Release notes for IBM App Connect Operator 12.18.0

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 12.18.0.

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 12.18.0 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 12.18.0, you must be running a supported version of the underlying Kubernetes platform. Operator 12.18.0 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 13.0.5.2
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 12.18.0 is delivered on a new v12.18 Operator channel, which you must select to install 12.18.0 versions of the Operator, or to initialize an upgrade from a 12.17.0 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 12.18.0-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 13.0.5.2-r1.
  • Select a 12.18.0-specific license for approval.
More information:
Ongoing support for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12, 4.14, 4.15, 4.16, 4.17, 4.18, 4.19, and 4.20

IBM App Connect Operator 12.18.0 supports Red Hat OpenShift 4.12, 4.14, 4.15, 4.16, 4.17, 4.18, 4.19, and 4.20, but on a 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. Similarly, 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:
Truststore certificate configuration type now supports the import of a PEM file with multiple certificates

You can now use a PEM file that contains multiple certificates (or a certificate chain) to create a configuration object of type Truststore certificate. Previously, if a PEM file contained multiple certificates, only the first certificate was imported into the default JVM truststore in the server JVM.

If you are using the configuration panel in the App Connect Dashboard to create a configuration object that imports a PEM file with multiple certificates, use the import file option to add the certificate contents.

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 12.18.0 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 12.17.0, is removed from IBM App Connect Operator 12.18.0:
  • 12.0.12-r17

After you upgrade to version 12.18.0 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 12.18.0, you must install an Operator version from the v12.17 or earlier channel, and then create an instance at the version that you require.

More information:

Fixes

IBM App Connect Operator 12.18.0 includes the following fixes:

  • Improved validation of custom hostnames that you specify by using the spec.template.spec.hostAliases.hostnames[] parameter in an integration runtime CR. If you specify a hostname with an http:// or https:// prefix, you now see an error that advises you to remove the prefix.

  • Improved handling of default values when defined requests for the runtime container in an integration runtime deployment are larger than the default limits. If you set spec.template.spec.containers[].resources.requests.memory for the runtime container to a value that is higher than 1Gi, but set spec.template.spec.containers[].resources.limits.memory to a lower value, spec.template.spec.containers[].resources.limits.memory is now automatically updated to the same value that you specified for spec.template.spec.containers[].resources.requests.memory. Previously, the integration runtime deployment would fail.

  • Removed the following type of warning from App Connect operands (or instances) when running on a Red Hat OpenShift 4.20 cluster:

    Dashboard operand 13.0 has been installed, but OCP 4.20.1 does not match the supported environment for this release.

  • Fixed the defect that caused the API for IBM App Connect in containers to not work when either of these resources are in the same namespace as the Dashboard for which the API is enabled:
    • Integration runtimes that contain spec.startupResources or spec.template.spec.nodeSelector CR settings
    • An App Connect Designer instance

  • Resolved an issue with running on clusters that have no support for IPv6. This issue affected both App Connect Designer and some runtime deployments.

  • Fixed the defect that caused an IBM App Connect Enterprise integration server to abend with SEGV in IBM MQ SSL libraries when using SSL on a channel due to a conflict with the libcurl library. This release includes the IBM MQ iFix 9.4.0.15-IBM-MQ-ifix-bundle-3C096AD55.tar.gz.