Archived what's new in the containers 2018-2022

Important new features and enhancements were introduced in the Sterling Order Management System Software containers from the year 2018 to 2022.

November 2022 (10.0.2209.1)

Support for standalone Order Hub Custom Resource: You can now deploy Order Hub independent of OMEnvironment Custom Resource. For more information about configuring Order Hub, see Order Hub (OrderHub) Custom Resource.

Support to create ad hoc OMServer resources: The OMServer resources can now be created on ad hoc basis. These OMServer resources function in conjunction with parameters such as database, storage, image, and more that are defined in the OMEnvironment Custom Resource. The ad hoc OMServer resources are not owned by the OMEnvironment.

Creating agent or integration servers as a Kubernetes Job or CronJob: A property named allowTermination.schedule is introduced for agent and integration servers. Configure the allowTermination.schedule property based on the kind of resource (Job or CronJob) that you want to create. For more information, see Agent and integration server properties.

Capability to connect Oracle using TNS name: A new parameter named url is introduced to establish connection with Oracle database using TNS name. The url parameter is applicable for Oracle database only. For more information, see Configuring database parameter.

Download updated packages for om-base image: A flag named REFRESH_RPM_CACHE is introduced to refresh the RPM cache, when generating om-base images. Setting this flag to true ensures the updated packages for installation are downloaded. For more information, see ../customization/c_OMRHOC_customizing_OMS_runtime.html#concept_ytb_vmv_rrb__gencusimage.

September 2022 (10.0.2209.0)

Installing Sterling Store Engagement (Next-generation): Sterling Store Engagement can now be installed on certified containers. For more information about the installation instructions, see Installing Sterling Store Engagement (Next-generation) on certified containers.

Support for vanilla Kubernetes (k8s) cluster

The IBM® Sterling Order Management System Software Operator now supports vanilla Kubernetes cluster.

For more information about Kubernetes installation prerequisites, see Installation prerequisites.
For more information about installing the Operator on Kubernetes cluster, see Installing Operator online.

Support for PostgreSQL database: The Sterling Order Management System Software Operator now supports PostgreSQL database. For more information about enabling PostgreSQL in Developer Toolkit, see install developer toolkit with PostgreSQL database. For more information about customizing containers for PostgreSQL, see customization runtime for PostgreSQL.

Application server startup optimization: The application server startup is optimized by deploying only the WAR files listed in the contextRoots while the other WAR files are automatically masked. This helps in saving valuable CPU and memory, and improving server startup time.
For example, Rest service that is deployed using the OOB om-app image only consumes 25% of the resources while taking about 20% of the time to start, compared to earlier deployments. This is achieved because only smcfs WAR is loaded in Liberty, while remaining WAR files (sbc, sma, isccs, wsc, isf) are masked.

Support for propertyRef in serverProperties: Support for propertyRef is added for configMaps and secrets in customerOverrides, envVars, and jvmArgs sections of serverProperties. For more information, see Configuring propertyRef parameter.

JWT private key automation: As part of OMEnvironment creation, the Sterling Order Management System Software Operator now generates JSON Web Token (JWT) private key preemptively, if it does not already exist. This capability provides seamless integration of Order service, Order hub, and more. Previously, JWT private key was generated only when JWT API was accessed.

Support for API javadocs deployment: Support for deploying API javadocs through the Sterling Order Management System Software Operator is added. For more information, see Deploying smcfsdocs.

Support for mounting additional volumes to specific pods: Additional volumes can now be mounted only to those pods that match the criteria instead of mounting to all the pods. A new property matchLabels is added to additionalMounts for configMaps, secrets, and storages. The matchLabels are compared against podLabels to conditionally mount the additional volumes into the pods. For more information about matchLables, see Configuring additionalMounts parameter.

Capability to install reference implementation: Data management now provides the ability to install reference implementation (matrix or aurora) based on an annotation. For more information, see Annotations used in Sterling Order Management System Operator.
Note: The reference implementation is meant for development and demo purposes only.

OIDC support for developer toolkit: You can now configure the application to support OIDC provider login from the developer toolkit environment. For more information, see Supporting OIDC provider login in developer toolkit environment.

