Known limitations

Analytics

Amazon SNS integration is not supported

You cannot use Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) for Engagement.

Instana AutoTrace and Dynatrace injection are not supported in certain subsystems

Instana AutoTrace is not supported in the Management, Analytics, CMS Portal, and Gateway subsystems. Using Instana AutoTrace in these subsystems can cause corruption; additionally, Dynatrace injection is not supported in the CMS Portal subsystem and can cause corruption. For more information, see Instana AutoTrace.

Note:

• OpenTelemetry based tracing from the DataPower® API Gateway is supported and is the recommended method. For more information, see Enabling OpenTelemetry configuration.
• This issue originates from the Instana integration and is not related to API Connect.

Analytics command restrictions

The following --mode analytics commands work only when the flag --return_format is set to either json or yaml:

• clustermgmt:catAllocation
• clustermgmt:catIndices
• clustermgmt:catNodes
• clustermgmt:catRecovery
• clustermgmt:catShards
• clustermgmt:catAliases

The following commands don't currently work on the Toolkit CLI, as they return only text/plain:

• clustermgmt:getNodesHotThreads
• clustermgmt:getNodesHotThreadsById

Consumer rate limit notifications are not available

The ability to configure notifications for applications so that API consumers are alerted when the usage of an API is nearing its rate limit is not available.

API governance

Validating from within a ruleset shows all rules

In the governance service, if you click Validate from within a ruleset, the list of rules shown includes rules that are not part of the selected ruleset. To work around this, manually select the rules that you want to use for the validation.

API Manager

An OAuth provider fails if the resources that it references aren't enabled in the Catalog

If you enable an OAuth provider in a Catalog then any resources that it references, such as API user registries or TLS client profiles, must be enabled in the same Catalog; if not, then although the OAuth provider might publish successfully it will fail at run time. For information on enabling resources in a Catalog, see Creating and configuring Catalogs.

Incorrect UI behavior if API changes are not saved before creating a new API version

If you make changes to an API definition and then attempt to create a new API version without first saving your changes, you are not prompted to save your changes until after you have completed the new version creation operation. If you click OK in the prompt, your new version is created but your original changes are lost; to create your new version and retain your original changes, you should click Cancel in the prompt, then click Save to save your original changes.

Simultaneous editing of the same API by multiple users might result in changes being overwritten

If one user saves changes to an OpenAPI 3.0 API, another user who has the same API open in the API editor might have their changes overwritten.

An existing user cannot be added to a Space

If you attempt to add an existing user to a Space, the operation cannot be completed because the Create button is not enabled. Instead, use the invitation mechanism. For details, see Managing Space membership.

Note: The invited user must use the Sign in option on the activation form, rather than completing the registration details and using Sign up.

A published API whose assembly contains a catch block with an invalid policy will now correctly fail to republish

Previously, policies in an assembly catch block were not validated, so if an incorrect policy configuration was coded in the OpenAPI source for an API, within an assembly catch block, the API would still publish successfully. Now, policies in an assembly catch block are validated, so such an API will fail to republish and will first need to be corrected.

Vanity hostname Configuration with Cloudflare

You can’t create a custom vanity hostname if you are using Cloudflare as your DNS provider. Use other DNS providers or standard hostname configurations that are provided by API Connect.

Published assets appear in an incorrect state after restore

After performing a restore operation, some published assets might not return to the correct state within the gateway. As a result, the affected assets fail to invoke successfully even though the status appear as Published in the user interface. Restart the wmgateway‑apic‑proxy pod to ensure that the restored state is fully synchronized with the gateway.

Updating an Application after its subscribed Product is retired or deleted, fails with HTTP 404

Trying to update an Application (add or edit APIs) fails with HTTP 404 after its subscribed Product is retired or deleted. Delete the existing application and create a new application as follows.

1. Load the sample API into the API studio.
2. Publish the sample API to a catalog.
3. Create an application.
4. Add APIs to the application.

DataPower Gateway

WebSocket support

API Connect provides basic WebSocket functionality through the websocket-upgrade policy. However, there are important limitations to consider when designing APIs that use WebSocket communication.

1. General limitations
   • The maximum reliable message payload is less than 1 KB.
   • Sending several messages in rapid succession may exceed cumulative limits. For example, three consecutive 500-byte messages may fail.
   • Messages up to 100 bytes can be reliably transmitted if sent with at least a 10 millisecond delay between them.
   • Send data at intervals greater than 10 milliseconds to prevent dropped connections or gateway issues.
   • WebSocket compression and streaming modes are not supported.
2. Error handling limitations
   • When a server closes a connection using status code 1000, 1006, or 1008, the client receives code 1006, regardless of the actual cause.
   • If the server crashes, the client does not receive a close event or error message from the DataPower Gateway.
   • Errors can be caught:
     • In the main assembly before the websocket-upgrade policy is executed.
     • In sub assemblies during message processing after the upgrade that originate from a subassembly action.
   • Errors during WebSocket connections or after disconnection cannot be detected once the upgrade is complete.
3. Opcode and data type support
   • Only text frames are supported.
   • Binary frames are not supported.
4. Policy restrictions after upgrade
   • After the WebSocket upgrade, the following actions and properties are not supported in the sub assemblies:
     • client security
     • generate JWT
     • user security
     • validate JWT
     • client identification
     • activity log
     • HTML page
     • WebSocket upgrade
     • Parse:
       • use content type
       • warn on empty input
   • No actions are allowed in the main assembly after the upgrade.
   • Only sub assemblies that use supported properties can process messages after the upgrade.

Redact conditions within switch, operation-switch, or if policies might not execute after converting to DataPower API Gateway

If an API Connect v5-compatible redact policy is found within a switch, operation-switch, or if policy, the migration utility does not move the redact policy to the beginning or end of the assembly. The difference in the response between API Connect v5 and DataPower API Gateway may prevent data from being redacted in the DataPower API Gateway.

For example, if an assembly includes a switch policy containing four redact conditions followed by an invoke policy, each redact condition redacts the response data. After porting to the API Gateway, the redact conditions remain inside the switch policy and target the message.body property for redaction. These redactions fail to execute because the message.body property has not yet been retrieved by the invoke policy. To correct this problem, you must move the invoke policy before the switch policy in the assembly.

Parse policy limitation

• The literal property in the parse policy does not support variables or context parameters. It must be a fixed string.

Draft APIs (with v5c gateway) copied to API Studio fails to publish

After upgrading to APIC v12.1.0.1, draft APIs that use the DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) and are copied into API Studio projects, cannot be published because the required policy definition files are not automatically created.

To publish the draft API successfully, complete the following steps.

1. For each API specification yaml file in the project, use the API Studio editor to create a new policy definition file <api_name>_policy.yaml as follows:

   kind: DataPowerAssembly
   apiVersion: api.ibm.com/v1
   metadata:
     name: <apiname>_policy
     namespace: <project>
     version: '1.0'
     tags: []
     labels:
       gatewayTypes:
         - datapower-v5
   spec:
     x-ibm-configuration:

2. Copy the x-ibm-configuration section from the API specification into the new file.
3. In the spec section of the API kind yaml file, add the following entry to reference the policy:

   policy-sequence:
     - $ref: <namespace>:<apiname>_policy:1.0
   

Cors policy created with the wildcard ( * ) in allowOrigins triggers a warning and causes publish errors

When a CORS policy includes the wildcard ( * ) in the allowOrigins field, the published asset shows a warning. The allowOrigins field must contain one or more specific origins. Any origin that contains a ( * ), or consists solely of ( * ), results in a publish error on the DataPower API Gateway. In addition to the warning during publish, an origin defined with ( * ) will not match any incoming request Origin.

DataPower Nano Gateway

Unsupported Policy Fields: title and telemetry

title and telemetry fields in policy configurations are currently unsupported. While present in the schema, they are ignored during processing, and API Studio does not allow configuration. Any values provided for these fields will be disregarded.

JSON Schema Validation of Assemblies

Operator and Runtime do not fully validate assemblies against the JSON schema. While most invalid configurations are rejected at startup, schema-level constraints (such as min/max ranges or regex validations) are not enforced.

Unsupported Extra Fields in Policy Configuration

Extra fields in a policy configuration are not supported. If additional fields are added beyond the recognized fields, the configuration may not work as expected. To avoid compatibility issues, do not include any fields that are not documented as supported. These extra fields might not cause a failure, and will change in a future release when strict validation is enforced.

Unsupported localOnly database configuration for rate limit service with multiple gateway replicas

When multiple gateway replicas are used, do not configure the rate limit service with a localOnly database. A localOnly database applies limits per replica because replicas do not share data. To enforce limits across all replicas, use a database configuration that relies on an external datastore instead of localOnly.

Ingress Limitation: TLS Passthrough and Certificate Requirements

Nano gateway ingress does not support TLS passthrough with wildcard SNI hostnames when using ingress-nginx. To ensure proper functionality, the certificate used for nano gateway must include either a Common Name (CN) or a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) that matches the wildcard endpoint. Dynamic hostname assignment will not work without updating the ingress configuration for each new hostname, and failure to meet this requirement will result in the default Kubernetes ingress certificate being returned, causing invalid certificate errors.

Analytics collector accepting only traces signal

If APIC Analytics is the only server which the Analytics Collector if configured to forward data to (this is the default configuration), then Analytics Collector will only accept the traces signal.

TLS Server Profile keystore containing a certificate chain causes nanogw to require mTLS

If the TLS Server Profile keystore configured for the Nano Gateway contains a full certificate chain (for example, the fullchain.pem certbot generates for lets encrypt cert), the entire chain is passed to the ca.crt value in the server profile secret in Kubernetes. As a result, the Nano Gateway service interprets this configuration as requiring mutual TLS for communication. Using the same certificate without the certificate chain does not trigger this behavior.

$telemetry function limitation for OpenTelemetry configuration attributes

DataPower Nano Gateway does not support retrieving the following fields using the $telemetry function when specified via OpenTelemetry configuration:

• catalog_id
• catalog_name
• gateway_service_name
• org_id
• org_name
• product_id
• product_name
• product_title
• product_version

For more information, see Built-in JSONata functions supported by DataPower Nano Gateway.

CMS Portal

The 'strict' SameSite cookie causes incorrect invitations to consumer organizations

Using the 'strict' SameSite cookie might cause invitation links from emails to send users to a registration page where they are asked to create a new consumer organization instead of joining the organization they were invited to.

The workaround is to using the 'Lax' SameSite Cookie attribute.

OpenAPI 3.1 validation errors in CMS Portal test tool

Some OpenAPI 3.1.x APIs might display a validation error when using the API test tool in the CMS Portal. This issue does not impact API functionality or runtime behavior. The validation error can be safely ignored, and APIs will work normally when invoked. You can use external API testing tools or invoke the API directly from your application.

Consumer Catalog

Consumer Catalog invitation sign-up fails for invited users

In the Consumer Catalog My Organization page, the member invitation flow does not work as expected. When an invited user attempts to sign up, the sign-up form submission fails.

Toolkit

Deleted security requirements might remain in the API source

Security requirements that are deleted from APIs in the IBM API Studio and API Manager UIs, might still remain in the source. To work around this issue, click the Source icon in the API editor, and manually remove the security requirements.

Limitations to the OpenAPI 3.0 support

IBM® API Connect supports the OpenAPI 3.0 specification, with some limitations. For information about what is supported, see OpenAPI 3.0 support.

No option to bulk delete APIs or Products

In the IBM API Studio and API Manager user interfaces, there is currently no option to delete multiple APIs or Products in a single operation; in the user interfaces, APIs and Products must be deleted individually. However, you can bulk delete APIs and Products by using the REST API or CLI interfaces.

Field validation for the Client security policy is incorrect

When configuring a Client Security policy in an API assembly in the IBM API Studio or API Manager user interfaces, there is the following incorrect validation behavior:

• The ID Name field is required, but the API definition can be saved without entering a value in the field.
• The Secret Name field is required only when the Secret Required option is selected, but the user interface indicates that the Secret Name field is required regardless. Furthermore, when the field is required, the API definition can be save without entering a value.
• If the Authenticate Client Method is set to Third party, the User Registry Name field is required, but the API definition can be saved without entering a value in this field.

An OpenAPI definition that contains regular expression syntax fails validation

IBM API Connect supports the GO regular expression syntax. When you import an OpenAPI definition into the IBM API Studio or API Manager user interfaces, or validate one with the apic validate, the validation will fail if the OpenAPI source contains unsupported regular expression syntax, with errors that include Does not match format 'regex'; for example:

- Must validate at least one schema (anyOf) (context: (root).paths./example/types.post.parameters.0.schema.properties.items, line: 0, col: 0)
- Must validate one and only one schema (oneOf) (context: (root).paths./example/types.post.parameters.0, line: 46164, col: 21)
- paths./example/types.post.parameters.0.schema.properties.items.properties.pattern Does not match format 'regex' (context: (root).paths./example/types.post.parameters.0.schema.properties.items.properties.pattern, line: 0, col: 0)

Validate policy limitations when GraphQL response contains a GraphQL server error

When a GraphQL response contains a GraphQL server error and no data, the assembly Validate policy generates an error on the missing data and overwrites the payload. When the response contains partial data and an error, the assembly Validate action validates the data and overwrites the payload. To work around this limitation, use the condition $not($exists(message.body.errors)) in an assembly switch condition to skip the assembly Validate policy when the response contains errors.

For a secured GraphQL API, GraphQL subscriptions cannot be tested by using the Test tab in the user interfaces

For a GraphQL API that is secured by client ID, GraphQL subscriptions cannot be tested by using the Test tab in the IBM API Studio or API Manager user interfaces. The API can still be published and used in production.

You can test GraphQL subscriptions in either of the following alternative ways:

• Remove client ID security from the API, for testing purposes, then use the Test tab.
• Use an external test tool.

Back-end connections over public network only for API Connect Enterprise as a Service

In API Connect Enterprise as a Service, back-end connections for invoke will only be supported over the public network.

User Interface

Publish failures after an upgrade

After you upgrade from API Connect 10.0.11, publishing to a catalog might fail for some products that were migrated from draft products to IBM API Studio.

When this issue occurs, the publish operation fails with an error similar to the following message:

Build validation failed. Error while publishing project: Duplicate asset detected:
'default_productname-product' in namespace 'project' with version '1.0.0' and kind 'Quota'.
First seen in file 'project/default_productname-product_plan_1.0.0.yaml'

This error occurs because the product plan and the quota use the same name. IBM API Studio requires these assets to have unique names. When the names are identical, a conflict occurs during the publish operation.

To resolve this issue, rename the product plan and update the corresponding reference in the product file.

• In IBM API Studio, locate the file that is identified in the error message (for example,project/default_productname-product_plan_1.0.0.yaml).
• Edit the file and update the metadata.name field so that the name ends with -plan. For example:

  name: default_productname-product-plan

• Open the product file that references the plan and update the plan reference to use the new name. For example, change:

  $ref: project:default_productname:1.0.0

  to:

  $ref: project:default_productname-plan:1.0.0

• After editing these files, you should be able to publish the product successfully.

Stale cache can result in unexpected behavior in the API Manager UI

Having a stale cache in your browser can result in unexpected behavior in the API Manager UI, such as fetch errors, incorrect data being displayed, and blank pages. To work around this issue, complete the following actions:

• Reload the browser window.
• If there is still an issue, clear the browser cache and then log back in to the UI.
• Try using a private browser window.
• If possible, try a different browser type.

If issues persist, contact IBM Support.

Options menus in the Catalog might be hidden

In a Catalog, in any of the different tabs such as Consumers, or Subscriptions, when clicking on the options icon the menu items might be hidden. To work around the issue, reload the page and the menu items will appear.

Override plan rate limits are not displayed in the Endpoint tab

Any override plan rate limits that have been added to your API for individual operations are not displayed in the API Endpoint tab in the UI. Only the plan rate limit is displayed.

A Product republish, with the Preserve Subscriptions option, fails after a consumer organization group has been removed from the visibility settings

If you remove a consumer organization group from the custom visibility settings for a Product, and that group contains a consumer organization with an application that is subscribed to the Product, an attempt to republish the Product with the Preserve Subscriptions option will fail even if that consumer organization is then added to the custom visibility settings individually.

Pagination setting is global across the API Connect user interfaces

If you set the Items per page value on any page in the API Manager user interface, that setting is then applied to all pages in both user interfaces in the same browser session. If you want to set the value separately for a specific page, open it in a private browser window. Such a setting in a private browser window is specific to that window and is lost when the window is closed.

Logging in to the API Connect user interfaces fails when using the Safari web browser

If you are using the Safari web browser and a Basic Authorization header exists for the same DNS domain in which API Connect is running, attempts to log in to the API Connect user interfaces, or to sign up by using an activation link, fail. To avoid this problem, use an alternative web browser.

Login to the API Manager user interface might fail with error 431 if the browser has a large number of cookies

Attempts to login to the API Manager user interface might fail if the HTTP header or cookie size is more than 32 KB, a limitation that is imposed for security reasons. To resolve this problem, either clear the browser cache and cookies, or open a private window, then retry.

Numerical Handling in YAML Configurations and Precision Constraints in API Manager UI

• In the API Manager UI YAML configurations, numbers in exponential notation (for example 1e20) are handled differently based on their exponent value. Numbers with an exponent less than or equal to 20 are converted to their full integer form (for example 1e20 becomes 100,000,000,000,000,000,000) for display and processing. Numbers with an exponent greater than 20 stay in exponential notation (for example 1e21). Numbers that exceed the range of integers that are supported by DataPower JSON schema validation (-9,007,199,254,740,992 to 9,007,199,254,740,992) result in validation errors or unexpected behavior.
• JavaScript's inherent precision limitations truncate floating-point numbers to approximately 17 significant digits. For example:
  • Input: 0.123456789012345678901234567890
  • Processed Value: 0.12345678901234568

User interfaces are not supported in Microsoft Edge

The API Manager and Cloud Manager user interfaces are not supported in the Microsoft Edge web browser. To work in the user interfaces, use a different browser.

