Control-M Feature List

Dynamic Workload Policies

Defines a set of rules for a group of jobs that can:

• Limit the resources available to the group of jobs
• Limit the number of jobs within the group that are concurrently running
• Route specific jobs within the group to a specific node or node group

Rule-based Calendars

Define Rule-based Calendars (RBCs) to set the dates that will be scheduled (included RBCs) in a job, sub-folder, and SMART folder, by adding and selecting the RBCs for the Rule-based Calendar list.

One Installation for all product components

Installs Control-M/EM, Control-M/Server, Control-M/Agent and all Application Plug-ins.

Annotation for user actions

Requires users to write a free text annotation, describing the reason for the action before the action is performed. System administrators can define which user actions require annotation.

L&F enhancements to Reporting Facility

• The user interface has an enhanced look and feel.
• The Reporting Facility is available to all end users without the need to install a database client on Control-M/EM client computers.
• You can summarize report data by report fields.
• Job definition fields with multiple values can be included in a report.

Conversion tool

The Control-M Conversion Tool enables you to import data from other schedulers.

Add-ons

The following add-ons are available in version 7.0.00:

• Control-M Self Service
• Control-M Self Service for Mobile

Plug-ins

The following plug-ins are available in version 7.0.00:

• Control-M for Informatica
• Control-M for IBM Cognos
• Control-M for SAP Business Objects
• Control-M for Cloud

High Availability

Control-M High Availability enables you to maximize your production environment uptime and prevent data loss in the event of a hardware maintenance or failure.

When using an Oracle or MSSQL database, in the case of a hardware issue or if all processes are unexpectedly down, you can perform either an automatic or manual failover for both Control-M/EM and Control-M/Server. Once the problem is fixed, you can fall back to the primary host.

When using a Control-M PostgreSQL database, the database can be replicated. If there is a hardware issue, you can perform a manual failover to a secondary Control-M server, and later, when the problem is fixed, you can fallback to the primary Control-M server.

Automated Agent deployment

Upgrade one or many agents to 9.0.00 and future versions of fix packs in just a few simple steps.  Options are available to transfer the package to agents and deploy at a later time, or automatically transfer and deploy in a single step.

Automated Client deployment

The new Client deployment utility replaces the WebLaunch tool in previous Control-M versions. Use the Client deployment utility to easily distribute full client installation packages, fix packs and patches to users. Set policies to force users to apply update packages by a specific date.

Control-M Configuration Manager (CCM) enhancements

The CCM user interface has been updated to improve user experience. 
In addition, the following components are now managed by the Control-M/EM Configuration Agent and appears in the CCM:

• Database
• Naming Server (NS)
• Configuration Management Server (CMS)
• Control-M Workload Archiving

The Configuration Agent starts up all the required components. You no longer have to start up the CMS, NS or PostgreSQL database (if installed).

Promotion between environments

Promotion between environments is a new capability of the Control-M Workload Change Manager that enables you to move job definitions between environments, such as from a development environment to a production environment. During the promotion process, the job definitions are modified and validated according the Site Standards of the target environment.

Runtime estimations

With Control-M Batch Impact Manager, you can now see the estimated runtimes of all the jobs in a regular viewpoint without them being defined as a part of a Batch Impact Manager service.

Usage Alerts

Keep an eye on your task usage with Usage Alerts, available from within the CCM. Define task usage alert thresholds across all of your Control-M/EMs. Exceeding a threshold will send an email alert.

Security enhancements

The SSL certificate deployment capability extends the packaging and deployment of SSL security certificates with an option to specify an external Certificate Authority.

Improved security algorithms

Control-M Enterprise Manager password hashed using SHA-512.

SSL support for:

• AES suite ciphers (128 bit and 256 bit)
• RSA keys with length 2048, 3072 and 4096
• SHA-2 hashing (on Enterprise Manager Client-Server communication)

NFS support for Control-M Server and Control-M Agent installation

You can now install Control-M/Server and Control-M Agents on NFS.

IPv6 communication

IPv6 support, including support for mixed IPv4 and IPv6 environments, is now available for the following components:

• Control-M Agent and Agentless
• Control-M Server
• Control-M Mainframe
• Control-M Enterprise Management - Server, Clients

Additional options to enhance the power of your enterprise scheduling

• Improved monitoring and troubleshooting for the job flows that span on multiple days. You can now configure the active environment retention period for a SMART folder so the Smart Folder itself and its jobs are kept in the active environment until the end of the period.
• Ability to order jobs on remote Control-M Servers by setting an action in a job to trigger another job on a different Control-M/Server and also pass variables as a part of the order operation.
• Ability to share information between jobs by extracting data from a job output and passing it to other jobs as a variable. Additional granularity of the variables is introduced as well, allowing to define variables in groups called "named pools", in addition to global and local variables.
• z/OS customers can use the following additional tools on the user interface:

  View, edit and manage CMEM rules from the user interface

  Set up a graphic indication on the job node for the pre-execution state

What If Host simulation

New capability for Control-M Batch Impact Manager and Forecast to simulate the influence of the unavailability of a specific Control-M Agent or a group of Control-M Agents on your job flows, and prepare for planned shutdowns and maintenance windows.

Global Calendars

You can now save time and reduce the efforts invested in calendar management by creating a single calendar in the Control-M Enterprise Manager that will be distributed to all the Control-M Servers.

Bookmarks

You can bookmark the jobs in a workspace or a viewpoint to analyze flows and easily locate jobs. Bookmarks are supported in the Planning, Monitoring, Forecast, and History domains.

Export flow diagram to a file

You can now export flow diagrams to a Microsoft Visio-compatible EMF format from any domain. Just click the Save as option in the application File menu.

Enhanced search when loading jobs to a workspace

You can now view more fine-tuned search results when loading jobs into a workspace in the Planning domain by filtering folders and jobs with a larger variety of fields.

Online Help on Web server

The online help is now available from the Control-M Web server.

NOTE: Verify that the Web server is up.

Multiple Application plug-ins installation

You can now install Application plug-ins from the Control-M full installation DVD.

Control-M upgrade

Control-M/EM and Control-M/Server software upgrades can now be installed in-place with minimal downtime. The in-place upgrade supports both annual releases and fix packs.

In-place upgrade is supported from Control-M version 9 fix pack 1 and later.

• Customizable dashboards - users can rearrange and resize available widgets on the MFT dashboard.
• A new connection profile type is available that provides the ability to send a file or set of files to multiple destinations from within a single MFT job.
• File search enhancements - a refresh button was added to the file search interface, and users can easily access recent search history.
• FIPS compliance using FIPS-compliant libraries.

Version compatibility

The new in-place upgrade process ensures version compatibility across Control-M components, with the following guiding principles:

• Control-M 9.0.18 clients can now work in parallel with Control-M clients of previous version 9 releases. This is the default setup after you perform an upgrade. To prevent inconsistent data between versions, when version compatibility is turned on, new clients can’t use certain new features. To start using the new features, both Control-M/EM and Control-M/Server must be on version 9.0.18 and Compatibility Mode must be turned off in the CCM. This action prevents older clients from connecting.
• The new process now enables the Control-M/Server to work with earlier Control-M/EM versions. This means that the Control-M/Server can now install required fixes without requiring you to upgrade Control-M/EM. This mode is supported from Control-M/EM version 9.
• Just like in our previous releases, Control-M/EM 9.0.18 supports earlier Control-M/Server versions. To use new Control-M 9.0.18 features both Control-M/EM and Control-M/Server must be on version 9.0.18 and Compatibility Mode must be turned off in the CCM.

Client Distribution

• New client and existing client upgrades can both be triggered through the Control-M Welcome page.
• Client deploy replaces the client installation CD and allows the installation of a new client or the upgrade of an existing client.
• Client deploy presents the greatest and latest Control-M client installation in a single step, avoiding the need to install a GA version followed by a fix pack.

Application Pack deployment

• The Control-M Application Pack provides a faster and simpler deployment experience for Control-M Application plugins and is bundled with Control-M/EM.
• The Control-M Application Pack can be distributed and deployed on multiple Control-M/Agents via the CCM. Note that these Control-M/Agents must first be upgraded to Control-M version 9.0.18.
• The latest Application plug-in forms are now part of Control-M’s latest client and cannot not be installed separately.
• Control-M Application Pack currently includes the following Control-M plug-ins: Control-M Application Integrator, Control-M for Backup and Control-M for Databases. Additional Application plug-ins are planned for inclusion in future releases.

Cyclic folders

Provides a simple setup of cyclic scheduling options at the SMART folder level, including:

• The SMART folder’s behavior is similar to that of a cyclic job and all the jobs in the SMART folder are treated as a single entity.
• When you rerun the folder, all the jobs in that folder rerun and the original dependencies between them are maintained.

  NOTE: This feature is disabled when running with Compatibility Mode turned on.

End folder

This new attribute can be used to mark one or more completion points in the folder’s flow. When a job that is marked with the ‘end folder’ attribute completes, no additional jobs in this folder are submitted. After all the jobs in the folder are complete, the folder status changes to Completed.

This new attribute allows you to define a folder with a flow that has more than one potential logical end.

NOTE: This feature is disabled when running with Compatibility Mode turned on.

Variable simulation

Provides the ability to simulate variables that are resolved before or during job submission. This eliminates the need to order and execute certain jobs, which for example, check if the Variable Simulation syntax is correct. This ability covers job submission variables, system variables, user-defined variables, global variables and pool variables.

NOTE: This feature is disabled when running with Compatibility Mode turned on.

Control-M Reporting

Control-M Reports replaces the previously released Reporting Facility.

Control-M Reports comes with the following enhancements and capabilities:

• New and modern up-to-date web interface. This HTML5 web-based interface is integrated into the Control-M client and improves usability and ease of use.
• Robust BIRT engine. This up-to-date robust engine generates the reports and replaces the SAP Crystal Reports engine, which is removed during installation.
• Thin client approach. With Control-M Reports, there no need for client resources in order to generate the reports. Reports are generated on the server (using BIRT).
• Centralized methodology, which means all of the report output resides on the server.
• Report preview. With Control-M Reports, you no longer need to run the report in order to see the results. A new preview option is available and returns a sample of 25 report rows.

For migration instructions (from the existing Reporting Facility to Control-M Reports), see Control-M Reporting Facility migration.

Protected Field in the Monitoring domain

Provides the ability to disable editing of the command line and Node ID/Group fields for all non-admin users in the Monitoring domain using the ModifyJobFieldsBlock system parameter.

Recent Viewpoints

When starting up Control-M client, after Control-M client closes or crashes, you can see recently opened viewpoints.

NOTE: Only applies if you select Auto Open Viewpoint and then select Recent Viewpoints from File ->Options -> Monitoring.

Control-M Batch Impact Manager (BIM)

Two new BIM alert types were added:

• Service is OK: An alert is produced whenever a service completes successfully.
• Service late past deadline: An alert is produced whenever a service exceeds its deadline. This is different from the existing alert, which is produced as soon as the service is projected to be late, and not when it really exceeds the deadline.

Control-M Web

The Control-M Workload Change Manager web interface has been rewritten in HTML5, aligning it with industry standards.

It now supports multiple browsers on various platforms including Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari.

In addition, the two web interfaces (Workload Change Manager and Self Service) were merged into a single interface containing the following three domains:

• Planning:Define and edit your jobs and various job properties.
• Monitoring:Monitor the status of your jobs, check for problems, and perform various job actions.
• Managed File Transfer: Search for a file that was transferred with Control-M Managed File Transfer and view its job properties.

External PostgreSQL

Control-M can now work with an external PostgreSQL database owned by the customer. This support covers AWS PG RDS as well.

NOTE: This support does not cover Workload Archiving.

Amazon Linux

Control-M can now be installed on Amazon Linux. This includes Control-M/EM, Control-M/Server, and Control-M/Agent.

Live Control-M Help

Control-M help files are now hosted on the BMC Documentation portal.

These help files are generated daily and include the latest content updates, corrections, new videos, and more.

Along with this capability is the option to opt out of going online every time you invoke the help and instead use the help that was installed with the release. However, this help remains static and does not contain the content updates that are published in the live hosted help.

Communication improvements

The Control-M/EM client now connects to the Control-M/EM server using HTTP/HTTPS standards. All communication between the clients and servers is done on a single port via the Control-M Web Server.

Setting up SSL between the Control-M/EM client and Control-M/EM server was simplified even further and now only requires that you set up the Control-M Web server.

After the upgrade, if HTTPS was not configured on the Control-M Web Server prior to the upgrade, all the Control-M clients communicate using HTTP (unsecured). To go back to having a secured connection, you must set up the Control-M Web Server.

After configuring the Control-M Web Server you need to verify that the Windows keystore includes the certificate authority (CA) you used for the Control-M Web Server configuration.

The Control-M Web Server configuration tool, manage_webserver, allows you to configure ports, HTTPS, SSL, and other advanced settings. For more information, see Configuring secure communication between Control-M client applications and the Web Server.

Self-Conversion – ‘Build your own conversion

Control-M Self Conversion is a powerful application with an intuitive web interface that allows you to build new conversions from any scheduler, application, or homegrown infrastructure into Control-M folders and jobs.

Major enhancements in multiple conversion types

• CA Automic UC4: Conversion of UC4 Pre/Post scripts, MVS jobs, UC4 variables inside MVS scripts, and UC4 jobs DOC element.
• CA Automic Dollar Universe: Conversion of additional data formats and 'sap uxstr' command jobs into Control-M for SAP R3 jobs.
• CA Autosys: Conversion of additional Autosys attributes and conditions format.
• Self-Conversion: Added support for creating conditions and basic scheduling using Groovy conversion rules.

Control-M Automation API

The following are some of the major APIs enhancements:

• Exposing additional parameters for Run Order API
• Run Status API now supports searching in active jobs by JobID and neighborhood
• Disable and enable agents
• Delete folders
• Delete and get connection profiles as JSON

For additional information, see Automation API services.

An additional group of enhancements focuses on the extension of the Automation API JSON code. Some of these major enhancements include:

• Notify properties for jobs and folders
• RerunIntervals
• Additional If elements
• Support of simple folders across the APIs (in addition to SMART folders)

For additional information, see Automation API Code Reference.

Deploy descriptor

Control-M Automation API now supports the use of a deploy descriptor file to change job definition properties in JSON format before building, deploying, or running the JSON file.

Site standards enforcement

Site standards are now enforced on deployed JSON files, based on CCM definitions. The site standards must adhere to those defined in Control-M.

Control-M multicloud integration

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).

• 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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 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.

For additional information, see the Control-M Application Pack Release Notes.

Role-based Administration (RBA)

Centralized Connection Profile (CCP)

A Centralized Connection Profile provides the ability to define connection profiles once on a central location (Control-M/EM) and use it across all available Agents. CCP is supported on Managed File Transfer, Application Integrator, Control-M for Database, Control-M for Informatica, Control-M for AWS, and Control-M for Azure.

The connection profiles are stored on the Control-M/EM database and are synchronized with the Control-M/Servers connected to that Control-M/EM. Centralized connection profiles are unique by name and application type. Password encryption is done using AES256. 

All provisioning activities for centralized connection profiles are available from Control-M Web and automation API. This includes creating, updating, testing, and deleting centralized connection profiles. For these plug-ins, the management of local connection profiles is also available from the Control-M Web, via Plug-in Management.  

Centralized connection profiles help IT organizations reduce TCO of management connection profiles.

In addition to the ease and simplicity of CCP creation and maintenance, the new connection centralized connection profiles help with faster disaster recovery and launching new plug-ins when needed. The information is accessible from a central location and stays available in any case of data migration, upgrade, and disaster recovery. 

Control-M Web is now available to all customers using Self Service. Control-M Web provides complete workflow life-cycle support from job planning to running, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

You can use Control-M Web from your local web browser to manage the day to day operations for most Control-M users, eliminating the need to install and maintain the desktop client.

For a complete list of Control-M Web supported capabilities, click here .

New features in  version  9.0.20:

• Welcome Pages
  • All tools and major functionalities in Control-M Web now have a dedicated welcome page. The welcome pages introduce the tool/function and provide useful information on the tool/function purpose, what can be done with it, real use cases and examples, short concept or how-to video and links to more information.
  • Welcome pages can be easily hidden/restored with one mouse click.
• Restore session
  • Control-M Web offers page restoration if a user logs out for any reason. Upon restoration, all previously open tabs and screens will be re-opened with the last settings.
• Connectivity
  • Control-M Web clients are now set to communicate securely using HTTPS only.
• New supported applications in Control-M Web
  The following Plug-ins were added to Control-M Web:

• • IBM InfoSphere DataStage
  • Oracle Retail
  • Java
  • Messaging
  • Web Services
  • AWS
  • Azure

Web interface new supported capabilities

• Planning Domain
  • View Job Neighborhood: Enables you to locate job predecessors and successors.
  • Find & Update: Advanced job search based on multiple criteria and mass-update of selected job properties for multiple jobs.
• Monitoring Domain
  • Viewpoints enhancements:
    • Support of all job actions for active jobs, including hold, release, return, restart, confirm, set to OK, skip, bypass, delete, kill, run now (force), and edit.
    • Edit job properties from the Monitoring domain.
    • View complete job details, including summary, job settings, full job log, job output, statistics, scripts and documentation.
    • Job waiting information: View detailed information to investigate jobs in a waiting state, track predecessors and manually apply unmet conditions to run the jobs.
    • Job log and output can now be exported to a file.
  • Order from Monitoring: Order selected jobs and folders directly from the monitoring domain.
  • Alerts Management: Dedicated screen for managing the system alerts
    • Configure alerts filters
    • Mark alerts as new/reviewed/paused/closed
    • Edit alert urgency and add comments
    • Job troubleshooting directly from the alerts screen
• Tools Domain
  • The following tools are added to the Tools domain:
    • Calendars Tool : Create reusable job schedules in the form of calendars.
    • Conditions: Create and manage dependencies between jobs.
    • Control Resources: Control the distribution of physical or logical assets between jobs.
    • Quantitative Resources: Manage logical resources required by jobs to run.
    • Shared Variables: Manage shared information between jobs.
• Configuration Domain
  
  • Agents and Plug-ins dashboard: Monitor your agents and plug-ins from a central screen.
  • Agents management: Manage Control-M Agents.
  • Plug-ins management: Manage Control-M Plug-ins.
  • Centralized Connection Profiles: Manage connection profiles for the plug-ins.

Control-M components are now verified with Open JDK, Oracle Solaris, and Azul JDKs. The following options are now available:

• Use of OpenJDK: 
  • Open JDK 11 is included by default with new installations of Control-M/Agent, Control-M/Server, Control-M Application pack and Control-M MFT for all supported platforms (Control-M Enterprise Manager remains with Open JDK 8).
  • Open JDK 11 replaces the previous version of Java during an upgrade of these components except Control-M/EM, which remains with Open JDK 8. 
    A zipped version of the original Java is available for downgrading purposes.
• Use of a commercial JDK: BMC continues to verify major versions of Oracle and Azul JDKs, and enables the usage of these (JDK 11 for Control-M/Agent, Control-M/Server, Control-M Application pack and Control-M MFT, JDK 8 for Control-M Enterprise Manager), for customers that have third-party commercial support agreements in place.

Control-M MFT is a fully integrated solution, providing full file management capabilities for internal transfers. This year we addressed some of the major requests of MFT customers and provided more file transfer options. In addition, we enhanced our ability to use S3, including shifting between buckets and remote transfers.

• Amazon S3 improvements : In addition to S3 and compatible S3 that is supported today, new S3 capabilities are now available:
  • File transfer between different buckets of S3 is now supported.
  • Remote transfers to S3 using SFTP and FTP/S (in addition to local transfers to S3).

• Directory Listing: Provides the ability to list or view the content of a remote directory, as well as archive directory content or send directory content via mail. An option for recursive content view is also available. 
  

• Directory sync: Synchronize content of source and destination directories according to the source directory. Synchronization will be done according to file timestamps. Recursive directories are supported as well. 

• Destination Filename: Destination filename provides the ability to manipulate file names when transferring multiple files. When transferring a single file, users can easily provide a file name. This becomes a challenge when you want to rename multiple files. Using the multi-rename tool provides the option to add suffix, prefix, change to capital letters add date or counter.
• Incremental transfer: Transfer only modified files based on timestamp sorting. Files on source-destination filtered upon their timestamp. Only changed content is being copied. 
• Show file transfers: You can now view file transfers from the active environment through viewpoints and services. This quick access allows you to view file transfers filtered by order_id and run_count. This feature is available on Control-M web. 

• Advanced search in Control-M Web: MFT advanced search is now available in Control-M web. In addition to the legacy search, recent searches are kept, and the option to mark a search as favorite is also available.
  

Control-M MFT Enterprise (MFTE)

Control-M MFTE completes the MFT offering and provides the option to transfer files to/from external trading partners and the organization. Our MFTE product continues to evolve and now includes High Availability in active-active (always on) mode, LDAP integration, and Automation API for users and folders provisioning. MFTE is available only on Control-M Web.

High Availability

MFTE supports High Availability in active-active mode. This includes the ability to work with several Gateways and Hubs to enable uploading/downloading files even if one of the Gateways/Hubs is down.

High availability mode ensures that all relevant data (users, virtual folders, rules, settings) are synchronized between cluster nodes. The solution requires a shared storage system (network file system) that must be defined.

In addition, a reverse proxy is required and must be configured as part of the overall configuration.

All protocols are supported in High Availability mode including FTP/FTPS/SFTP/AS2/HTTPS. 

LDAP Integration 

In addition to internal authentication that exists today, MFTE now supports LDAP integration, and also hybrid mode (LDAP and Database authentication). The authentication method should be defined in the Hub settings for MFTE in Control-M Web. 

Starting from this release users can select one of the following authentication methods: 

• External (LDAP): Choosing LDAP disables authentication with B2B Users defined credentials and disables the ability to manage users through the internal database. 
• Internal Database: B2B user-defined credentials that reside on the database. 
• Hybrid: Users are first verified and checked on the database, and only if that verification fails they are checked on the LDAP. 

To use LDAP on B2B, new configuration was added to the Hub settings. Users should be mapped into groups and LDAP groups in order to be authenticated as LDAP users.

Multi-selection and download on B2B Hub 

Check for the latest monthly release of Control-M Automation API. The following are the new API enhancements:

• Job types and connection profiles: New supported job types
  
  • Azure: Job type and connection profile.
  • Databases: Manage a job defined in the SQL Server, SSIS Package job.
  For the complete list of supported job types by Control-M Automation API, see API Code Reference - Job types.
  

• SLA services: Retrieve information on SLA services associated with SLA jobs (known as Control-M BIM jobs), including service status, due time, slack time, completion percentage and more
• Central Connection Profile: Manage a Central Connection Profile for a select list of job types through Automation API
• Role-based  Authorization: Administrators may permit certain roles and users to manage a select list of agents, job types, connection profiles, and 'Run as' definitions through the config service to support a Self Service working model while maintaining the required level of authorization.
• Workload Archiving: 
  • Search through job data archived in the Workload Archiving server, as well as obtain job outputs and job logs for individual jobs.
  • Administrators can set up the rules for job archiving, view statistics regarding archived jobs, and delete accumulated data from the Workload Archiving server.

