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z/OS Connect - What's New In Each Release

By Alan Hollingshead posted Wed September 23, 2020 09:23 AM

  
z/OS Connect follows a modern continuous delivery cycle to ensure that the latest updates can be delivered to you each and every month. The following blog showcases some of the key features that have become available in the last year of releases, from bug fixes to resource configuration, the z/OS Connect team are continuously developing to enable you to empower a wide community of developers with a simple and intuitive way to consume data and services hosted on IBM Z. 
The versions shown for the API toolkit (OpenAPI 2) are those available when this blog post was last updated and may be superseded by newer versions.  Refer to the Capabilities compatibility page in the IBM Documentation to check if a minimum version is required for a particular capability.  

For more details on the changes, please follow the links provided or look to our change history in the IBM Documentation.
Version Features Liberty Version API toolkit /
Standalone Build toolkit

3.0.60

PH48008

22 Aug 22
  • APAR fixes
  • Update to build toolkit
 22.0.0.3

3.0.59
PH47276
19 Jul 2022
  • Cloud deployment of z/OS Connect on Intel architecture (OpenAPI 3 only).
  • Workload distribution of requests across IPIC connections to CICS regions.
  • Improvement to the handling of the last field in an IMS large data structure or IMS message segment input (OpenAPI 2 only).
 22.0.0.3

3.0.58
PH46461
23 Jun 2022
  • Enhancements to the audit interceptor with early failure logging and max delay features (OpenAPI 2 only)
  • Updates to obtaining the username (OpenAPI 2 only)
 22.0.0.3

3.0.57
PH45674
25 May 2022
  • Further enhancements to IPIC HA reconnect feature 
  • SMF 123 sample BAQSMFX enhancement to provide delta values between timestamps
 22.0.0.3

3.0.56

PH45219

19 Apr 2022
  • IPIC HA reconnect feature to re-balance connections to CICS
 21.0.0.12

3.0.55
PH43628
22 Mar 2022
  • OpenAPI 3 support. New container-based deployment model that includes a new z/OS Connect Designer and z/OS Connect Server.
  • Documentation for z/OS Connect family
21.0.0.12

3.0.54
PH43216
21 Feb 2022
  • APAR fixes
  • Build toolkit V1.7
 21.0.0.12

3.0.53
PH42641
24 Jan 2022
  • Upgrade to Liberty 21.0.0.12
  • Update to the file system logger to use log4j version 2.17.1.
  • APAR fixes
 21.0.0.12

3.0.52
PH41977
20 Dec 2021
  • APAR fixes
 21.0.0.9

3.0.51

PH41351

22 Nov 2021
  • New Performance Guidance topics
  • API requester OAuth 2.0 enhancements
    • To support JWT authentication with an authorization server, as an alternative to basic authentication with client credentials.
    • The OAuth 2.0 resource parameter can now be configured in server.xml for individual API requesters using the oAuthResource attribute.
 21.0.0.9

3.0.50
PH40632
18 Oct 2021
  • APAR fixes
  • Build toolkit V1.6
 21.0.0.9

3.0.49
PH39833
21 Sep 2021

 21.0.0.9

3.0.48
PH38810
23 Aug 2021

 21.0.0.6

3.0.47
PH38028
20 July 2021
  • Upgrade to Liberty 21.0.0.6 which includes a new bootstrap property, update to angel JCL, and a change to the default setting of maxKeepAliveRequests to -1.
  • New topic in the IBM Documentation on the performance improvements to standard and binary logging and tracing
 21.0.0.6

3.0.46
PH37268
21 June 2021

 21.0.0.3

3.0.45

PH36068

26 May 2021
  • New SMF 123 subtype 2 version 2 records for API requester.
  • Format all SMF 123 records as a comma-separated file (CSV) for importing into a desktop spreadsheet application.
  • SMF sample BAQSMFP load library now available (so you no longer require a C compiler for this sample)
  • New requireSecure attribute on the zosconnect_apiRequesters element for all API requesters.
  • New idAssertion attribute on the zosconnect_apiRequesters > apiRequester subelement for individual API requesters.
  • Upgraded build toolkit to V1.4.
 21.0.0.3

3.0.44

PH35528

16 Apr 2021
  • Upgrade to Liberty 21.0.0.3 which includes a fix that prevents HTTP return code 404 during server start up. Therefore you no longer need to pause your endpoint ports during the start up of your server to prevent HTTP return code 404.
  • A new topic shows how you can use z/OS Workload Management (WLM) to classify API requests and the Resource Management Facility (RMF) to measure z/OS Connect EE API workloads.
 21.0.0.3

