains the following bug fixes. The version number reflects an alignment with the AAI version 24.0.0 package.

Bug Fixes

The following component upgrades were made to resolve Control-M Connector security vulnerabilities:

• Upgraded the Apache Tomcat version from 9.0.87 to 9.0.97 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-4117

  • BDSA-2024-6864

  • BDSA-2024-8736

• Upgraded the Netty version from 4.1.109 to 4.1.115 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-8565

• Upgraded the PathJson version from 2.7.0 to 2.9.0 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2023-3682

• Upgraded the Spring Boot version from 2.7.18 to 2.7.23 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-5686

• Upgraded the Spring Framework version from 5.3.34 to 5.3.42 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-5369

  • BDSA-2024-5371

  • BDSA-2024-6258

  • BDSA-2024-7391

  • BDSA-2024-8653

  • CVE-2016-1000027

  • CVE-2024-38820 (BDSA-2024-7393)

IWS Connector 24.0.0

The IWS Connector contains the following bug fixes. The version number reflects an alignment with the AAI version 24.0.0 package.

Bug Fixes

The following component upgrades were made to resolve IWS Connector security vulnerabilities:

• Upgraded the Apache Tomcat version from 9.0.87 to 9.0.97 to resolve the following security vulnerabilities:

  • BDSA-2024-4117

  • BDSA-2024-6864

  • BDSA-2024-8736

Sunsetting Technologies

Reaching this milestone in the evolution of AAI as a completely web-based solution included the sunsetting of the following components that are no longer needed to deliver the full feature capabilities that you are used to:

• The java-based thick client

• The Reporting Server (also known as the BI Server)

Thick Client Removed

Now that feature parity has been achieved in the Web UI, the Java-based thick client has been sunsetted. If access is needed for any reason, please contact support to temporarily enable the thick client.

Reporting Server Removed

With the introduction of data insights in the Web UI, a separate reporting server is no longer needed. As such, the Jasper based Reporting Server has been removed from the AAI solution. The functionality of the client reports and Insight reports, which relied on the Reporting Server, have been recreated or re-imagined in the current web-based AAI. The Vision reports, which do not rely on the Reporting Server, are still available on the Web v1 interface.

Specifically, the following have been removed with the removal of the Reporting Server:

• On the user interfaces:

  • The Insight reports, which relied on the Reporting Server, have been removed from the Web v1 interface.

  • Tabs for Report Scheduling and Reporting Configuration have been removed from the System Tools on the Web v1 interface.

• Technical and structural changes:

  • The Reporting Server is gone, and with it, you no longer need the Jasper server that it ran on. You can remove this after upgrading to AAI v24. This is covered in the upgrading steps.

  • The following hidden parameters that supported the Reporting Server have been removed: reportHost, reportPassword, reportPort, reportProtocol, and reportUser.

  • There is no longer a need for a mirroring historical database for AAI. The performance concern was related to the Reporting Server accessing the same database that the AAI server was processing executions on. This is no longer an issue.

For more information, see Considerations When Upgrading to v24.x.x from v6.x.x.