Release notes for IBM App Connect Operator 12.17.0

Review these release notes for information about supported versions, new features and enhancements, and known issues and workarounds.

Version information

This release relates to IBM App Connect Operator 12.17.0.

About Continuous Delivery: This version of the Operator is considered a Continuous Delivery release. Continuous Delivery releases undergo continuous testing, integration, and deployment to rapidly deliver new features, fixes, and security updates typically at monthly intervals, and offer a minimum of two years of support.

The support requirements for the IBM App Connect Operator 12.17.0 are as follows:

Option Supported requirement
Deployment platforms
  • Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform 4.12, 4.14, 4.15, 4.16, 4.17, 4.18, 4.19, or 4.20 (More information)
  • Kubernetes 1.27.x, 1.28.x, 1.29.x, 1.30.x, 1.31.x, 1.32.x, or 1.33.x (More information)

    To receive support for IBM App Connect Operator 12.17.0, you must be running a supported version of the underlying Kubernetes platform. Operator 12.17.0 supports each listed Kubernetes version until it reaches end of life (EOL). After the EOL date, support is dropped for Operator deployments that run solely on the EOL version. For information about the Kubernetes support lifecycle and EOL dates, see Release History and Non-Active Branch history.

  • Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (More information)
Image Contains an image of IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0.5.1
Installation
  • Compatible with IBM Cloud Pak for Integration 16.1.2
  • Supported as an independent deployment of IBM App Connect Enterprise certified container to a cluster

New features and enhancements

Support for a new IBM App Connect Operator channel, and custom resource (or operand) channels or versions

IBM App Connect Operator 12.17.0 is delivered on a new v12.17 Operator channel, which you must select to install 12.17.0 versions of the Operator, or to initialize an upgrade from a 12.16.0 or earlier Operator.

Accompanying versions and licenses are provided for the App Connect Dashboard, App Connect Designer Authoring, Switch Server, Integration Server, and Integration Runtime custom resources (or operands). To create an instance or upgrade to a 12.17.0-specific version of a custom resource (CR), you must choose both of these options:
  • Subscribe to the 13.0 or 13.0.5 channel for custom resources, or specify a fully qualified version of 13.0.5.1-r1.
  • Select a 12.17.0-specific license for approval.
More information:
Addition of support for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.20

IBM App Connect Operator 12.17.0 introduces support for Red Hat OpenShift 4.20 in addition to the existing support for Red Hat OpenShift 4.12, 4.14, 4.15, 4.16, 4.17, 4.18, and 4.19. On a Red Hat OpenShift 4.20 cluster, you can create App Connect Dashboard, App Connect Designer, switch server, integration server, and integration runtime instances at version 13.0.5.1-r1 or later only.

If you upgrade your cluster to Red Hat OpenShift 4.20, you must upgrade all your existing instances to version 13.0.5.1-r1 or later.

More information:
Ability to apply nodeSelector and toleration settings to the IBM App Connect Operator pod

You can now apply nodeSelector settings to constrain your Operator pod to nodes that are assigned specific labels. You can also apply tolerations to your Operator pod (together with taints) to ensure that the pod is not scheduled onto inappropriate nodes.

  • In a Red Hat OpenShift environment, you can add a spec.config.nodeSelector parameter to the Operator's Subscription object and specify a set of key/value pairs that must be matched against the node labels to decide whether the pod can be scheduled on that node. You can also add spec.config.tolerations.effect, spec.config.tolerations.key, spec.config.tolerations.operator, spec.config.tolerations.tolerationSeconds, and spec.config.tolerations.value parameters to the Subscription object to apply an array of one or more tolerations to the Operator pod.
  • In a Kubernetes environment, you can use the operator.deployment.nodeSelector and operator.deployment.tolerations properties, which are provided in the values.yaml file for a Helm chart installation (or upgrade), to specify nodeSelector and toleration settings for the Operator pod.
More information:
Ability to apply nodeSelector settings to App Connect Designer and switch server pods

The spec.pod.nodeSelector parameter is now supported in the Designer and switch server CRs to enable you constrain your Designer or switch server pods to nodes that are assigned specific labels.

More information:
Ability to apply toleration settings to App Connect Designer and switch server pods

The following parameters are added to enable you to apply an array of one or more tolerations to your Designer or switch server pods. When used with taints, tolerations can ensure that pods are not scheduled onto inappropriate nodes.

  • spec.pod.tolerations.effect
  • spec.pod.tolerations.key
  • spec.pod.tolerations.operator
  • spec.pod.tolerations.tolerationSeconds
  • spec.pod.tolerations.value
More information:
Dynamic CPU allocation for faster startup in integration runtimes

New spec.startupResources parameters enable you to allocate higher CPU resources during the container startup phase of an integration runtime and then dynamically reduce the resources to lower values for the running (licensed) phase.

  • spec.startupResources.limits.cpu
  • spec.startupResources.requests.cpu

Some restrictions apply.

More information:
Removal of standard output (stdout) buffering limitations for integration runtimes

The logging mechanism for integration runtimes no longer uses buffering for standard output. The output is now streamed directly to the container’s stdout, which resolves previous issues with processing large volumes of log data. For integration runtimes at version 13.0.5.1-r1 or later, you no longer need to use the ACE_LOGGING_BUFFER environment variable to set the log buffer in the CR as described in Retrieving logs.

Renamed connector in App Connect Designer and App Connect Dashboard

The Azure Cosmos DB connector has been renamed to Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

More information:

Deprecated or removed features

Deprecated operand versions and channels

A number of operand versions and channels are deprecated for the IBM App Connect Operator 12.17.0 and might no longer be reconciled by future versions of the Operator. A deprecation notice is displayed if you try to save a new or existing Dashboard, Designer, switch server, integration server, or integration runtime custom resource if its spec.version value resolves to a deprecated version.

More information: spec.version values

Removed operand channels and versions
The following operand version, which was deprecated in IBM App Connect Operator 12.16.0, is removed from IBM App Connect Operator 12.17.0:
  • 12.0.12-r16

After you upgrade to version 12.17.0 of the Operator, existing App Connect Designer, App Connect Dashboard, switch server, integration server, or integration runtime instances that resolve to a removed version are no longer supported and cannot be reconciled by the Operator.

  • You can upgrade the instance to a supported version by updating the spec.version value and accepting the appropriate license.
  • You can delete the instance if it's no longer required.
  • You cannot save modifications to the custom resource settings if the instance is at an unsupported version. If you require an instance at a version that is unsupported in Operator 12.17.0, you must install an Operator version from the v12.16 or earlier channel, and then create an instance at the version that you require.

More information: