What was New in Version 10.8

This document covers the following topics:

Security Enhancements

  • Default Password Handling
    For greater security, default password handling has been enhanced for Software AG products that are installed with the SAG Installer. On the Administrator Password panel, enter a default product administrator password for the products you are installing, and choose whether to require the password to be changed on first product login. The password must be at least 8 characters long. The maximum number of consecutive identical characters (for example "aaa") or sequential characters (for example "123") is 3.

    Notes:

    1. If you are migrating from a previous install base, the password of this previous version applies, regardless of what you specify in the Administrator Password panel. We recommend you change this password as soon as possible.
    2. If you are planning to use the deployment functionality of the Web Services Stack for EntireX Web Services in the Designer, we strongly recommend adopting the new password in the Web Services Stack preferences of the Designer. (Window > Preferences > Software AG > Web Services Stack > Deployment). See Deploying Web Services.

  • Encrypted Password for ETBINFO and ETBCMD
    Security for command-line utilities ETBINFO and ETBCMD under Linux and Windows has been enhanced. Instead of specifying a cleartext password when you call a secure broker, you can now encrypt a password and store this in a file. See Using an Encrypted Password for ETBINFO (Linux | Windows) and ETBCMD (Linux | Windows).

  • Encrypted Password for EntireX Monitoring Scripts
    Password encryption is also available for EntireX monitoring scripts. See:

    • Using an Encrypted Password in section Introduction under EntireX Monitoring Scripts

    • Monitoring Broker under EntireX Monitoring Scripts for a sample script using an encrypted password

    • Note under Default Handling under EntireX Monitoring Scripts if your default settings file was created with a previous version of EntireX that did not support password encryption.

  • PassTicket Support
    PassTickets are now supported for connections to CICS ECI and IMS Connect with the EntireX Adapter and the respective RPC servers. See CICS ECI and IMS Connect Connections Support PassTickets under EntireX Adapter Enhancements.

    See also EntireX RPC Server Enhancements.

EntireX Adapter Enhancements

Enhanced CICS Support

See EntireX Adapter Enhancements above.

Command Central Enhancements

  • Administrating EntireX Mainframe Broker Monitoring
    You can now administer EntireX Mainframe Broker Monitoring in Command Central. You can enable and disable the monitoring of the real mainframe broker (z/OS and BS2000) from within Command Central running under Linux or Windows. This feature is particularly useful for major configuration changes in the mainframe environment, for example changing the user password. If you did not disable monitoring you would encounter a security error stating that the mainframe proxy is not able to log in to the real mainframe broker. See:

  • User Transaction ID Field for CICS Socket Listener
    User Transaction ID has been added as an additional field for CICS Socket Listener. For more information on controlling user transaction ID via Command Central, see:

  • Location of EntireX Broker Trace File
    You can now change the directory of the EntireX Broker trace file. For more information see new parameter Trace Location under Administering the EntireX Broker using the Command Central GUI | Command Line.

Designer Enhancements

  • New Default Interface Type for IDL Extractor for COBOL
    'CICS with Standard Linkage Calling Convention' is now the default client interface type for the IDL Extractor for COBOL. The previous default, 'CICS with DFHCOMMAREA Calling Convention' has multiple restrictions regarding API calls, for example

    • maximum length 32 KB

    • no unlimited unbounded array

    • no long user ID/password

    These restrictions do not apply to the new default.

  • Supported Microsoft Visual Studio Versions
    C Wrapper and DCOM Wrapper now support Visual Studio 2019 in addition to 2017. Visual Studio 2015 is no longer supported.

  • EntireX now supports Eclipse version 4.19 provided by the webMethods suite.

EntireX RPC Server Enhancements

  • RPC Server for IMS Connect supports RACF PassTicket
    Additional fields are provided to define a secured signon key. With the application name and the newly provided secured signon key, you can now use a RACF PassTicket instead of password. See Configuring an RPC Server Instance > IMS Connect using the Command Central GUI | Command Line.

  • RPC Server for CICS ECI supports RACF PassTicket
    Additional fields are provided to define a secured signon key. With the application name and the newly provided secured signon key, you can now use a RACF PassTicket instead of password. See Configuring the CICS ECI Side.

Documentation Enhancements

  • Monitoring
    A new section introduces the various monitoring approaches provided by EntireX. It also shows common scenarios using these approaches. Links are provided to other sections of the EntireX documentation, where these approaches are described in greater detail. See Monitoring EntireX.

Other Changes and Enhancements

  • PSTORE-TYPE=CTREE
    c-tree is now known as FairCom DB. EntireX version 10.8 uses FairCom DB v12.0.1.

    This new version is not compatible with the old version 11.6.1. This means that when you upgrade to EntireX 10.8 you will need to restart with PSTORE=COLD. See PSTORE under Broker-specific Broker Attributes.

  • Trace Utility
    Two additional columns Pid and Tid have been introduced. They display the process ID and the thread ID of each request to the broker.

  • ETBINFO
    New profiles are provided for command-line utility ETBINFO. These produce a more structured output that is easier to understand. See Table of Options and Profiles (z/OS | Linux | Windows).