• SSL certificates:  Manage updates of SSL certificates on SSL-configured Control-M/Agents.
• Managed File Transfer Enterprise (B2B): Config service now supports managing external users, user groups, virtual folders and status retrieval of the MFT Enterprise Hub.
• Workbench:  Now includes the Control-M Application Integrator functionality, allowing users to create and import  custom- designed job types. 
• CLI installation: Control-M Automation API Command Line Interface (CLI) is now included in the Control-M/Enterprise Manager GUI client installation.

Control-M Application Integrator authentication for Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Users can now easily leverage Application Integrator to integrate with any Google service. Application Integrator is enhanced and now includes native authentication to GCP. 

The authentication method is Service to Service.

Automate SSL (TLS) certificate updates on Control-M agents 

As an Administrator, you can automate updates to SSL (TLS) certificates on multiple Control-M/Agents by incorporating new API request commands in scripts.

A new set of API requests enables you to manage updates of SSL (TLS) certificates on SSL-configured Control-M/Agents. You can use these API commands to return the expiration date of a certificate on a specific agent, to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR), and to deploy a signed certificate to the agent. These commands can be combined in scripts to automate SSL certificate updates on your Control-M/Agents.

• Support Control-M variables.
• Support dependencies & conditions; the option to work with a single job type and several actions is now available.
• Job type fields can be configured to be read-only/visible/hidden based on user preferences. Users can now add more values while editing a job type without redeploying it for an existing run on the definition. 
• Audit annotation has been added to actions such as save, deploy, delete, and un-deploy a job type.

Workload Change Manager Site Standard rules

Site Standards was enhanced by the following:

• Set restriction rules for Time Setting and Activity Period sections.

• Set restriction rules for the following On Statement sub-parameters; OS Completion status, Job's number of executions, and Job's number of reruns.

• Restrict the In Conditions Remove parameter  
  

Control-M Reports is now enhanced with additional capabilities:

• Available now only via Control-M Web under the Tools domain.
• Newly added reports: Trend analysis, user authorizations and host groups information. 
• Saving reports in .xlsx format (Excel). 
• Stateless architecture allows seamless functionality in distributed EM environments. 
• Run reports with custom filters values using AAPI.
• Dynamically populate the filter values from variables using AAPI.
• Customize report's Date and Time output columns with custom formats using AAPI.

Microservices

Control-M/Server introduces new services as part of a common infrastructure with Control-M/EM. The common infrastructure is based on Kafka while the services appear in CCM.

The services adopt to microservice architecture. 

The new services in Control-M/Server are:

• Apache Kafka
• Apache Zookeeper
• Services Health Monitor
• Services Configuration Agent
• Scheduling service

The new services in Control-M/EM are:

• Application Integrator service
• Control-M Web service
• Scheduling service

A new migration flow is introduced with this version replacing previous migration flows. Migration is supported only for the same version (V9.0.20 to V9.0.20). Therefore, any hardware update will also involve in-place upgrade as part of the flow. 

Users can migrate to a new account using one of the options below (option 1 is preferable):

Option 1:

1. Migrate the original Control-M version from the SOURCE host to the same version on the DESTINATION host.
   Verify that the existing version of Control-M is migrated successfully on the new DESTINATION host.
   
2. Perform an In-place Upgrade from the original version of Control-M to Control-M 9.0.20 on the new DESTINATION host.
   

Option 2:

1. Perform an In-place Upgrade from the original version of Control-M to Control-M 9.0.20 on the SOURCE host.
2. Perform Control-M 9.0.20 migration from the SOURCE host to the DESTINATION host.  
   

New Operating systems and Databases support