What's new

Discover changes that include new features, supported software, and other improvements in Operational Decision Manager and Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes.

This page lists the significant changes in this release. The entries include links to additional resources. You can download this documentation for offline use (see Offline documentation).

Note: This documentation does not include a section for Operational Decision Manager for z/OS.

Highlights

Some of the major changes in Operational Decision Manager 9.0.0, which was released in June 2024:
  • IBM Machine Learning integration in Rule Designer
  • New ruleflow editor in Rule Designer
  • Support for Java 17, Eclipse 4.30, and TLS 1.3
  • Generating Kafka events for failed executions in Rule Execution Server
  • Support for the stand-alone version of IBM Business Automation Insights
  • Numerous improvement to Decision Center
  • Support for additional OIDC parameters in Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes

Bookmarks

Return to bookmarks

General

Support for the stand-alone version of IBM Business Automation Insights
Monitor your Operational Decision Manager runtime events by using the stand-alone version of Business Automation Insights. It aggregate these events into business-relevant KPIs, and presents them in meaningful dashboards for lines of business to have a near real-time view on their business operations. New information Learn more...
Support for TLS 1.3
Operational Decision Manager now supports TLS 1.3, which has better security than TLS 1.2. For example, TLS 1.3 addresses known vulnerabilities in the TLS 1.2 handshake process. New information Learn more...
Deprecated and removed features
The following features are deprecated or removed in Operational Decision Manager 9.0.0. For more information, see Deprecated and removed features.
Operational Decision Manager:
  • Decision Warehouse (deprecated)
  • Legacy ruleflow editor (deprecated)
  • Java™ Management Extensions (JMX) public API for RuleApp and ruleset management in Rule Execution Server (removed)
  • Intermediate code generation in the decision engine (deprecated)
Updated software requirements and support
This release supports the following software:
  • Java 17
  • Eclipse 4.30
  • Java Servlet 4.0.1
Tip: Always check IBM® Operational Decision Manager detailed system requirements before installing or upgrading components.
Return to bookmarks

Operational Decision Manager Rule Designer

IBM Machine Learning integration
Machine Learning extracts key characteristics, patterns, and anomalies from your historical data to create predictive models. These models can be used to apply insights from your data in decision services. New information Learn more...
New ruleflow editor
Bringing improved features to Rule Designer, the new ruleflow editor addresses stability and interface issues in the legacy editor. It delivers a better experience for macOS users, and it is compatible with existing ruleflows. The legacy editor is also included in the component, so you can choose between the two editors. New information Learn more...
Return to bookmarks

Operational Decision Manager Rule Execution Server

Generating Kafka events for failed runs
A new parameter (EmitErrorEventOnRulesetNotExecuted) in the hosted transparent decision service of Rule Execution Server emits a Kafka event when a request fails before a run takes place. New information Learn more...
Support for Apache Kafka
Rule Execution Server uses Apache Kafka to emit runtime event information to monitoring services. An event streaming platform, Apache Kafka is used for data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission-critical applications. New information Learn more...
Setting time properties
The ruleset.maxIdleTime and ruleset.decisionEngine.maxRunningTime properties can now be set globally in the system properties in the jvm.options file of the server. If this property is not set for a ruleset, the value for the property is taken from the system properties. New information Learn more...
Return to bookmarks

Operational Decision Manager Decision Center

Ruleflows and variable sets in the timeline
The timeline now shows ruleflows and variables among other decision artifacts such as action rules and decision tables. You can compare older versions with newer ones, and restore them. New information Learn more...
Improved branch merge in the Business console
The branch merge function in Decision Center now handles changes to decision service properties such as categories, queries referenced in decision operations, dynamic XOM (schemas), and the engine mode. New information Learn more...
Pagination in the Library page

The Library tab is now paginated to avoid performance issues when listing many decision services. You can choose to see 10, 50 or all the decision services on one page. You can browse quickly through the pages with arrow buttons, and use the filter to search for specific decision services. The number of pages displayed is saved across sessions for each user. The maximum number of decision services that can be displayed on a single page is 500. If there are more than 500 decision services, the pagination is limited to 500. New information Learn more...

Database dump tool
The Decision Center DB-Dump tool can be used to export the Decision Center repository into a compressed (.zip) archive. The archive contains a JSON file for each database table. The archive can then be imported back into a Decision Center environment. It should be used when the Decision Center database is moved to a new database vendor. Customer support can also ask for the archive to investigate an issue. New information Learn more...
Enabling distributed caching
You can optionally enable a distributed cache to reduce the amount of information retrieved from the Decision Center database. The cache is provided by Infinispan libraries, and shared by all the Decision Center modules that are connected to the schema of the database. New information Learn more...
Disabling export and report tabs and commands
You can use REST API to disable the Business console UI project export and report tabs and commands through the group permissions. New information Learn more...
Long-running deletion without timing out
Deleting a branch or a full decision service can take a while, and can have timeout issues. The deletion process now runs in background mode. A single request is sent to initiate the deletion, and then a background process does the actual deletion. This deletion process applies to decision services and branches (regular branches, change activities, and releases). New information Learn more...
REST API for generating rule reports
You can generate reports based on decision services, projects, or queries. These reports show the content and properties of deployed project elements. New information Learn more...
Return to bookmarks

Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes

HTTP access log creation for auditing purposes
Enabling Operational Decision Manager pods to generate access logs enhances observability, security, and troubleshooting. It provides detailed request records, detects security threats, and complies with regulations. This capability also aids in debugging and incident response. You can now enable access logging by uncommenting the relevant section in the configuration map. It is important to keep the access log identifier named accessLogging. See the Liberty documentation on HTTP access logging for details on how to customize the access logs. New information Learn more...
Monitoring of Liberty server with MicroProfile metrics compatible with Prometheus
In Kubernetes, it can be difficult to understand what is happening in Operational Decision Manager containers. When applications are observable, operations teams can identify and understand the root causes of bugs, bottlenecks, and other inefficiencies. Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes can be configured to enable Liberty MicroProfile metrics that can be used by Prometheus to monitor Operational Decision Manager usage. New information Learn more...
Integration with HashiCorp Vault for secrets management
Now you can integrate your containers with HashiCorp Vault, a dedicated offering for managing secrets and other sensitive data. New information Learn more...
Support for additional OIDC parameters
Obtain the role information from the access token/OIDC configuration, and for Liberty to send the resource parameter during the Authorization request for the Authorization Code Flow. Operational Decision Manager for production can be configured with OpenID Connect (OIDC), which is an authentication framework that is built on the OAuth 2.0 protocol. ODM servers use it to verify a user's identity with an OIDC provider, and to authorize access to the ODM applications and APIs. The servers also use it to obtain basic profile information about the user. New information Learn more...
New contributions on GitHub to illustrate integrations
Visit the Operational Decision Manager on Certified Kubernetes GitHub for information about deployment, monitoring and usage. New contributions are added regularly. New information Learn more...
Return to bookmarks