Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus 8.1.0 Fix Pack 17, 8.1.0-TIV-NCOMNIbus-FP0017

Download Description

Notice: IBM will withdraw support for the selected Netcool product versions licensed under the IBM International Program License Agreement.

Java 8 Important Information

This upgrade uninstalls the existing IBM Java 7 and installs the latest version of the IBM Java 8 JRE. If any of the Java 7 files were modified since the v8.1 installation, then these modified files are removed during the upgrade process, with the exception of the java.security file. Before you perform the upgrade, backup these modified files to a private location, then after the upgrade reapply the modifications. The Java 8 java.security file has big differences to the Java 7 java.security file, so any modifications will need to be applied after reviewing the default file.

IBM Java 8 will NOT run on some older versions of operating systems, which include the following operating systems:
- AIX 6.1 before Tech Level 9
- Older versions of Linux (due to a GLIBC 2.7 requirement)
- Solaris SPARC 32 bit (IBM Java on Solaris SPARC is 64 bit only)

The following defect solutions are included in this release:

8.1.0-TIV-NCOMNIbus-FP0017
--------------------------

IJ05855
        Support for conversions for time (UTC) fields has been added.
        For example, for a specific time field with a value such as '0' a
        conversion text such as 'Unknown' or 'Not Set' could be defined
        in the alerts.conversions table. Conversions for time/UTC fields
        are now also supported by the Administrator GUI.
        Previously, if the value for a UTC date/time field in the
        ObjectServer was zero, Omnibus used to convert it to Epoch Time -
        01/01/1970. In the native Event list GUI, on both Windows and
        UNIX, the default behavior is now for a time field with the
        value of zero to be displayed as a blank field.
        This enhancement was implemented in response to enhancement
        requests 12253, 18888, 18915, 65835 and 97525.

IJ06114
        TLSv1.2 is now enabled irrespective of FIPS mode for all Java
        clients. Previous APAR IJ01536 did the same for all native
        servers and clients.

IJ06532
        When an SSL connection was made to the ObjectServer by a client
        application such as a probe or a gateway, then occasionally  the
        AppDescription was not captured. The AppDescription column in the
        catalog.connections table was left empty for all SSL connections.
        Also, connections logged in a debug log did not list the
        AppDescription. This problem is now fixed.

IJ06621
        If you have entitlement to Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus as part of
        Netcool Operations Insight you can apply Netcool Operations
        Insight Related Event grouping to scope based grouping groups to
        create super groups. The scope based grouping automations now
        support the automatic propagation of the child event details to
        the super parent journal, so that the super parent will have all
        the underlying child event details, when ticketed. To enable this
        function, the following two new properties are added to the
        master.properties table.
        - SEGJournalToSuperParent; Enables journaling to the super parent
        event, when IntValue is set to 1.
        - SEGMaxSuperParentJournals; Defines the maximum number of child
        events to be journaled to the super parent journal. The default
        value of IntValue is 100.

        The scope based grouping automations roll up multiple child
        events into single journal entries in the parent event. Before
        Fix Pack 18, the automations inserted only one journal entry per
        each 17 second cycle. From Fix Pack 18, the automations
        immediately insert all children that are currently present,
        therefore the automations can insert many multiple journal
        entries into the parent event in the same one second window. To
        enable the Fix Pack 18 automations, the UID of the user inserting
        the journal entries is changed to a pseudo user and has a
        arbitrarily selected UID value of 1000000 or greater, that does
        not correspond to a real user UID. Therefore, the Fix Pack 18
        automations function obsoletes the property SEGJournalUID.

        Please also note known issue as described in APAR IJ09087 at:
        http://ibm.biz/BdYGea

IJ06845
        If the primary probe was unable to contact the secondary probe in P2P
        heartbeat mode, then the primary probe would log approximately
        10 related messages per second. This activity is now reduced to
        one connection attempt and one message per second.

IJ08940
        The version of Java included in OMNIbus core has been updated
        from Java 7 to Java 8. As a consequence of this there are some
        changes to supported platforms for Java based components as well
        as some outstanding issues which will be fixed in a later fix
        pack.

        Supported platforms update for Java based components: IBM Java 8
        will NOT run on some older versions of operating systems. These
        include AIX 6.1 before Tech Level 9, older versions of Linux (due
        to a GLIBC 2.7 requirement) and Solaris SPARC 32 bit (IBM Java on
        Solaris SPARC is 64 bit only).

        If any Java based probes or gateways are used then check that you
        have the latest version. Some probes or gateways may not function
        correctly after the upgrade to Java 8 unless the latest version
        or the probe or gateway is installed.

        FIPS and the java.security file: During the update to Java 8 the
        Java 7 files will be uninstalled with the exception of a modified
        java.security file which will be left in place. If you have
        modified this file, to enable FIPS mode for example, then it is
        important that you re-apply the changes to the Java 8 version of
        the java.security file. If you do not then  Java based
        applications may not work as expected. For example, if FIPS mode
        has been enabled then Java components will not be able to
        communicate with other OMNIbus components until the FIPS
        configuration has been re-applied to the java.security file.

        MIB Manager: If MIB Manager is used then it is important to note
        that there are some dependency changes and known issues.
        - MIB Manager will NOT currently work on Solaris due to an issue
        with the version of Eclipse included. This will be resolved in a
        later fix pack.
        - On AIX libXrender is required to run MIB Manager. It should be
        version 0.9.8 available from the IBM AIX Toolbox website and
        installed into /opt/freeware/lib (the default location).
        - The GTK must be at least version 2.18 in order for Eclipse to
        run.

        If you have any concerns it is recommended to consult the latest
        IBM Java documentation on current platform requirements and
        perform an install on a test system before installing on a
        production environment.

        The JRE for Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus V8.1.0 is updated to IBM JRE
        8.0 SR5 FP20, this also addresses possible security issues.

IV65806
        When CACHERULES is set to 1 and there is a blank value entry for
        a key value at the end of value list an
        error is thrown against the cache rules because of a column count
        error.  This has been fixed