What's new in Maximo Manage 8.0

Product name change

In Maximo Application Suite, IBM® Maximo Asset Management is renamed IBM Maximo Manage. The industry solutions and add-ons that are included in Maximo Application Suite are also renamed. For more information, see Maximo Manage components.

Deploying and activating Maximo Manage

Maximo Manage is an application in Maximo Application Suite. Maximo Application Suite is a suite of asset management and data analytic offerings. Maximo Application Suite is offered as a customer-managed product on Red Hat® OpenShift® and as an IBM Managed solution.

To access and use Maximo Manage, you deploy and activate Maximo Manage in Maximo Application Suite. For more information, see Deploying Maximo Manage in Maximo Application Suite.

Upgrading to Maximo Manage 8.0

You can upgrade to Maximo Manage 8.0 from Maximo Asset Management. Before you upgrade, you must have Maximo Asset Management 7.6.1.2 installed. For more information, see Upgrading from Maximo Asset Management to Maximo Manage.

Maintaining calibration assets and standards

Calibration is included in the base entitlement for Maximo Manage and no longer requires an additional license or install. When you deploy Maximo Manage, calibration functionality is also included. For more information, see Managing calibration assets and standards.

Maintaining linear assets

Linear is included in the base entitlement for Maximo Manage and no longer requires an additional license or install. When you deploy Maximo Manage, linear functions is also included. For more information, see Linear assets management.

Planning and scheduling work

Scheduler is included in the base entitlement for Maximo Manage and no longer requires an additional license or install. When you deploy Maximo Manage, scheduler functionality is also included. For more information, see Planning and scheduling work.

Maximo Mobile

Maximo Mobile is a next-generation mobile application platform that is supported by Maximo Manage. Maximo Mobile allows users use mobile devices to securely access Maximo Manage functionality. The Maximo Mobile apps provide a mobile user with capabilities to manage work and conduct inspections both when the app is connected and disconnected. For more information, see Using Maximo Mobile.

User management

Users are added and authenticated in Maximo Application Suite. Users who have an entitlement to Maximo Manage are synchronized to Maximo Manage.

If you are upgrading from Maximo Asset Management to Maximo Application Suite, user records in the Maximo database are imported by Maximo Application Suite if they do not exist there or if they are not managed by an identity provider.

License type updates can be sent to Maximo Application Suite when authorizations change or when the calculated license type has a different entitlement value in Maximo Manage.

Security groups

Authorization enables access to applications, application actions, and data in Maximo Manage. Authorization is provided by assigning users to one or more security groups in Maximo Manage. You can create security groups in Maximo Manage. If you manage users in an LDAP user registry, you create groups in the user registry and synchronize the data to Maximo Application Suite so that it can be synchronized to Maximo Manage. Map your LDAP groups to Maximo Manage security groups before you synchronize them to the suite. For more information, see Security group synchronization and default assignments.

Logging

Maximo Manage server logs are written to standard output. You can view or process log output using various tools, such as an aggregation of logs in an Red Hat OpenShift cluster-level logging stack.

Electronic signature

Electronic signature keys must conform to the same rules as product passwords. Any key that is manually created or automatically generated from a reset action is validated by using the rules for user passwords, such as password length or excluded words. For more information, see Electronic signature verification.

Kafka updates

You can browse message content in a Kafka queue using a REST API that the product provides. Browse message content to analyze it or to troubleshoot processing. For more information, see Sample REST API requests for browsing Kafka queues.

To reduce the possibility of duplicate message processing, Maximo Manage attempts to keep its offsets synchronized with the offsets that are managed by Kafka. You can reset offsets in Maximo Manage if they are not synchronized with the offsets that are managed by Kafka. For more information, see Managing Kafka offset values in Maximo Manage.

To use Kafka features in the product, you must obtain and configure a Kafka server instance of the provider. The Kafka server that you obtain must be compatible with the Kafka 2.5.0 client libraries.

Other integration updates

Use REST API instead of RMI

You use REST API instead of Remote Method Invocation (RMI) for interactions with the product from custom extensions or external applications. RMI is not supported in the product.

For more information, see Communication with external applications through REST API.

API key authentication for REST API and integration features

API keys for user and group synchronization are generated for you. If you interact with REST API or machine-to-machine integration activities, you must configure an API key. The API key is configured in the Administration Work Center of Maximo Manage.

Added support for the JSON schema in OAS 3.0 documentation

Complete JSON schema content was added to the OAS 3.0, or Swagger, documentation for the Maximo Manage APIs. The existing non-OAS 3.0 JSON schema is still supported.

Support Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1 and SOAP 1.2 in same web server instance for a WebSphere® Application Server Liberty environment

You can use SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2 with the Java™ API for XML Web Services (JAX-WS) endpoint handler to exchange messages in a WebSphere Application Server Liberty environment.

For more information, see Implementing SOAP 1.1 and 1.2 with JAX-WS web services.

New batch parameter to support processing large outbound messages

You can set a batch size parameter to break up large outbound messages into multiple transactions of the size that you specify. Set the batch size in the Data Export window of the publish channel.

New location for REST API documentation

You can read more information on REST APIs for Maximo Application Suite. For more information, see IBM Maximo REST API guide .

API key support for legacy APIs

API keys are supported if you are working with legacy APIs. Legacy APIs are APIs that became available in product versions before Maximo Asset Management 7.1.

Form data support using the HTTP handler

In the integration framework, the HTTP handler now supports a POST of form data, in addition to existing support for JSON and XML data.

Support for nested representation of hierarchical object structures in messages

You can export a nested JSON representation of an object structure and all of its descendant objects by selecting the Complete Hierarchy option for outbound messages. Object structures that were exported as complete hierarchies can be imported as complete hierarchies.

Scripting point for Maximo Manage roles

A scripting point is available to define custom roles and automate communications to users who are associated with the roles.

For more information, see Example: Automating communication by using a custom role.

Sequences for SQL Server

Sequences are database objects that automatically generate unique key values or caches of multiple values. Sequence caches might improve system performance.

Redundant Maximo properties

The Maximo properties file is now redundant in Maximo Manage.

For more information, see Maximo properties