What's new

Discover the new features and other improvements in the latest releases of Operational Decision Manager, Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes, and Operational Decision Manager for z/OS.

This page lists the major changes in the releases. The entries include links to additional resources.

Note: You can download this documentation for offline use (see Offline documentation).

Highlights

Operational Decision Manager for z/OS 8.12.1
The major changes in Operational Decision Manager for z/OS 8.12.1, released in February 2024:
  • Integration for IBM Decision Manager Open Edition
  • Configuration variables for configuring zRule Execution Server for z/OS to access IBM Machine Learning
Operational Decision Manager 8.12.0.1
The major changes in 8.12.0.1, released in December 2023:
  • New command for displaying version information
  • Support for Windows Server 2022
  • Custom implementation for tests
  • New features for default values and resizing in decision tables
  • Support for events from XML binding to Business Automation Insights
Operational Decision Manager 8.12.0
The major changes in 8.12.0, released in June 2023:
  • Switch to newer versions of Java and Eclipse
  • Download documentation for Operational Decision Manager
  • Removed: classic rule engine, decision model service, and two application servers
  • Security improvements in Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes
  • Technology preview: Integration of Automation Decision Services runtime in Operational Decision Manager for z/OS

Bookmarks

Use these links to quickly find information about specific components:

General

The 8.12.0.1 fix pack includes the following change:

Getting version information
A new command line displays the version information for components in your installation of Operational Decision Manager. You can use this information in configuring components. New information Learn more...
Updated software requirements and support
This release adds support for the following software:
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Ubuntu 22.04
  • z/OS 3.1
Tip: Always check IBM® Operational Decision Manager detailed system requirements before installing or upgrading components.

The 8.12.0.0 release includes the following changes:

Removed features
The following features are not included in 8.12.0. For more information, see Deprecated and removed features.
  • Classic rule engine
  • Old rule and decision table editors in the Business console
  • Decision model service
  • IBM WebSphere Application Server traditional
  • Oracle WebLogic Server
  • JMX public API for RuleApp and ruleset management
  • XU memory profiler
  • Rule and decision table template editors
  • Guided editor
  • RetePlus without ruleflow
Updated software requirements and support
This release supports the following software:
  • WebSphere® Liberty 23.0.0.3
  • Java 11 (replaces Java 8)
  • Eclipse 4.24 (replaces Eclipse 4.16)
  • macOS 13 (Ventura)
  • RHEL 9
Tip: Always check IBM® Operational Decision Manager detailed system requirements before installing or upgrading components.

Operational Decision Manager Rule Designer

The 8.12.0.1 fix pack includes the following change:

Providing a custom implementation for tests
Provide a fully customized and dynamic testing logic. You can fully customize test implementations in test suites to match your business needs. New information Learn more...
Using additional data files
Use custom data providers to define the tests that you want to perform. You can define custom properties that appear as fields to fill in when defining a test suite. New information Learn more...
New decision table editing features
The following features further improve your management of content in the default decision table editor:
  • Default action value: You can automatically populate the empty cells in an action column with a default value. Right-click a cell with the value in the column and click Set as default value in the menu to populate all the empty cells in the column with the value. The command does not affect the existing values in other cells, and the default value is shown in italics. Undo the command by selecting Unset default value in the menu. New information Learn more...
  • Resize rows to content: The cells in rows can truncate content. To fully view the values in a row, right-click the first cell of the row and hover over Resize. You get these options: Fit selected row(s) to content and Fit all rows to content. You can also resize the entire table to show all its content by selecting Resize > Fit to screen and wrap from the column contextual menu. New information Learn more...

The 8.12.0.0 release includes the following changes:

Decision table editors
Rule Designer includes two decision table editors:
  • Default editor: the new editor introduced in 8.11.1
  • Legacy editor: the last editor, which was deprecated in 8.11.1
The default editor is recommended, and works in macOS, Linux, and Windows. New information Learn more...
Improved rule editing
The Intellirule editors for action rules, decision tables, and ruleflows provide a better user experience:
  • No more “smart” double-click. Only prediction is kept. No more opening of value editors and complex selection.
  • Values that have a value editor now render as links. Clicking one of these values opens the editor.
  • For prediction filtering, no more “starts with.” Instead, predictions are reordered as you type, bringing the most relevant matches to the top.
  • Dark mode support. Text color highlighting is enabled with the system.isDarkModeEnabled property.

Overall, the typing experience is more reactive than before. New information Learn more...

Rule Analysis view
The Rule Analysis view raises a warning when conflicting, redundant, or missing rules are identified. The view lets you access the rules directly to fix the errors and fill the gaps interactively. New information Learn more...
B2X code editor
Use the new editor to manage the functions that map the BOM to the XOM. New information Learn more...

Operational Decision Manager Rule Execution Server

The 8.12.0.1 fix pack includes the following change:

Support for events from XML binding to Business Automation Insights
Rule Execution Server provides event reporting through XML binding to Business Automation Insights. XML binding is deprecated in Operational Decision Manager. However, users still rely on it for event reporting. Business Automation Insights gives business owners and data analysts insights into their business data. New information Learn more...

The 8.12.0.0 release includes the following changes:

Disabling variable checking
Set the system property com.ibm.rules.engine.variablesetinspector to false to disable the variable checking. New information Learn more...
Resolving slow first execution of a ruleset
After an update, the first execution of a ruleset takes a long time. Make sure you are using asynchronous ruleset parsing. New information Learn more...

Operational Decision Manager Decision Center

The 8.12.0.1 fix pack includes the following change:

Removal of the customer survey system
The customer survey system has been removed from the Business console, and its instructions have been removed from the documentation. New information Learn more...
New decision table editing features
The following features further improve your management of content in the decision table editor:
  • Default action value: You can automatically populate the empty cells in an action column with a default value. Right-click a cell with the value in the column and click Set as default value in the menu to populate all the empty cells in the column with the value. The command does not affect the existing values in other cells, and the default value is shown in italics. Undo the command by selecting Unset default value in the menu. New information Learn more...
  • Resize rows to content: The cells in rows can truncate content. To fully view the values in a row, right-click the first cell of the row and hover over Resize. You get these options: Fit selected row(s) to content and Fit all rows to content. You can also resize the entire table to show all its content by selecting Resize > Fit to screen and wrap from the column contextual menu. New information Learn more...

The 8.12.0.0 release includes the following changes:

End of support for the classic rule engine
In the Business console, you can no longer deploy or use the testing and simulation features in branches that use the classic rule engine. The Tests and Simulations tabs are no longer displayed in these branches, and a banner tells you that the engine is not supported and to migrate to the decision engine in a previous version of Operational Decision Manager. New information Learn more...
REST API for defining users, groups and roles
You can define the users, groups and roles in the Decision Center REST API. After implementing your changes, you can manage them in the Business console Administration tab. New information Learn more...
REST API for deleting decision services
You can delete decision services in the Decision Center REST API. The new API completely removes the decision services, including all the branches and artifacts. New information Learn more...
REST API deployment improved
You can specify custom RuleApp and ruleset versions when you use the deployment REST API. New information Learn more...
Filtering artifacts in the recycle bin by deletion date
You can filter the artifacts in the recycle bin by deletion date. New information Learn more...
Reusing a branch name in different decision services
Now you can reuse the same branch name in two decision services that share one or more rule projects. New information Learn more...
Running a test suite with an additional data file
You can now attach a data file in any format (for example, Excel or text) to a test suite. This data file can be used when running the test suite with your custom data provider. New information Learn more...
Support for Struct properties
The Business console lets you view and use Struct properties. A tab for each Struct property and its subproperties is provided in the details editor dialog. New information Learn more...
Hostname in Business console
To help with troubleshooting, the Business console can display the name of the host machine that is running the console. The information is displayed in the about dialog of the Business console. New information Learn more...
Faster queries
Running a query in the Business console has been optimized to reduce the number of SQL queries that are required. This optimization makes the display of query results faster, especially when the query spans numerous rule packages. New information Learn more...

Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes

The 8.12.0.1 fix pack includes the following changes:

Specifying the installation of software with a license
Use customization.cp4baLicense to specify whether to use an IBM Cloud Pak® for Business Automation license for an installation of Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes. Set to true if you want to install the software with the license. New information Learn more...
Generating a JSON web token for a client assertion
When using authorization code flow or hybrid flow in OpenID Connect, the client application exchanges an authorization code for an access token. During this step, the client has to authenticate itself to the server. New information Learn more...
Scheduling Operational Decision Manager pods onto tainted nodes

You can define tolerations on Operational Decision Manager pods by setting parameters. Taints and tolerations are used to ensure that pods are not scheduled on inappropriate nodes. Taints are added to the nodes, and tolerations are defined in the pod specifications. Pods with no matching toleration to a tainted node are not scheduled to it. New information Learn more...

Two options for mirroring images to a private registry
You must mirror all the images that are needed for your Kubernetes deployment. You mirror them from the public image registries to a private registry. Choose the type of host that you want to set up. Your choice determines how you mirror the images to the private registry. New information Learn more...

The 8.12.0.0 release includes the following changes:

Security improvements
  • All Operational Decision Manager containers now use the RuntimeDefault seccomp profile by default. The RuntimeDefault profile provides a list of system calls that are allowed. If you find that some workloads need to remove the syscall restrictions because they fail with the RuntimeDefault profile, then you can set the seccomp profile as Unconfined or create a custom Localhost profile. To use a custom profile, complete the following steps.
    1. Create a seccomp profile in Machine Config.
    2. Set the seccomp_profile.type to Localhost for selected pods in the values.yaml file, and assign the new profile (for example <my_profile>.json) to the localhost_profile parameter.
      seccomp_profile:
  type:  'Localhost'
  localhost_profile: 'profile/<my_profile>.json'
  • It is now possible to override the TLS configuration of the Liberty server by enabling ciphers. You do so by setting the parameter customization.enabledCiphers. New information Learn more...
Customization of the Decision Server Console runtime
You can customize the runtime that is embedded in the Decision Server Console for ruleset testing in the same way as the Decision Server runtime. To do so, you need to set the decisionServerConsole.runtime.webConfigRef parameter. If you leave it empty, then the Decision Server Console runtime uses the default configmap of the decisionServerRuntime.webConfigRef. New information Learn more...
Ability to disable basic authentication when ODM is configured with OpenID Connect
By setting the parameter oidc.disableLoginPanel to true, you can disable the basic authentication login panel in the Decision Center Business console and in the Decision Server Console.

Operational Decision Manager for z/OS

Important:
  • Operational Decision Manager for z/OS includes support only for the use of the runtimes of IBM Decision Manager Open Edition and IBM Automation Decision Services as part of the licensee's internal development and test environment for internal non-production activities ("Non-Production"). The licensee must acquire separately a full use license of the programs if anything other than a runtime component is used.
  • Information specific to Operational Decision Manager for z/OS 8.12.1 is flagged Version 8.12.1.

The 8.12.1 release includes the following change:

Integration for IBM Decision Manager Open Edition
Version 8.12.1 Decision Manager Open Edition, formerly available as Red Hat Decision Manager, is now part of the IBM Business Automation portfolio. zRule Execution Server for z/OS includes a new mode that allows the server to handle Decision Manager Open Edition requests. New information Learn more...
Configuration variables for configuring zRule Execution Server for z/OS to access IBM Machine Learning
Version 8.12.1 Use these new variables to configure zRule Execution Server for z/OS to access Machine Learning. New information Learn more...

The 8.12.0.0 release includes the following change:

Integration with IBM Automation Decision Services
zRule Execution Server for z/OS can now run decision services developed in Automation Decision Services. A development environment for modeling and running decisions, Automation Decision Services supports collaboration between business users and developers. New information Learn more...