Release notes for IBM Rational Test Virtualization Server

This document contains information about What's new, installation, known issues, and contact information of IBM Support.

Contents

What's new

You can find information about the features introduced in this release of Rational Test Virtualization Server and IBM Rational Integration Tester.

The following sections list the new features, enhancements, or other changes made in this release.
  • Rational Test Automation Server

    For information about Rational Test Automation Server, see Release notes.

  • Rational Test Control Panel
    • Tools page

      The list of agents changed for a release was updated. Review the Tools page of Rational Test Control Panel to see each tool and the version that it was last changed.

  • Technologies

    • Testing of databases that are in a Kubernetes cluster

      Rational Integration Tester now supports testing of databases that are in a Kubernetes cluster when the databases are not exposed externally through an ingress gateway.

      You can configure a physical connection to the Kubernetes cluster and then create a physical connection with the database that is in the cluster. You can then create tests or stubs to test the database.

      See Testing databases that are in a Kubernetes cluster.

    • Support for the Apache Kafka OAUTHBEARER framework

      You can now use the OAUTHBEARER framework to authenticate with the Kafka broker.

      See Creating physical Apache Kafka transport connections.

    • Support to include null values for missing fields in messages with repeating elements

      Rational Integration Tester now stores null values for the missing fields in messages with repeating elements. The null values are added to a list tag. The null values are stored in list tags only when the field is marked as optional. Message processing by using filters is not affected by this change.

      To disable the new behavior you must add the following system property to the IntegrationTester.ini file: 
      -Dstore.missing=FALSE

      See Repeating elements and list tags.

    • Support to create a single integration test from multiple operations

      Rational Integration Tester now supports the creation of a single integration test from recorded events that are under multiple operations.

      See Creating tests from recorded events.

    • Support for accessing console errors as tags in tests and stubs

      When you want to access the errors reported in tests, as inputs in other test or stub steps, you can now use the built-in tags ERRORS or LATEST_ERROR, for all errors or the latest error reported.

      For example, if the send request action fails because the target is not available, the error message is now captured and you can use the tag value in a subsequent test action, test, or stub to take a different course of action.

Deprecated capabilities

You can find information about the capabilities that are deprecated in this release and are planned for a removal in a future release.
Note: You can contact the IBM Support team if you have any concerns.
  • No capabilities are deprecated in this release.

Removed capabilities

No capabilities are removed in this release.

Installing and upgrading

You can find information about the installation and upgrade instructions for Rational Test Virtualization Server and Rational Test Control Panel.

Installing Rational Test Virtualization Server

For information about installation, see Installing Rational Test Virtualization Server or Rational Integration Tester Agent.

Installing Rational Test Control Panel

For information about installation, see Installation of Rational Test Control Panel.

Upgrading Rational Test Virtualization Server

If you use Installation Manager, you can find the upgrade requirements in Upgrading Rational Integration Tester Agent.

Upgrading Rational Test Control Panel

If you use Installation Manager, you can find the upgrade requirements in Rational Test Control Panel upgrade information and requirements.

Known issues

You can find information about the known issues identified in this release of Rational Test Virtualization Server.
Table 1. Release documents - Fix list and known issues
Product Download document Knowledge base
Rational Test Virtualization Server Release document Knowledge articles

Known problems are documented in the download document for each product and in the form of individual technotes in the Support Knowledge Base:

The knowledge base is continually updated as problems are discovered and resolved. By searching the knowledge base, you can quickly find workarounds or solutions to problems.

Contacting IBM Rational Software Support

  • For contact information and guidelines or reference materials that you might need when you require support, read the IBM Support Guide.

  • For personalized support that includes notifications of significant upgrades, subscribe to Product notification.

  • Before you contact IBM Rational Software Support, you must gather the background information that you might need to describe your problem. When you describe a problem to an IBM software support specialist, be as specific as possible and include all relevant background information so that the specialist can help you solve the problem efficiently. To save time, know the answers to these questions:
    • What software versions were you running when the problem occurred?
    • Do you have logs, traces, or messages that are related to the problem?
    • Can you reproduce the problem? If so, what steps do you take to reproduce it?
    • Is there a workaround for the problem? If so, be prepared to describe the workaround.