What's new in Operational Decision Manager 9.6.0

Highlights

These are the top new features. See the sections below for more new features.

• Ready-to-use Rule Designer
• Expanded integration with AI agents through MCP servers, with new REST API to manage rule artifacts in Decision Center
• REST API Swagger UI for Rule Execution Server management and decision service execution
• Usage metering in Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes

Rule Designer

Ready-to-use Rule Designer

Rule Designer comes in a ready-to-use version. It contains Rule Designer and its prerequisite software: Eclipse, Java, and plug-ins. It supports Windows, Linux, and macOS. Learn more...

Improved comparison between rule artifact versions

This feature compares two versions of a rule artifact during synchronization. It can display rules in BAL, decision tables and XML, run on versions from different sources, for example, Eclipse history and GitHub, and content from separate artifacts. Learn more...

Stop command to interrupt the engine

The stop command interrupts a rule task when a specific state is reached. Used in the action part of a business rule, it stops processing to avoid running other rules. Learn more...

Dark-mode support

The rule editor has three themes for displaying code: Classic, Dark and Light. Learn more...

External assets

These services reside outside the Operational Decision Manager installation.

• ODM Rule Designer Bob Mode

  The ODM AI Toolkit for IBM Bob has a custom mode that generates complete, deployable rule projects from natural language descriptions. The projects can be used directly in Rule Designer. Learn more...

• Java type for modern date and time management

  The java.time.* Java type enables the integration of modern date and time elements. Learn more...

Rule Execution Server

Access to ruleset properties during execution

Ruleset property values can be accessed during rule execution. Learn more...

RuleApp and ruleset deployment date

Rule Execution Server displays the date and time of deployment for each RuleApp and ruleset. Learn more...

Swagger UI for rule execution

The REST Rule Execution Server Management API uses a Swagger UI to document and test its endpoints. Learn more...

Swagger UI for decision services

A Swagger UI interface displays and tests decision services that are represented with OpenAPI descriptors. Learn more...

Redesigned HTDS test interface

Used to evaluate the behavior of decision services, the HTDS interface has been refreshed with a better look and feel, and a smoother user experience. Learn more...

Support for compression types in Kafka event emitter

LZ4, Zstandard, Snappy, and GNU Gzip can be used as compression types in the configuration of the emitter's plug-in. Learn more...

Decision Center

REST APIs to manage rule artifacts

REST APIs can create, update, and delete rule artifacts. Learn more...

Expanded integration with AI agents through MCP servers (external asset)

Business automation capabilities further expose REST API as tools for AI agents through Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, enabling them to interact with decisions and content repositories. This service resides outside the Operational Decision Manager installation. Learn more...

Bulk unlocking of artifacts

A REST API endpoint unlocks all the locked artifacts in a single request. It finds all the locked artifacts and unlocks them in bulk. A dry run is provided to show the locked artifacts by user. Learn more...

Synchronization overrideAll parameter

The overrideAll Ant parameter overrides all the changes between Rule Designer and Decision Center. When used in synchronizing sources, the content of the target matches the content of the source. Learn more...

Various improvements to the Business console

• BOM vocabulary display: In the Business console, hovering over a BOM member in the Model > Vocabulary view displays its documentation.
• The test report can display the current version of a rule in a list of fired rules.

Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes

Ready-to-use Rule Designer

Rule Designer is available in a ready-to-use version that contains Rule Designer and all its prerequisite software: Eclipse, Java, and required plug-ins. It supports Windows, Linux, and macOS. Learn more...

Usage metering

IBM Usage Metering Service is enabled with Operational Decision Manager deployments to gather data that can be used to view product usage. Collected data includes configuration information and usage metrics. Learn more...

Reporting license usage to IBM Software Central

IBM License Service can optionally send collected license usage data directly to IBM Software Central. It displays aggregated license usage across clusters in Software Central. Learn more...

Security and authentication

Authentication on Decision Server Runtime can be disabled through the new decisionServerRuntime.disableAuthentication parameter. This is useful for deployment scenarios that require open access. Learn more...

Network improvements

All the Operational Decision Manager components have been migrated to the standard HTTP/HTTPS 80 and 443 ports to replace the custom ports. This applies to Decision Center, Decision Runner, Decision Server Console, and Decision Server Runtime. The container ports remain unchanged. Standard port usage simplifies Gateway API migration and improves compatibility with standard Kubernetes network patterns. Learn more...

Management secret

Credential parameters support both string and dictionary formats, improving integration with SecretProviderClass and providing greater flexibility in secret configuration. Learn more...

More properties for defining the behavior of the Decision Server components

Additional properties further extend control of Decision Server components. The new properties are listed with the following flag:   New in 9.6.0.0   Learn more...

General

Logout redirect with OIDC

New attribute specifies the post-logout redirect URI to the OpenID provider. The post_logout_redirect_uri attribute is added to the logout request to tell the provider where to redirect the user after the logout process completes. Learn more...

Updated system requirements

Development environment:

• Eclipse 4.38 (2025-12)
• Java JDK 21.0.10

Application servers:

• IBM WebSphere Liberty 26.0.0.3
• JBoss EAP 8.1
• Oracle MySQL 8.4

For the most up-to-date information, check IBM® Operational Decision Manager detailed system requirements .

Deprecated and removed features

Don't forget to check for deprecated or removed features in this release. Learn more....