What's new in IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps 4.10.0

Get a quick overview of what is new with IBM Cloud Pak® for AIOps.

IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps leverages AI to streamline IT operations, increase uptime, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. The solution supports Operations teams to deliver optimum performance and assurance by:

  • Breaking down data silos
  • Providing real-time insights into IT systems
  • Augmenting incident management with AI
  • Automating incident resolution

For details on all of the new features and changes introduced with this IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps version, review the following sections:

Install and upgrade

Multi-zone high availability and disaster recovery (HADR) (IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on Red Hat OpenShift) Deployment of IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on a multi-zone architecture (multi-zone HADR) moves from being a technology preview to a full feature. Learn more

Console install and console upgrade To streamline the installation and upgrade flows, the console install and console upgrade topics are removed from the documentation. This is in line with the notification in these topics in the IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps v4.9.1 documentation. Use the CLI based procedures in Online production installation of IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps (CLI method) and Online upgrade of IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps (CLI method).

Prerequisite checking for new installs (IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on Red Hat OpenShift) The aiopsctl tool is used to check whether the Red Hat OpenShift cluster is correctly configured for an install of IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps. The prerequisite checker script prereq.sh should no longer be used. Learn more

Prerequisite checking for upgrades (IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on Red Hat OpenShift) The aiopsctl tool is used to check whether the Red Hat OpenShift cluster is correctly configured for an upgrade of IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps, and to check for expired or expiring certificates. The prerequisite checker script prereq.sh should no longer be used. Learn more

OpenSearch replaces Elasticsearch The replacement of the ibm-elasticsearch operator by ibm-opensearch-operator is completed. No user action is required.

Self-monitoring (IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on Red Hat OpenShift):

  • The circuit breaker feature is renamed to self-protection in this release.
  • The creation and configuration of the cluster-monitoring-config configmap is simplified, and is also collapsed from two topics into one for an easier flow. Learn more
  • The creation and configuration of the user-workload-monitoring-config configmap is simplified, and is also collapsed from two topics into one for an easier flow. Learn more
  • Self-monitoring with alerts from Red Hat OpenShift is now automatically configured, and does not have to be manually set up. Learn more
  • Prometheus rules for pod monitors and storage rules for Kafka and Zookeeper are now automatically configured, and do not have to be manually set up. Learn more
  • Kafka metrics are now automatically configured, and do not have to be manually set up. There is a new procedure to enable Kafka JMX metrics. Learn more

Install with GitOps (IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on Red Hat OpenShift): Use the Red Hat OpenShift GitOps operator to install a production deployment of IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps from a Git repository that has Helm chart templates for IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps. Learn more

Image mirroring options for offline deployments (IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform) The installation, upgrade and backup procedures are updated to support image mirroring using ImageDigestMirrorSet (IDMS) in addition to the existing ImageContentSourcePolicy (ICSP) option. Learn more

Automating processes

  • Runbooks: The Preview runbook and View runbook activity details pages provide information about conditional branching for action steps if the related runbook has conditional branching configured.

  • Policies: A Needs review field is added to Policy details. This field is set to either 'No' or 'Yes - see the Specifications tab' and indicates if some element of a policy requires evaluation. For more information, see Policy details.

Resolving incidents and alerts

  • The Netcool to Cloud Pak for AIOps migration tool is designed to help with the seamless transition of Netcool configurations from Netcool Operations Insight to Cloud Pak for AIOps. The Netcool to Cloud Pak for AIOps migration tool helps organizations move Netcool filter and runbook triggers to Cloud Pak for AIOps. For more details, see Migration of Netcool configuration to Cloud Pak for AIOps.

  • Created alert views are now available for use in the seasonal and temporal policy justification pages. For more information, see Creating views.

  • A new Alert integration topic is available that described the alert (event) lifecycle and configuration optiomns.

These features move from being a technology preview to a full feature:

Managing applications (services) and viewing topologies

  • A new External Risk Observer is available that helps you to determine if your infrastructure is at risk, for example from adverse weather conditions or wildfires. The observer jobs extract data from external risk monitoring systems such as the Weather Company's Alert APIs, NASA’s MODIS and FIRMS, and NOAA's Hazard Mapping System, and load/display appropriate resources with defined geolocation data.

  • A new Show single points of failure toggle is available in the topology viewer that, when selected, highlights any resources or relationships that are the only connection between two other resources in the currently displayed topology. These highlighted resources/relationships are single points of potential failure, because should any of these resources or relationships fail or be removed it would prevent the two resources from being joined.

  • The File Observer now allows for multi-file data loading.

  • The Instana Observer has been updated with additional parameters and information.

  • The Data origin tab now also contains a table listing any rules that have operated on this resource.

Infrastructure Automation

  • Integration with Terraform Enterprise: Terraform Enterprise is an application that helps teams use Terraform together. It manages Terraform runs in a consistent and reliable environment. [Learn more](../infrastructure/automation_management_providers.html## Terraform Enterprise).
  • Updates to OpenShift virtualization: OpenShift virtualization support is updated to have the support for Red Hat virtualization. [Learn more](../infrastructure/support_matrix.html### 6.1.2 Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization (KubeVirt)).
  • Added VM Reconfigure support for OSV.

Monitoring

You can use Prometheus as a monitoring system and Grafana as a visualization tool to monitor your existing installation of IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps. Prometheus and Grafana can be installed and configured on a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

In addition to the existing Health and Usage dashboards for monitoring Cloud Pak for AIOps, the following dashboards are now available:

Event processing This dashboard focuses on providing visibility into the underlying Cloud Pak for AIOps components that handle the ingestion and processing of events, alerts, and incidents. Learn more

Web UI dashboard This dashboard focuses on providing visibility into the underlying Cloud Pak for AIOps components that run the web UI. Learn more

Topology dashboard This dashboard focuses on providing visibility into the underlying Cloud Pak for AIOps components that handle the ingestion and composition of topological resources and their relationships. Learn more

Non-production (technology preview)

  • Visualizing analytics with IBM Cognos Analytics: The supported capabilities when integrating with IBM Cognos Analytics are improved:

    • You can create policies to send the alert or incident data from IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps to populate a dashboard or report in IBM Cognos® Analytics. For more information about using policies to send data for a dashboard or report, see Populating a dashboard or report.

    • A new Incident list widget and Button widget are available for use in building a custom dashboard. For more information about the available widgets that you can use, see IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps widgets within IBM Cognos Analytics.

    • Example dashboards are now available to help you learn about the capabilities of the available widgets and to help you create your own dashboard. For more information about creating a dashboard, see Creating a dashboard.

    Overall, this integration provides you with additional tools to create custom dashboards and reports to visualize and analyze your IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps data. When you set up this integration, you can open IBM Cognos Analytics from the Cloud Pak for AIOps console and begin using IBM Cognos Analytics dashboards to build visualizations of your IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps data, such as alert and topology data.

For more information about these feature previews, see Non-production features (Technology preview).

Security and compliance

  • Fixed security vulnerabilities: Fixes and updates are included to address reported security-related vulnerabilities with IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps. For more information about the included fixes, see Security bulletins and fixes.

Documentation changes

Documentation for previous versions prior to Version 4.6.0 are available as only PDF documents. To view these PDFs, see IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps PDF documentation.

Previously introduced features and changes

For more information about new features and changes that were introduced in previous versions of IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps, see: