Rational Change 5.3 release information

Content

This release information includes the following content about Rational Change version 5.3:

• About this release
• Fixed APARs in this release
• Product documentation
• Software and hardware requirements
• Access the software
• Installation information
• Known problems
• IBM Rational Software Support

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About this release

Rational Change version 5.3 includes the following enhancements:

Dynamic privileges with project security
Project security is an optional alternative to traditional database security, giving users a dynamic set of privileges based on a grouping of CRs. Benefits include: Simplified privilege management (by grouping related privileges into roles); leveraging of existing groups in Rational Directory Server; distributed administration; and finer granularity in assigning privileges.

Ad hoc relational reports
Users can define arbitrary linear relational reports in the User interface through new "Block Relationships" and "Column Relationships" formats.

Improved search index performance using JDBC
Creation of the search index can be optionally be configured to use JDBC. This direct connection to the database reduces the time it takes to build and update the index, especially when CRs contain large amounts of data.

Tomcat web server support
During installation, an additional web server option is available: Using an existing installation of Tomcat 6.

Help system
Online help is now a separate web server application. The installer offers multiple help server configurations: Install a separate help server, install Rational Change and the help server together, or simply use an existing help server (such as the public Information Center),

OSLC CM 2.0
Added bi-directional rich hover support with customizable summary content. Also added support for OAuth (in addition to Basic-Auth in OSLC 1.0), a form of delegated authentication.

Password recovery
Users can reset their forgotten password by clicking a link on the login dialog and supplying their email address.

Minor enhancements

• Updated calendar control
• CR number is shown in the browser title bar of new windows
• Sorting of attachments is based on time added
• Read security has been moved to ACL the tab
• Choice of whether dialog-less transitions should ignore/apply required attributes on the show form

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Fixed APARs in this release

APARs that are fixed in this release are in the Fix list document.

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Product documentation

For complete documentation, including installation instructions, review the Information Center.

For more information, review the following resources:

• Rational Change Integrations Documentation
• Rational Change Customization Reference Guide
• Rational Synergy 7.2 Release Information

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Software and hardware requirements

Review the detailed system requirements document at Detailed System Requirements for Rational Change 5.3.

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Access the software
Access the Rational Change 5.3 Download document.

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Installation information

Review the Download document for prerequisites and links to the installation instructions.

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Known problems

Important known problems new to version 5.3 are discussed below. See also known problems from previous releases, as they may still apply.

ID	Problem/Workaround
WI 5675	Project security feature not working with RDS 5.2 (Tivoli) The new project security feature is not presently working with RDS 5.2 (Tivoli), but will be in a forthcoming fix. If you intend to start using project security soon, use RDS 5.1.1 (Apache) instead.
R#40446	Correction to help topic on HTTPS configuration Step 4 of the help topic "Modifying the web server" under "Configuring for Secure Sockets Layer and HTTPS" has the line <Set name=keytool -genkey -keystore "/usr/local/rc.keystore" -alias hawk -keyalg RSA which is incorrect. It should be <Set name="Keystore">/usr/local/rc.keystore</Set>
R#39848	Migrating CRs to a central server database not yet supported Migrating the CRs of a development database into the central server database is not presently supported, but will be in a forthcoming fix. This means that once you have upgraded to version 5.3, you will not be able to switch to central server mode from stand-alone mode or continue migration of unmigrated databases. The workaround is to perform this migration prior to upgrading to release 5.3 (for example, though release 5.2). New central server deployments (which do not have CRs to migrate) are unaffected.
R#38490	Server registration must be initiated from the central server when mixed releases are used Registration from a pre-5.3 remote server to a 5.3 central server fails if the server encodings are different (which is usually the case unless the remote server is using the Synergy Asian line). The workaround is to perform the registration from the central server.
R#38474	Windows service may not start in a timely fashion when using local help The Rational Change service on Windows may not start in a timely fashion when Rational Change and Help are deployed together on Jetty, resulting in the following message: "Could not start the IBM Rational Change 8600 service on Local Computer. Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion." In fact, the service does start, but not within the 125 seconds expected by the Windows service, hence the message. Possible workarounds include: 1. Ignore this error 2. Install Rational Change and Help separately (on different web servers) 3. Use the public Information Center for help rather than a local help server
R#38401	release.js script removed The example external listbox script "release.js", and the internal APIs it relied on, have been removed in release 5.3. Version 5.3 automatically updates the release listbox when defined as a "Database Listbox" fetching values from "active_releases", so the script is unnecessary. Remove any references to release.js and set release listbox properties to "Database Listbox".

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IBM Rational Software Support