What's new in Control-M 9.0.19

The following sections describe the new features in Control-M version 9.0.19:

Important considerations

emdef utilities now support Site Standard and use a central validation service. As a result, the output of the validation messages has changed to be consistent with the Control-M client and Control-M Web interfaces.

If you have automation using emdef utilities, we strongly recommend that you refer to emdef switches and the emdef example for more information.

Control-M Multicloud Integration

Control-M Application Integrator authentication for AWS & Azure

Users can now easily leverage Application Integrator to integrate with any AWS & Azure services. This is supported by supplying the authentication credentials to AWS / Azure.

There's a new Application Plug-in for AWS and a new Application Plug-in for Azure that enable easy integration from a Control-M job to AWS & Azure services (such as: Lambda / Function, StepFunction /LogicApps, and Batch).

Control-M for AWS

  • Application Integrator (AI) for AWS with authentication capabilities for working with AWS out-of-the-box.
  • Application Plug-in for AWS - Lambda, StepFunctions, and Batch.
  • AWS Queues Integration via Application Plug-in for Web Services, Java and Messaging for public queues only.

Control-M for Azure

  • Application Integrator (AI) for Azure with authentication capabilities to Azure out-of-the-box.
  • Application Plug-in for Azure- Function, LogicApps, Batch.
  • Azure Queues Integration using the Application Plug-in for Web Services, Java and Messaging for public queues only.
NOTE:

Using Amazon Web Services (AWS) and/or Microsoft Azure services that are triggered by Control-M may result in additional costs as Control-M triggers APIs that consume resources on the cloud.

Reporting

We now support the ability to share reports between users. This means that users can create their reports (based on a template) and share them with other users so they can run them.

Server & Agent

Extended host name – We now support a longer host name (up to 85 characters) which addresses the issue of long host names that are created by AWS.

Troubleshoot Agent – Control-M configuration manager now provides additional information on why an agent is not available, such as ping and connectivity status.

Control-M Web 

Control-M version 9.19 continues to expand web functionality.  As part of our transition from desktop client to a consolidated web interface, Control-M version 9.19 introduces the 'Tools' domain with extended Site Standards and User Views mechanisms. In addition, Planning and Monitoring were extended with additional functionality.

The following major enhancements are introduced in this release:  

Site Standards

Site standards was enhanced to support developers to adhere their organizations’ restrictions when creating and editing jobs in a decentralized environment. This includes new 'conditional rules' and 'must have rules' for complicated scenarios to enforce standardization and efficiency among different organization parties.   

Viewpoints

Starting from V19 users will be able to use Web Viewpoints as part of self-service to display jobs and jobs flows. Viewpoint display can be done on a specific Control-M/Server, jobs that are for a specific user, or according to job status. 

User Views

Site customization was re-written and moved from the WLA client to Control-M web tools. User views allow users to customize Control-M Web's look according to organizational needs and support different user persona views (developer vs. ops). 

Order (Planning)

The ability to order your business flows - jobs, folders, or partially based folders, is now available for checked-in folders on the Planning domain. Control-M Web users will be able to order all or selected jobs, assuming they have the permission to do it. 

Access to Control-D

You can now access z/OS job output in Control-D web access through Control-M web interface (Monitoring domain)

Mobile

New mobile release is now available in Google Play and App store containing the following: Hold and Release functionality (new) and "service ok" status is now replaced with two statuses, Not started and Executed.

Control-M Governance, Security & Control

As part of our continuous efforts to improve governance, security, and control in general, we've introduced the following capabilities in Control-M 9.0.19:

  • View Global & Pool variables - Control-M Server (distributed and Mainframe systems) global and pool variables definition can be viewed in one screen.
  • Separate browse & order permissions - User authorization has been expanded and it's now possible to allow the ordering of folders without update permissions.
  • Support Control-M High Availability for both Control-M/Enterprise Manager and Control-M/Server when using an external PostgreSQL database (customer owned or Amazon RDS).
  • Support embedded PostgreSQL database upgrade process for both Control-M/Enterprise Manager and Control-M/Server. The process can be used after upgrading to Control-M 9.0.19.
  • Connect Out of the box SSL for non-production environments - Users can now work with an SSL connection out of the box, without distributing a certificate to Control-M Clients in non-production environments.
  • Use AES-256 encryption for all local passwords stored in Control-M/EM and Control-M/Server.

Control-M Conversion

Introducing a new automatic and simple way for migrating business flows from other schedulers, applications, and homegrown setups, into Control-M.

  • Self-Conversion as code and web interface
    The Self Conversion tool allows users to convert from any number of applications in the market to Control-M. The Conversion tool now allows users to build their own conversion rules using Control-M web interface as well as code and execute them on their own, while saving time, costs, and potential errors that may occur in a manual conversion process.
  • Control-M Cron Conversion integration with BMC Discovery
    Identify Cron and MSTask schedules within your environment using BMC Discovery. Control-M Conversion allow users to convert identified Cron/MSTask jobs to Control-M. 

Control-M MFT & Control-M MFT Enterprise (B2B)

Control-M MFT is a fully integrated solution, providing full file management capabilities for both internal (application to application) transfers and transmissions to/from external trading partners.

  • Amazon S3 File System
    • ability to transfer files to/from Amazon S3 buckets from a Control-M MFT job
  • AS2 protocol support (MFT Enterprise)
    • support for external trading partners that require the AS2 protocol
  • Processing Rules (MFT Enterprise)
    • event-based mechanism for efficiently handling files received from external trading partners

Control-M Automation API

Control-M Automation APIs and Workbench Continue to evolve, enabling customers to give ownership to their developers to modernize and manage current job and workload orchestration as code, integrating it within their existing continuous integration and delivery pipeline (CI/CD) tool chains. Some of the major deliverables are:

Automation API: Configuration Service

  • Configure authorizations for roles, users, and LDAP groups
  • Manage "run as" users for running jobs on an agent
  • Set a secondary server as the primary Control-M/Server using config server::setasprimary
  • Perform a manual failover using config server::failover

Automation API: Provision Service

  • Support Control-M Agents and deploying certain plug-ins to an existing Agent
  • Provision a Control-M/Server, either as a new server installation or through server re-hydration

 Automation API: Additional Enhancements

  • Provide CTM client out of the box as part of Control-M installation
  • Manage Workload Policies over APIs (Query, Activate & deactivate)
  • Support SAP R/3 job type with a copy action and SAP connection profile via jobs as code
  • Support Stored Procedure job (type of Database job) via jobs as code
  • Provide annotations through API commands

Workbench

  • Support Workbench in a VM environment
  • Upgrade Workbench to support Control-M version 9.18.2

For additional information, see Automation API services or Automation API Code Reference.

Control-M Application Pack

Control-M Application Pack was first introduced in version 9.0.18 of Control-M and has since been expanded.

The Control-M Application Pack can be distributed and deployed on multiple agents using the Control-M Configuration Manager. Note that these agents must first be upgraded to Control-M version 9.0.18 or later. The latest Application plugin forms are now part of Control-M's latest client and cannot be installed separately.

Control-M Application Pack currently includes the following Control-M application plugins:

  • Control-M Application Integrator
  • Control-M for Backup
  • Control-M for Databases
  • Control-M for Hadoop
  • Control-M for Amazon
  • Control-M for Azure

Additional Application plugins are planned for inclusion in future releases.

 

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