IBM Sterling Order Management System Software Order Service (General Availability): The IBM Sterling Order Management System Software introduces a comprehensive Order Service feature that provides more scalable and robust Order Search and Order Archival capabilities by using a modernized technology stack and architecture. Order Service is now available through certified containers. For more information about Order Service and the supported components, see Order Service overview.

Order Service (General Availability): The IBM Sterling Order Management System Software introduces a comprehensive Order Service feature that provides more scalable and robust Order Search and Order Archival capabilities by using a modernized technology stack and architecture. Order Service is now available through certified containers. For more information about Order Service and the supported components, see Order Service overview.

June 2022 (10.0.2206.0)

IBM Sterling Order Management System Software Operator (General Availability): The IBM Sterling Order Management System Software Operator is now generally available. The Operator manages and automates the life cycle of your IBM Sterling Order Management System Software. The Operator provides custom resources to specify required application state and automatically creates/updates the Kubernetes resources to achieve the expected state. It is designed to have all the features of the Helm charts and more. For more information about the Operator, see Introduction to Sterling Order Management System Software Operator.

IBM Sterling Store Engagement (Next-generation) containerization: The IBM Sterling Store Engagement is now available through certified containers. For more information about Sterling Store Engagement, see Sterling Store Engagement (Next-generation).

Order Hub containerization: The Order Hub is now available through certified containers. For more information about Order Hub containerization, see Configuring Order Hub parameter.

Introduced Order Service in the developer toolkit: Order Service is now available in the certified containers developer toolkit. For more information about Order Service in certified containers developer toolkit, see Setting up the containerized developer toolkit environment.

Introduced Order Hub in the developer toolkit: The Order Hub is now available in the certified containers developer toolkit. For more information about Order Hub in certified containers developer toolkit, see Setting up the containerized developer toolkit environment.

Deploying Order Hub customizations: You can deploy your customizations so other users can use your customizations. For more information, see Deploying customizations.

Workload segregation for task queue agents

The workload segregation feature is now available for task queue agents to segregate workload by creating jobs with different segregation patterns. You can configure segregation patterns in the agent criteria of the task queue agents to process matching jobs.

The workflow segregation feature helps you process jobs with different workload and separate business flows in separate agent servers. You also have a flexibility to prioritize and run a particular type of workload with required resources to scale up the agent processing.

For more information, see Workload segregation for task queue agents.

Order size and Segregation filter indicators

New attributes are made available to apply different business flows for order processing. The order and release related API output, event data, and user exit input are enhanced to provide the following attributes:

Order attributes - IsLargeOrder, IsVeryLargeOrder, OrderSegregationFilter
Release attributes - IsLargeRelease, IsVeryLargeRelease, ReleaseSegregationFilter
For more information about the order and release attributes, see Order and Release related API Javadoc.

These indicators are also available as condition builder attributes so that you can easily add conditions in your order processing model. For more information about these attributes, see Condition builder attributes.

March 2022

IBM Sterling Order Management System Software Operator (Beta version): Sterling Order Management System Software Operator is now available. For more information, see Sterling Order Management System Software Operator.

February 2022

Introduced IBM Sterling Store Engagement (Next-generation) in the developer toolkit: Sterling Store Engagement (Next-generation) is now available only in the developer toolkit for IBM Sterling Order Management System Software users. You can use Sterling Store Engagement (Next-generation) to perform various customer service, order fulfillment, and inventory management tasks. For more information, see Using IBM Sterling Store Engagement (Next-generation).
In this release, Store Inventory Management is not supported in IBM Sterling Order Management System Software. For more information about the unsupported features, see Key capabilities of Sterling Store Engagement.
Introduced Order Hub in the developer toolkit: Order Hub is now available in the developer toolkit. You can use Order Hub to manage your fulfillment network and complete tasks like configuring node capacity, resolving exceptions, or creating orders. For more information about setting up Order Hub in the toolkit, see Overriding the default docker compose properties. For more information about how to use Order Hub, see Using Order Hub.
Updates to Db2 and MQ parts: The Db2 and MQ part numbers are updated to be in line with the latest support policies. For more information, see Downloading entitled packages.

October 2021

IBM Sterling Order Management System Software Order Service (Beta version): Sterling Order Management System Software introduces a comprehensive Order Service feature that provides more scalable and robust order search and archive capabilities by using a modernized technology stack and architecture.
For more information about Order Service and the supported components, see Order Service overview.

