Release notes for IBM App Connect Operator 12.9.0

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 12.9.0.

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 12.9.0 are as follows:

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

    To receive support for IBM App Connect Operator 12.9.0, you must be running a supported version of the underlying Kubernetes platform. Operator 12.9.0 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 13.0.2.2
Installation
  • Compatible with IBM Cloud Pak for Integration 16.1.1
  • Supported as an independent deployment of IBM App Connect Enterprise certified container to a cluster

This documentation relates to the release for these listed versions. Documentation for the previous releases of the Operator is available in PDF format at Documentation for previous releases.

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 12.9.0 is delivered on a new v12.9 Operator channel, which you must select to install 12.9.0 versions of the Operator, or to initialize an upgrade from a 12.8.0 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 12.9.0-specific version of a custom resource (CR), you must choose both of these options:
  • Subscribe to the 13.0 or 13.0.2 channel for custom resources, or specify a fully qualified version of 13.0.2.2-r1.
  • Select a 12.9.0-specific license for approval.
More information:
Out-of-the-box ingress creation for an App Connect Designer instance and its internal integration runtime on IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service

IBM App Connect Operator 12.9.0 introduces the ability to automatically create and manage ingress resources for App Connect Designer instances and their internal integration runtimes in an IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service cluster. These ingress resources are used to route external traffic to the Designer UIs and the associated internal integration runtimes in your cluster.

You can enable ingress for a Designer instance by setting spec.ingress.enabled to true in the Designer CR. The Designer instance then creates and manages the ingress resources for the Designer UI and for the internal integration runtime. To enable ingress for an upgraded Designer instance that uses ingress resources that you previously created manually, you must first delete those ingress resources.

Out-of-the-box ingress creation is supported only for 13.0.2.2-r1 or later Designer instances that are deployed with AppConnectEnterprise* style licenses on IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service.

More information: Automatically creating ingress definitions for external access to your IBM App Connect instances on IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service

Support for batch processing in App Connect Designer flows and integration runtimes

You can now add a Batch processing node to flows that you create in App Connect Designer and can deploy such flows to integration runtimes.

Ability to stop or start integration runtimes from the App Connect Dashboard or by using the spec.desiredRunState parameter for integration runtimes

You can now stop or start an integration runtime from its tile in the App Connect Dashboard by using the new Stop and Start options in the options menu. You can alternatively use the new spec.desiredRunState parameter in the integration runtime CR to stop or start integration runtimes.

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 12.9.0 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 12.8.0, is removed from IBM App Connect Operator 12.9.0:
  • 12.0.12-r8

After you upgrade to version 12.9.0 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 12.9.0, you must install an Operator version from the v12.8 or earlier channel, and then create an instance at the version that you require.

More information:
Elimination of the connectorAuthService container from a deployed App Connect Designer instance

A connectorAuthService container is no longer created when you deploy a Designer instance at version 13.0.2.2-r1 or later, which helps to reduce the resources that a deployed instance needs.

More information: Implications for the removal of the connectorAuthService container when upgrading to App Connect Designer 13.0.2.2-r1 or later instances