Install

API Connect Enterprise as a Service requires your instance name to be 25 characters or less

When you create a new instance of API Connect Enterprise as a Service, limit the instance name to 25 characters or less.

API Connect Enterprise as a Service requires your IBMid to match your primary email address

If your IBMid does not match your primary email address, you will encounter problems when you try to sign into your service instance, where the sign-in page gets stuck in a loop and never signs you in to API Connect.

• If you plan to provision or work with API Connect Enterprise as a Service, you must first update your IBMid (or create a new one) so that it matches your primary email address.
• If you already provisioned an instance of API Connect Enterprise as a Service using an unsupported IBMid, do one of the following:
  • Ask IBM Support to delete the instance before updating your IBMid and provisioning a new instance.
  • Create a new IBMid with an email address that matches your primary email address, and then provision a new instance.

API Connect Enterprise as a Service allows connections to endpoints for up to 127 seconds.

Even if your API continues sending keepalive events, the connection will be closed after 127 seconds.

Provider organizations with special characters cannot access Federated API Management

If you create a provider organization with special characters, hyphens, or underscores in the name, you will not be able to access the Federated API Management capability. To use Federated API Management, ensure that provider organization names contain only alphanumeric characters.

IBM API Studio

API Design and Gateway capabilities

The following API design and Gateway capabilities are not supported:

• GraphQL API authoring. Authoring capabilities GraphQL API is not available.
• Form view does not support WSDL files.
• IBM API Studio does not support testing published SOAP APIs in the Test or Try out options. This support is planned for a later release.
• DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) SOAP support. SOAP API import sets datapower-api-gateway as the default gateway in the assembly configuration. SOAP API authoring on DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) requires manual updates to the assembly configuration. Update the assembly-project-name.yml file and change the gateway value to datapower-gateway. Re-author all policies to use DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) specific policies, as policies authored for datapower-api-gateway do not apply to SOAP APIs.
• The project list does not refresh immediately after you delete sample projects. As a workaround, refresh the browser page or navigate to another screen and return.
• The published API shows a warning status when you configure the CORS policy with a wildcard origin *. This warning does not affect runtime behavior. Configure explicit allowed origins instead of using a wildcard.
• Product import supports only product assets downloaded from v10 API Connect.
• Importing a v10 API Connect SOAP API and its associated product into standalone IBM API Studio does not retain the API-product association. Associate the API with the product after import.

Product management

The following product management capabilities are not supported:

• Automatic publishing. Publishing a product automatically to the catalog for testing is not available.
• Visibility and subscription control. Fine-grained visibility and subscription controls cannot be set during publishing. These controls are available during product authoring only.
• Downloading product assets. Direct download of product assets is not available.

Asset handling

The following asset handling capabilities have limitations:

• Cross-project asset references. Using $ref for cross-project asset references is available in preview mode only.
• Asset uniqueness. Each asset must have a unique namespace:name:version combination to avoid conflicts and maintain consistency.

Additional considerations

• Analytics for DataPower Nano Gateway APIs. DataPower Nano Gateway does not log analytics for runtime invocations unless security policies are explicitly added. Configure security policies to enable logging of runtime transactions.
• Operation selection in policies. In policies such as Operation Switch and Validate, operation selection does not automatically read information from the API specification. Add the operation details manually in code view.
• Publishing projects to the APIM Catalog. On Linux, the Desktop application does not allow publishing projects to the APIM Catalog. To work around this issue, use IBM API Studio available in API Connect or use the Desktop application on Windows or macOS.

Validate policy fails in assembly canvas for DataPower v5 gateway

When creating an API for the DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible), using the Validate action on a Validate policy in the assembly canvas can result in an error. This issue occurs only in the visual assembly editor and does not affect the ability to configure or use the Validate policy. To avoid this error, configure the Validate policy directly in the assembly source view instead of using the assembly canvas.

User-defined policies not supported

IBM API Studio does not support the user-defined policies, that are supported in the earlier versions of DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) and DataPower Nano Gateway.

IBM DataPower Interact Gateway