What's new in Control-M 9.0.20

The following sections describe the new features in Control-M version 9.0.20:

Role-based Administration (RBA)

Role-based Administration introduces a new methodology allowing teams to have full control and autonomy on their stack. Users can install, configure, and monitor assets like Control-M/Agents, Application Plug-ins, and Connection Profiles using Automation API, Control-M Web, and the Control-M client.

The new authorizations granularity allows Control-M Administrators to delegate control of administrative tasks to other users. The administrator can set which connection profiles, Agents, Application Plug-ins, and Run As users are available to each user and the level of permission the user/team has (browse/update/full).

The pre-existing privileges are still valid while the new RBA privileges work in conjunction with them (an OR relationship). This means that adding RBA privileges to a user that already has access via the old privileges does not have an additional effect. To adopt this new model, Administrators are recommended to set 'Configuration' privileges to 'None' and then set Agent, Plug-ins, and Run As with RBA access. It is also recommended to set 'Security' privileges to None when planning to use Connection Profiles RBA access.

This new capability is active only when compatibility mode is off (Compatibility mode is on by default after an upgrade).

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. 

To convert local connection profile to centralized connection profile you can use automation API. A sample script is available in the automation API community GitHub at  https://github.com/controlm/automation-api-community-solutions. 

Control-M Web

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
    • 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.

Java (JDK) support

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

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 

Users can now select, delete, and download multiple files on the Hub. If multiple files are downloaded, a zip file will be created in the download directory

Control-M Automation API

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 Multi-cloud Integration

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.

Application Integrator enhancements

 Application Integrator was enhanced by the following:

  • 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

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

Migration

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.
  1. 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

Operating systems

Control-M Server and Control-M EM now support the following operating systems versions:

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2019
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise 15
  • Redhat Enterprise Linux 8
  • CentOS 8
  • Oracle Linux 8

Control-M Agent, Control-M application pack and Control-M for MFT now support the following operating systems versions:

  • CentOS 8
  • Oracle Linux 8

Control-M Agent, Control-M application pack now support also the following operating systems versions:

  • IBM Power PC 9 with RHEL 7/8 LE and SUSE 12/15 LE

Databases

Control-M Server and Control-M EM now support the following databases:

  • Postgres 11
  • Oracle 18c
  • Oracle 19c
  • Microsoft MSSQL 2017
  • Microsoft MSSQL 2019
  • AWS Aurora 10.x

Important considerations when upgrading from Control-M 9.0.18 and below

emdef utilities now support Site Standards 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.

 

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