September 2021

Withdrawal of Power architecture images: Effective September 2021, the Power architecture images are withdrawn.

Enabled Oracle database for developer toolkit: The application is enhanced to enable Oracle database for developer toolkit. You can now configure the developer toolkit to use a compatible Oracle database version. For more information about the support for developer toolkit for Oracle database, see Customizing the developer toolkit for Oracle database.

June 2021

Integrated Developer Toolkit: As part of this release, IBM provides the Integrated Developer Toolkit for Sterling Order Management System Software. The new Integrated Developer Toolkit reduces the complexity and enables the SI developers to set up a developer environment with ease. The Integrated Developer Toolkit setup takes care of setting up and configuring the middleware along with Sterling Order Management System Software runtime. For more information about the Integrated Developer Toolkit by using Docker compose, see Setting up the Integrated Developer Toolkit environment.

Note: The documentation provided for Developer Toolkit as part of Do It Yourself (DIY) model is different from this new Integrated Developer Toolkit.

For more information about the image tag versions, see Software Product Compatibility Reports.

Use a local copy of WebSphere Liberty: A new argument, --LIBERTY_IMG is included in generateImages.sh. When building the om-app image, pass this argument to generateImages.sh with the value of liberty image in the format <registry>/<image-name>. This enables you to use a copy of Liberty image from a local registry instead of downloading the Liberty image from Docker hub.
For more details about all available arguments, run the command, generateImages.sh -- help.

Connect to Db2 over a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) port

The global.database.ssl parameter is exposed in values.yaml to indicate whether Db2 is connected over SSL. If you set the value to ‘true’, specify the Db2 SSL port number for the global.database.port parameter. By default, the Db2 SSL port number is set to 50001.

For more information about connecting to Db2 over an SSL port, see Readme file.

When configuring Db2 for SSL, ensure that you use TLS version 1.2 by running the following command:
db2 update dbm cfg using SSL_VERSIONS TLSV12

For more information about configuring Db2 for SSL, see Configuring Db2 for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

March 2021

Updates to container images: The Sterling Order Management System Software container images are updated to fix pack 21. Also, Sterling Call Center is updated to fix pack 6 and Sterling Store Engagement (Legacy) is updated to fix pack 9. For more information about the image tag versions, see Software Product Compatibility Reports.
For more information about obtaining images, see Obtaining Sterling Order Management System Software images.

Override application and agent server names: The Helm chart provides the ability to override the application and agent server names to control the length of resource names.

Install certified containers in an air gap environment: You can install certified containers in an air gap environment where your OpenShift® Container Platform or Kubernetes cluster does not have access to the internet. For more information about air gap installation, see Installing certified containers in an air gap environment.

Manage SSL certificates for third-party integrations: To secure external connections, the Helm chart provides the ability to integrate SSL certificates for third-party integrations such as payments. For more information about configuring SSL to secure external connections, see the Readme file.

Generate JVM thread and heap dumps: The certified container images are shipped with utilities for capturing JVM thread and heap dumps. For more information about generating JVM thread and heap dumps, see Generating JVM thread and heap dumps.

Performance recommendations: IBM has evaluated the hardware requirements for achieving specific throughput with IBM Sterling Order Management System Software on OpenShift Container Platform. For more information about the performance recommendations, in the Readme file see "Recommended requirements" section.

December 2020

Updated Sterling Order Management System Software Helm chart

The Sterling Order Management System Software Helm chart is enhanced to include the following functionality:

The Sterling Order Management System Software Helm chart allows to add custom ConfigMaps and Secrets as volumeMount on the pods.
The deployment strategy is available as a configuration parameter in values.yaml for both Application Server and Agent Server deployments.

Support for Red Hat® OpenShift Container Platform version 4.6: The support for Helm UI in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform catalog version 4.6 enables you to configure your own Helm chart repository in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

Attention: When deploying the Application server pods, if you want to use decimal values ensure to change the type to number in the values.schema.json file that is located in /properties/appserver/properties/resources/properties/limits/properties/

September 2020

Support for Little Endian Power (ppc64le) architecture: The Sterling Order Management System Software images are available for Linux® on x86-64 bit CPU architecture and Linux® on Power Systems 64-bit LE (Little Endian).

