New Features and Enhancements

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IBM® Connect:Direct® for Microsoft Windows version 6.3 and its related software have the following new features and enhancements added in this release of IBM Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows.

Attention:
Announcement about Removal of Security Protocols
As part of future fix packs for IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows, the update to the IBM GSKit9 library will permanently remove support for the following deprecated security protocols in order to meet enhanced security requirements:
  • TLS 1.0
  • TLS 1.1

To prevent service disruption during the upgrade, ensure that all configurations and integrations are transitioned to supported security protocols as early as possible.
Attention:
Announcement about Removal of Cipher Suites
As part of the upcoming fix packs for IBM Sterling Connect:Direct Microsoft Windows, the update to the IBM GSKit9 library will remove support for the following cipher suites due to enhanced security requirements:
  • TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
  • TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_NULL_SHA
  • TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
  • TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA
  • TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
  • TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5
  • TLS_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA
  • TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA256
  • TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA
  • TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_MD5
  • TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
  • TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
  • TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

To avoid disruption during the upgrade, transition to supported cipher suites as early as possible.
Attention:
Announcement about High Speed Add on (HSAO)

Version 2.0.0 of High Speed Add On (HSAO) is now available. The new version is based on IBM Aspera Faspio Gateway, to which HSAO parts give the owner entitlement.

It is supported by Connect:Direct UNIX (Linux x86/x64 and AIX), Connect:Direct Windows and Connect:Direct z/OS. To support business-to-business HSAO transfers, IBM Sterling Secure Proxy may be located between Connect:Direct and Faspio Gateway. Getting started with Connect:Direct, Secure Proxy and faspio Gateway is described in Connect:Direct’s and Secure Proxy’s documentation.

Note that v1.0.0 and v2.0.0 of the HSAO protocols are incompatible. Users of v1.0.0 must bear this in mind when moving to v2.0.0.

HSAO v2.0.0 does not require SSP bridging on any platform. (HSAO v1.0.0 required SSP bridging on platforms without native support for HSAO v1.0.0.)

HSAO v2.0.0 should be used for the same types of network connections as v1.0.0.

For more details, refer to https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/deprecation-support-statement-direction-high-speed-add-sterling-connectdirect-v10.

FixPack 5 (v6.3.0.5)

New Features or Enhancements
To install this software, you should go to the Fix Central and follow instructions described to complete the download.

The following issues are resolved in IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows:
  • Keystore Passwords with Special Characters:
    • Upgrades from IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows versions prior to 6.3.0.3 may fail if Secure+ keystore passwords contain special characters. You may encounter errors such as "Convert KeyStore failed…" and "PCG760E rc=8 PKCS12 KeyStore open exception - toDerInputStream rejects tag type 55."
  • Keystore Passwords with 64 or More Characters:
    • Upgrades from IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows versions prior to 6.3.0.3 may fail if Secure+ keystore passwords contain 64 or more characters. You may encounter errors such as "gsk_environment_init() failed GSK_ERROR_ASN - Error validating ASN fields in encoding".
    • Fresh Secure+ keystore creation with passwords containing 64 or more characters in IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows versions 6.3.0.3 and above may fail with the error "gsk_environment_init() failed GSK_ERROR_CRYPTO - Error processing cryptography."

FixPack 4 (v6.3.0.4)

New Features and Enhancements
To install this software, you should go to the Fix Central website, and follow instructions described to complete the download.
Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows has the following features and enhancements:

FixPack 3 (v6.3.0.3)

New Features and Enhancements
To install this software, you should go to the Fix Central website, and follow instructions described to complete the download.
Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows has the following features and enhancements:
  • Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows now bundles IBM Semeru Runtime version 17.0.10.0
  • Support for Java 17 introduces the following changes:
    • PKCS12 Keystore Support: In this release, Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows changes its keystore format from CMS to PKCS12. Migration occurs automatically during the upgrade. For more information, refer to Manage PKCS12 Keystore.
    • Key Utility Changes: iKeyman and iKeycmd are no longer included in the product. Keystore Explorer is an alternative GUI utility. The Java Keytool is an alternative command line utility.

FixPack 2 (v6.3.0.2)

New Features and Enhancements
To install this software, you should go to the Fix Central website, and follow instructions described to complete the download.
Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows has the following features and enhancements:
  • Support for performing pre and post-upgrade actions from Control Center Director has been added to Connect:Direct for Windows.

FixPack 1 (v6.3.0.1)

New Features and Enhancements
To install this software, you should go to the Fix Central website, and follow instructions described to complete the download.
Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows has the following features and enhancements:
  • Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows introduces support for Wildcard (*) in IP addresses/hostnames for Port Check List feature. Optional mask support for IP address range for Port Check parameters has also been added. For more information, refer to Port Check Parameters.

Base Release (v6.3)

New Features and Enhancements
To install this software, you should go to the Passport Advantage website, and follow instructions described to complete the download. The maintenance installations on Fix Central also support new and upgrade installation; the Fix Lists include the relevant instructions.
  • IBM Integrated Connect:Direct Web Services:
    • With this release, IBM Connect:Direct for Microsoft Windows replaces Connect:Direct Requester as the default client with IBM Integrated Connect:Direct Web Services by default as it is secure and includes Secure+ and Integrated File Agent configuration.
  • Removal of support of deprecated Security Protocols:
    • The support of SSL 3.0 protocol has been removed completely.
      • If SSL along with other protocol was configured prior to an upgrade to Connect:Direct for Windows 6.3, then after upgrade instead of SSL, other configured security protocols would be used.
        • In case only SSL was configured before upgrade, then after upgrade TLS 1.2 will be used automatically in the background.
    • Connect:Direct for Windows won’t support new configurations of deprecated Security Protocols like TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1. Existing configurations with these deprecated protocols will still be supported. Connect:Direct admin won’t be able to configure nodes with these deprecated protocols or their supported cipher suites. Connect:Direct won’t accept any requests with deprecated protocols.
      • In case of an upgrade from an older version where the deprecated protocols were configured, these will still be honoured and will be preserved after upgrade to Connect:Direct for Windows 6.3.
      • After an upgrade, if a deprecated protocol is removed either accidentally or intentionally, it cannot be configured again.
  • Support for certificate based authentication with PostgreSQL has been included. For more information, refer to Install and Configure Database Software.
  • FASP HSAO support has been removed. It cannot be configured on Connect:Direct.
  • Current release is certified to run on Windows Server 2022 and Windows 11.
  • By default, SecurePlus is installed, enabled and configured in this release.
  • Integrated File Agent will be installed by default.