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 WS-Security & Global Cache Support in IBM ACE 13

Kiran Kumar M's profile image
Kiran Kumar M IBM Champion posted Fri October 24, 2025 06:44 AM

Hi,

There is a requirement from a customer to upgrade their on-prem IBM ACE12 to ACE13 and as part of this the customer is looking for a migration approach or strategy for handling the WS-Security and Global cache which is enabled for the integration servers using java 8. Below is the migration plan and some queries associated with it.

  1. Since java 8 is supported in IBM ACE 13, the customer is planning to do the upgrade and change the flows to use java 8 using the following command 'ibmint specify jre command'. However, at some point IBM will be announcing be withdrawing the support for java 8, so customer is planning to rewrite these integration servers to use java 17 instead after the migration is done.
  2. As per the below ibm statement of direction for java support, the above features are supported in ACE 13 with java 8. can you please confirm if these features are supported with java 17 as we do not have a clear understanding. - https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/statement-direction-app-connect-enterprise-clarification-java-support
  3. Since global cache is enabled in ACE 12, Is it mandatory to configure the new embedded global cache in ACE 13?
  4. Also, if ACE 13 does not support these features with java 17, could you please suggest some alternate solution for ws-security?

Thanks

Kiran Kumar

          

Thomas Bien's profile image
Thomas Bien posted Fri October 31, 2025 01:53 PM

Hello Kiran,

It is excellent that you and your customer are aware of the changes to the default Java version in ACEv13 and its implications for migration and the future of the product.

The statement of direction was released for exactly this purpose - to set expectations and prepare our user base.
However, you are correct that, as an existing announcement, it doesn't provide for updates or links to what has been released since!

Firstly, regarding "Global Cache":

The Global Cache functionality in WMBv8, IIB, and ACE has been practically synonymous with WebSphere eXtreme Scale technology. However, in recent versions (and mod releases) caching has extended beyond WXS, ranging from local caches to external Redis global caches and points in-between. You can find the full list, here.

Note that the existing "embedded WXS grid" (the embedded global cache of ACEv12) is still available in ACEv13, although it does require any participating Integration Server to run with Java 8, and it has been deprecated as of ACEv13.0.3. It is not mandatory that the new embedded global cache is used in ACEv13.0.3, but it is recommended (given its inevitable removal from the product).

If one creates a new Integration Server at 13.0.3, they will see that the global cache section of the default server.conf.yaml file will show only configuration entries for the new embedded global cache and will not show entries for the deprecated WXS grid. However, if you are migrating from ACEv12, your existing WXS grid configuration will still work at ACEv13.0.3. (If you are migrating from an earlier version, such as IIBv10, there are some changes that would be required.)

Regarding WS-Security, there is not yet a solution compatible with Java 17. However, per the statement of direction, we expect a compatible solution by December 2025.
Here is the list of planned release dates for App Connect Enterprise.

Regards,
Thomas Bien,
IBM Support - App Connect

Nirmalan's profile image
Nirmalan posted Mon November 03, 2025 07:34 AM

Hi,

For handling WS-Security, you have a couple of options:

1.You can continue running the integration applications that use WS-Security on a dedicated integration server configured to use Java 8 temporarily.

2. Alternatively, if you have API Connect or a similar API Gateway, you can offload the WS-Security processing from the integration flows to the gateway layer.

As I know these features are supported with Java 8 only, but it’s recommended to verify this with IBM Support for confirmation on Java 17 compatibility.

Regarding the Global Cache, you can:

  1. Migrate the ACE 12 integration server (with the existing Global Cache) directly to ACE 13 running under Java 8. (https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/app-connect/13.0.x?topic=tasks-setting-up-global-cache)
  2. Or consider using the Embedded Global Cache, which is supported with both Java 8 and Java 17. (https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/app-connect/13.0.x?topic=overview-embedded-global-cache)

Suresh U's profile image
Suresh U posted Tue November 04, 2025 10:43 AM

Instead of using deprecated features, we have moved this logic to DataPower

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