IBM Host On-Demand Version 14.0 for Windows operating systems
This file contains information that became available too late for inclusion in the publications or the online help. This file also contains important support information.
Third Party Components' names and license terms are referenced in license.txt, located in the directory where you installed Host On-Demand.
For product documentation, visit the Host On-Demand Documentation. For Windows, the Host On-Demand Documentation is located at Start > Programs > IBM Host On-Demand > Information Center.
For the latest information, please visit the Host On-Demand Web site .
For hints and tips and other support, please visit the Host On-Demand support page.
For product brochures and other documentation, visit the Host On-Demand library.
For a list of APARs fixed in this release, please refer to the file apars.txt. The location of this file depends on the form in which you received this release:
To print a complete copy of Planning, Installing, and Configuring Host On-Demand with page numbers and a table of contents, use install.pdf, located on the DVD in /doc/ xx/doc/install, where xx is your two letter language suffix. You can also open the HTML version, install.html, located on the DVD in /doc/ xx/doc/install, where xx is your two letter language suffix.
Thank you for choosing IBM Host On-Demand Version 14.0.
For more information on IBM Host On-Demand refer to the following documentation center:
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/host-on-demand
Server JRE has been updated to IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition (JRE) version 8 SR8 FP20 8.0.8.20.
The version of Java runtime packaged in IBM Managed Host On-Demand has been upgraded to Java 17.0.10.0.
With this release, Web application Archive files can be deployed in custom location. Which provides flexibility for Embedded Server to extract the files in available file systems.
With this release, SSL/TLS certificate identities are validated using SAN followed by common name (CN). The use of the SAN extension is standard practice for SSL certificates and offers flexibility by consolidating multiple hostnames under a single SSL/TLS certificate.
The code signer certificate used to sign the previous versions of IBM Host On-Demand software will expire on April 20, 2024. In the current version, the IBM Host On-Demand software is signed with a new code signer certificate that is valid up to February 25, 2026.
This certificate is issued to "International Business Machines Corporation" by "DigiCert Trusted G4 Code Signing RSA4096 SHA384 2021 CA1".
IBM EHLLAPI Library for Host On-Demand, also called as IBM Host On-Demand EHLLAPI Bridge enables an IBM EHLLAPI application to connect to IBM Host On-Demand terminal emulator session. However, this was not supported with applications developed using IBM Host Access Toolkit.
This release extends, support for EHLLAPI Bridge has been extended to IBM Host Access Toolkit. With this, EHLLAPI applications written to interact with IBM Host On-Demand emulator sessions can also be used to interact with applications developed using Host Access Class Library API and Host Access Beans for Java™ API , through the EHLLAPI Bridge. For more information refer to the following: IBM Host Access Toolkit.
To enable, users can select "1379 Hong Kong (Trad. Chinese Ext.)" from the Host Code Page drop-down under Session parameters.
Cipher suites based on SHA-1 hashing algorithms are considered weak and vulnerable to security risks. Due to this, new server operating system (for example, Linux operating systems) discontinue to support secure connections over SHA-1 cipher algorithms.
With this release, IBM Host On-Demand supports SHA-2 Cipher Algorithms over VT-SSH connections. This allows HOD VT-SSH sessions to connect to VT hosts that support SHA-2 cipher suites alone.
Refresh pack 14.0.6.0 contains fixes for APARs and internal defects.
With this release, support for TLS 1.3 has been enabled for IBM Host On-Demand. TLS 1.3 will be the default protocol version used for secure negotiations, for all types of sessions. Users should be at one of the following JRE levels to enable connectivity using TLS 1.3 protocol.
A new independent interoperability module is introduced in this release. This is hosted by default on the HOD embedded server. However, this can be deployed on any of the external application servers supported by HOD.
With this new module in place, PCOMM client communicates with the HOD server over HTTP/HTTPS connectivity using JSON data.
For the existing PCOMM users configured with HACP server, a migration utility has been provided to migrate the PCOMM session definitions stored on the HACP server to the new format. The migration is a pre-requisite for those who plan to migrate their HOD server to v14.0.5 and PCOMM client to v14.0.5.
For more information on HOD-PCOMM interoperability, see Interoperability between Personal Communications and Host On-Demand clients.
Refresh pack 14.0.5.0 contains fixes for APARs and internal defects.
The code signer certificate used to sign the previous versions of IBM Host On-Demand software will expire on September 24, 2021. In the current version, the IBM Host On-Demand software is signed with a new code signer certificate that is valid up to April 20, 2024.
This certificate is issued to "HCL America Inc." by "DigiCert SHA2 Assured ID Code Signing CA". "HCL America Inc." is the partner of "International Business Machines Corporation" authorized to sign IBM Host On-Demand software.
Refresh pack 14.0.4.0 contains fixes for APARs and internal defects.
This feature allows IBM Personal Communications (PCOMM) Users to access PCOMM profiles through IBM Host On-demand (HOD) clients as well as in HACP Extended Edition, after migrating/uploading their profiles to HACP Server. For more information on HOD-PCOMM interoperability, refer to Technote.
This feature allows Administrators to update the web.properties and config.properties in the HOD server by using HACP Admin console.
These properties are used to set the product level configurations for HACP EE and HOD clients respectively.
With this release of IBM Host On-Demand, FIPS mode is enabled by default and it uses FIPS 140-2 compliant cryptographic ciphers for both JSSE and non-JSSE secure connections.
This enhancement allows IBM Host On-Demand end-users to configure and run their clients using OpenJDK Java runtime in the HOD Launcher client.
With this release, support has been added for IBM Host On-Demand EHLLAPI Enablement Tool v14.0.0 (64-bit). The updated IBM EHLLAPI Library for Host On-Demand package in IBM Fix Central contains both the 32-bit and 64-bit variants. For more information, refer to the HTML document in the zipped package.
Starting with v14.0.3, Host On-Demand supports group mode installation on all the supported platforms (Linux, UNIX, IBM z/OS, and OS X ) using IBM Installation Manager. For more information, refer to Installing Host On-Demand in Group mode.
Refresh pack 14.0.3.0 contains fixes for APARs and internal defects.
With this release, IBM Host On-Demand is shipped with an embedded web server that eliminates the dependency on external web servers to access IBM HOD pages. However, one can also continue to use external web servers. For more information on configuring HOD with an embedded web server, refer to Technote.
IBM Host On-Demand provided "Jump to Next Session" option to switch from one emulator session to the next (sessions named in alphabetical order). With this release, "Jump to Previous Session" option has been added to allow a user to switch to the previous emulator session. This option is available under:
Server JRE has been updated to IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition (JRE) version 1.8 SR6 FP10.
With this release, in Configuration server model, there is a change in the behaviour of deleting a group from the Host On-Demand Admin Console. When "Also delete all members of this group" option is selected and if the user is a member of more than one group, then deleting a group will not delete a user.
Refresh pack 14.0.2.0 contains fixes for APARs and internal defects.
Server JRE has been updated to IBM Runtime Environment Java Technology Edition (JRE) version 1.8 SR5 FP40.
In some of the tables in the emulator presentation space, negative numbers can sometimes be represented with "-" appended to the end of the number. When such a value is copied from the presentation space and pasted on to an external application (such as Microsoft Excel), it may be desirable to expect the numeric sign to be prefixed. For example, "123-" copied from the emulator presentation space, when pasted on an Excel spreadsheet, it is expected be rendered as "-123".
With this release, HOD Edit-Copy handles numbers with positive and negative signs at the end of the string.
With this release, the STRPCCMD command has been enhanced to consider the /w option of Windows start command. With this change HOD's behaviour would be similar to that of PCOMM's.
For more information, please refer to “New behavior of STRPCCMD” in the below link: New Behaviour of STRPCCMD.
With this release, HOD supports the new Japanese era character - Reiwa.
The code signer certificate used to sign the previous versions of IBM Host On-Demand software will expire on Jan 23, 2020. In the current version, the IBM Host On-Demand software is signed with a new code signer certificate that is valid up to September 24, 2021.
This certificate is issued to “HCL America Inc.” by “DigiCert SHA2 Assured ID Code Signing CA”. “HCL America Inc.” is the partner of “International Business Machines Corporation” authorized to sign IBM Host On-Demand software.
Refresh pack 14.0.1.0 contains fixes for APARs and internal defects.
When connecting to hosts using a secure connection, IBM Host On-Demand uses JSSE APIs to find connections that have data to be read from. Due to a limitation in the current JSSE implementation, Host On-Demand code cannot reliably differentiate the connections that have data pending to be read, from those without. This was causing significant performance degradation when the number of connections are more. As part of performance enhancements in this version, Host On-Demand code has been re-designed to read host data as soon as it is received, making sure that the connections are not blocked. This change significantly improves the performance of data transfer between the client and the host.
Managed HOD is the new Host On-Demand client which can be installed on all supported client platforms for Host On-Demand. Instead of using system JRE, Managed HOD comes with its own JRE, which loads the HOD desktop faster. This can be used to connect to a Host On-Demand server and can also work as a Stand-alone application.
For more information on Managed Host On-Demand, see Browser Independent Host On-Demand Clients.
For DCAS connections, version of TLS defaults to TLS 1.2 protocol. If the host does not support TLS version 1.2, the connection falls back to a lower supported version.
Standalone HOD is deprecated in Host On-Demand version 14.0.
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