CDA 12.2 Release Highlights

Release Notes

Visit https://downloads.automic.com/ to get lists of new features, fixed bugs, and known issues.

Checking Application, Platform and Database Compatibility

Visit Automic Compatibility Matrix and select the Product, Component, Sub-Component, and Version to check which applications, platforms, and databases are compatible.

Release Policy

It is recommendable to install always the latest Service Pack or Hotfix. Both contain valuable corrections and bug fixes between Major and Minor Releases, where new features and enhancements are introduced.

The software version information consists of the following identifiers, as shown in this example:

12.2.1 HF 1

• Major Release: 12

  This is the main version of a software release. It is identified by the first segment of the entire version number.

• Minor Release: 2

  This includes new features, modifications, and corrections that may contain major changes such as database modifications. It is identified by the second segment of the entire version number.

Major and Minor releases for Automation Engine are feature releases supplied at 9-month intervals.

• Service Pack: 1

  This is a patch for a release and contains corrections for errors. New features or modifications are not included. Service packs are identified by the third segment of the entire version number.

• Hotfix: HF1

  This is a minor sub-release to remove malfunctions and defects. Hotfixes are indicated by an HF number after the version number.

Service Packs and Hotfixes are maintenance releases supplied at 4-month intervals.

Important!

• The Automation Engine and the Automic Web Interface components must have the same service pack/hotfix version number.

• When a hotfix is issued for the AWI or the AE component, there is either a confirmation that there are no incompatibility issues, or an equivalent hotfix for both components is released at the same time.

• If a hotfix has been released for both components, you should upgrade both components to ensure compatibility.

• In case of any doubt, components bundled together in a download offering are tested for compatibility. An offering always contains the same service pack/hotfix version of the AE and AWI components.

  For more information, see Automic Compatibility Matrix.

License Key Checks

The requirement for a License Key based on customer contracted entitlement was removed from the products in V12.2.2.

This was for a number of reasons:

• Multiple Customer requests
• Customer survey feedback
• Removal of a License Generation process which does not add any meaningful value for the customer or Broadcom
• Removal of any risk of a customer outage due to a missing/expired license key

Telemetry

The Telemetry capability was added into the solution in V12.2.2. This enables information about product usage to be sent to CA Technologies, a Broadcom Company (CA).

Telemetry does not collect Personal Identifiable Information (PII) that could identify components (Servers, Network addresses etc) .

The information is restricted to the following:

Automic Workload Automation

• Number of Automation Engine / HA instances
• Number of Active nodes (Technology nodes, Application nodes and Midrange nodes)
• Number of job executions

Continuous Delivery Automation

• Number of Automation Engine / HA instances
• Number of Deployment Targets

Automic Service Orchestration

• Number of Automation Engine / HA instances
• Number of Orchestration Targets

For more information, see Telemetry.

Continuous Delivery Automation

View our short introductory video on what is new:

• ARA has been renamed! Automic Release Automation is now called Continuous Delivery Automation (CDA). The new product name reflects the successful integration of Automic into CA Technologies.
• You can now store your CDA data in a PostgreSQL database system. See the Installing CDA (ARA) & Upgrade Installation sections.
• CA CDA entities "as code": The new REST API features and JSON schemas allow you to work with CDA entities "as code" to create, update, and transfer entities between multiple clients. To do so, you can update the serialized content of CDA in the IDE of your choice together with your GIT repository. These features are fully integrated into your Software Development Life Cycle. See: Working with CDA Entities as Code
• To facilitate the staging of Applications directly from the AWI, we have added the concept of Application Packs. You can create Application Packs to export/import Applications and their related entities via Plug-in Manager/Package Manager. See: Creating Application Packs
• The newly added artifact model capabilities will allow you to manage Applications at a granular level. The extended reporting capabilities that are provided with this feature also improve auditability. See: Working with Artifacts
• Save time and effort by using the new auto-discovery feature. This function identifies and imports the custom properties of a specific Deployment Target type into a new Deployment Target definition. See Working with Deployment Targets
• Objects, Actions, and Components can be shared among different Applications to speed up development, improve consistency and implement deployment best practices: Action Best Practices
• The Global and Advanced Search functions have been enhanced: Searching Functions
• To quickly identify the entities which might lead to deployment problems, the new Deployment Profile Status widget provides you with an overview of the Profile status of a defined group of Applications: Deployment Profile Status Widget
• The Deployment Pipeline widget has a new look-and-feel. Check it out here: Deployment Pipeline Widget
• The DB clean-up utility has been enhanced in various ways. See the changes here: Working with the Clean-up Utility.
• Check out the extended features for customizing your system in the customer.config file section (for example, the Workflow Execution dialog): Configuring the Web Application - Customer.Config
• General and Application Workflows, Components, and Deployment Packages can be now duplicated.
• Monitoring and Diagnostics: combined data from different event types can be used to analyze how your CDA system is performing and fix possible issues and bottlenecks. See: CDA Monitoring and Diagnostics
• The agent credentials that are defined in Login objects can be now stored in external password vaults. See: Login Objects and Account Credentials
• The user documentation has been restructured and simplified:
  • The number of topics has been reduced by 70 percent.
  • All the information you need to work with an entity can be found on the same page.
  • The documentation topics are now role-based. You can always find information about the target reader at the top of each page.
• As of v12.2, the CDA documentation includes the CA CDD, Jenkins, and JIRA plug-ins and the documentation of the five most commonly used Action Packs. See: CDA Plug-ins for Third-Party Products.

Analytics and Reporting on External Data

• Analytics & Reporting on AWA/ARA Data introduced with version 12 as part of platform.

  • Analytics now provides a VARA to Grid widget. The widget helps you to reveal a visual picture of trends across your organization. The VARA to Grid widget replaces the deprecated Cockpit (CPIT) object. Read: Creating VARA to Grid Charts
  • Analytics & Reporting is able to include data from external sources. Read about it at: Creating Dynamic Charts using EXEC VARA
  • Reuse existing platform capabilities for data integration (VARA.SQL, VARA.SQLI, VARA.EXECUTE,…) Read about it at: Creating dynamic charts using SQLi VARA Objects
  • Visualize metrics from automated systems or from business processes.
  • Can be used in package solutions like: Temenos /Disaster recovery / ...

Event Engine

• Enables the Automation Engine to respond to more sophisticated event triggers.
  • Webhook Event objects let you to integrate your system webhooks with the Event Engine. Learn more here: WEBHOOK Events and Integrating Webhook Events from External Systems
  • Reduces overhead of manually scripting and system overhead of processing IF-THEN-LOGIC. Learn more here: Simple Rule
  • Allows you to process rules against any Automic object. Not limited to tasks and Workflows.
  • Exposes as much event processing as required vs full complex event processing. Learn more here:Getting Started with the Event Engine
  • Supports up to 50,000 events per second.
  • Enables use of intelligent automation.
  • Capture event flow from multiple services and devices to correlate source of failure and start automated recovery. Learn more here: State Change Rule
  • Proactively engage retail and service provider customers in real-time by automatically detecting and responding to their behavior.

DCS (Data Service Collection)

• Data Collection Service (DCS) is a feature where One Automation collects data on its internal mechanisms and its IT environment. The data can be automatically sent to Automic. You can also access the data and use it for internal purposes. Learn more here: Data Collection Services (DCS)
• By sharing data with Automic, you help Automic build knowledge from customer environments and work on enhancements on products and services. The data sharing mechanism is secure and auditable. Learn more here: Performance Check
• Internally, data can be exported from One Automation and sent to a third-party reporting application for example. Learn more here: How to use collected data internally