New and changed features

This section provides high level and detailed views of what is new in this release. Searchable notes in the text of this documentation reiterate what's new, changed, or deprecated.

For 8.5.5.13 and later, this WebSphere® Application Server documentation no longer has detailed information about Liberty. This documentation focuses on the WebSphere Application Server full profile. For information about Liberty, see the Liberty documentation in IBM documentation and the Open Liberty website.

If you are licensed for both the WebSphere Application Server 8.5 and 9.0 product versions, it is recommended that you use the unversioned Liberty. The unversioned Liberty is the focus of the Liberty documentation in IBM documentation and the Open Liberty website. The Installation Manager offering for the unversioned Liberty is com.ibm.websphere.liberty.edition.

If you are licensed for WebSphere Application Server 8.5 only, you can continue to use the versioned (8.5) Liberty; fix packs for the versioned and unversioned Liberty deliver the same content. The Installation Manager offering for the versioned Liberty is com.ibm.websphere.liberty.edition.v85. Depending on the terms of your license, you also might be able to migrate to WebSphere Application Server 9.0 and use the unversioned Liberty at no additional charge. It is recommended that you migrate to the unversioned Liberty eventually.