Note: Ensure that the nodes in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster are of the same architecture for both x86-64 and ppc64le.

Security annotations: Provision to add additional annotations and labels for Ingress and Service Kubernetes resources. For more information about adding annotations, see the Readme file.

Storage class for Persistent Volume: Pass the storageClassName attribute in values.yaml for Persistent Volume claim. For more information about storageClassName, see the Readme file.

Javadoc as an application image: Javadoc can be generated as an application image. For more information about generating Javadoc as an application image, see Generating Javadoc.

Language packs: The om-base image is bundled with Sterling Order Management System Software language packs. For more information about applying language packs, see Applying language packs.

Fix pack factory setup: The Helm chart conditionally applies fix pack factory setup based on the values provided.

Active MQ client driver: The om-base and om-agent images are bundled with activemq client.

April 2020

Downloading the Helm chart from Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Helm catalog: Starting Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform version 4.4, Helm charts are integrated with the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Helm catalog that enables to install Sterling Order Management System Software from Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Helm catalog.
For more information about installing Sterling Order Management System Software from Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Helm catalog, see Downloading the Helm chart.

March 2020

Revised support policy for certified containers: The support policy is revised for Sterling Order Management System Software certified containers. For more information, see Support policy for container delivery models.

Obtain Sterling Order Management System Software images from IBM Entitled Registry: The Sterling Order Management System Software images are now available for download from IBM Entitled Registry. This allows installation from a central repository rather than requiring downloads from Passport Advantage. For more information, see Obtaining Sterling Order Management System Software images.

Upgrade from non-container model to a container model: You can upgrade IBM Sterling Order Management System Software version 10.0 on OpenShift Container Platform cluster. For more information, see Upgrading your Sterling Order Management System Software environment for OpenShift Container Platform.

Support for Oracle database: You can deploy Sterling Order Management System Software on OpenShift Container Platform for Oracle database by using the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Management Console. For more information about Oracle database, see Customized certified containers.

Generate deployment patterns: The generateImages.sh script is enhanced that allows you to build independent images for each of the applications. For more information about generating deployment patterns, see Advanced image build options and deployment patterns.

Build differential images: You can build differential image so that only the modified content with respect to a reference image is skimmed into a new differential layer and a new image is created for further deployment. For more information about building differential images, see Advanced image build options and deployment patterns.

Combine image build modes: The generateImages.sh script is enhanced to build both applications and agent images at once on running the script. For more information about combining image build modes, see Advanced image build options and deployment patterns.

Migrate to Helm version 3: The Sterling Order Management System Software Helm chart additionally supports Helm version 3 along with Helm version 2. It is recommended that you migrate your deployments to Helm version 3. For more information about the migration instructions, see the Helm documentation.

Deploy a stand-alone REST API service: The Helm chart allows you to create a stand-alone deployment of om-app image and dedicate for REST services. For more information about deploying multiple application images, see Readme file.

December 2019

Integrate with IBM Sterling Intelligent Promising Inventory Visibility: Sterling Order Management System Software introduces phase 2 integration that is applicable only for new deployments, and not applicable for any existing deployments that uses IBM Sterling Global Inventory Visibility. In phase 2 integration, the supply, demand, and reservation data is stored only in IBM Sterling Intelligent Promising Inventory Visibility, and therefore, IBM Sterling Intelligent Promising Inventory Visibility is the master of inventory and reservations.
Learn more....

November 2019

Deploy Sterling Order Management System Software on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform: Sterling Order Management System Software is now fully supported on the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. You can configure and deploy the Sterling Order Management System Software images for both Professional and Enterprise Editions on a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
Learn more...

Product name changes: The product name for IBM Order Management Software has changed to IBM Sterling Order Management System Software.

December 2018

Control scheduling of pods: Sterling Order Management System Software is updated to provide support for node affinity, pod affinity, pod anti-affinity, and toleration to support control scheduling of pods and ensure maximum resiliency.

Generate Ingress TLS: For a non-production deployment, the process of generating an Ingress TLS is automated.

Kubernetes and Helm labels are supported: The labels and annotations are updated to the format that is recommended by Kubernetes to comply with Helm or Kubernetes best practices.
Learn more...

Custom environment variables: Sterling Order Management System Software provides the capability to specify the custom environment variables.