3.0.43

PH34379

22 Mar 2021
  • Generate a JWT for API requester. The z/OS Connect EE API requester is enhanced so you can generate a JWT, which contains the z/OS application asserted user ID as the "sub" (Subject) claim.
 21.0.0.1

3.0.42

PH32853

22 Feb 2021
  • Enhancement to IBM MQ service provider. The IBM MQ service provider is enhanced to write the following fields to the Data SPI: TIME_SOR_SENT, TIME_SOR_RECV, SOR_IDENTIFIER, SOR_REFERENCE, and SOR_RESOURCE. This data can be written to SMF 123.1 records and consumed by monitoring interceptors.
 21.0.0.1

3.0.41

PH32637

25 Jan 2021
  • Enhancement to RESTful service administration interface. The RESTful service administration interface is updated to version 1.2.0 and adds version information to services for all service providers. This new version also adds connectionRef, transid, transidUsage, and ccsid information for services that use the CICS® service provider.
 20.0.0.6

3.0.40

PH30597

21 Dec 2020

 20.0.0.6
3.0.39

PH30278

24 Nov 2020		 20.0.0.6
3.0.38

PH29265

21 Oct 2020
  • Enhanced support for IMS large data structures. The z/OS Connect EE API toolkit and server runtime have been enhanced to support COBOL and PL/I data structures for IMS messages longer than 32K and have LL, ZZ, and TRANCODE fields in the request data structure, and have LL and ZZ fields in the response data structure.
    To use this feature with this version of the runtime, you must upgrade your API toolkit to 3.0.8.7/3.2.8.7.
  • CICS communication stub trace. For users of the API requester CICS® communication stub z/OS Connect EE has been updated to generate CICS application user trace which can be enabled by using the trace facilities of the CICS region in which the stub runs. This trace capability is useful for application development and problem determination.
 20.0.0.6
3.0.37

PH28518

23 Sep 2020
  • Dynamic routing capability for CICS users of API requester. When a CICS® application is developed to call a RESTful service, the z/OS Connect EE server that is used to process the request can be chosen at run time within the CICS application. This option allows for splitting of workloads between servers, for example, based on business area. This dynamic routing capability is only available for CICS applications, and uses URIMAPs.

  • Enhanced performance of the REST client service provider. The REST client service provider that is supplied with z/OS Connect EE to connect to an HTTP endpoint such as a Db2® native REST service, has been enhanced to provide improved performance.

 20.0.0.6
3.0.36

25 Aug 2020
  • z/OS Connect EE policies can now alter the Db2® service properties db2ConnectionRef and db2CollectionID. z/OS Connect EE policies can adjust how an API request is processed in z/OS Connect EE, based on the HTTP header values sent in by the client. For requests destined for Db2 you can now alter the db2ConnectionRef, and/or the db2CollectionID.
 20.0.0.6
  • 3.0.8.5 for Aqua 3.1 users
  • 3.2.8.5 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.35

17 Jul 2020
  • Change to CORS. JavaScript clients and the API toolkit require that CORS is enabled on the z/OS Connect EE server to allow you to connect to and test APIs on that server. Since z/OS Connect EE was released, Liberty support for CORS has been enhanced, allowing more control of the CORS headers used. z/OS Connect EE has been updated to no longer send the CORS headers, and the Liberty-supplied capability must now be used.
 20.0.0.6
  • 3.0.8.4 for Aqua 3.1 users
  • 3.2.8.4 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.34

25 Jun 2020
  • Enhancements to Date fields. The z/OS Connect EE API toolkit and server runtime have been enhanced with the capability to expose service fields as an Open API compliant Date. This capability allows for specifying host date patterns that define how date values are represented in system of record (SOR) fields to enable conversion between SOR date values and Open API compliant date values.
 20.0.0.6
  • 3.0.8.3 for Aqua 3.1 users
  • 3.2.8.3 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.33

19 May 2020		 20.0.0.3
  • 3.0.8.2 for Aqua 3.1 users
  • 3.2.8.2 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.32

20 Apr 2020
  • MQ service projects now available in the API toolkit. The latest version of the z/OS Connect EE API toolkit has been enhanced to enable you to create MQ service projects.
  • MQ message size increased from 32KB to 100MB. When using the MQ service provider within z/OS Connect EE you can now send and receive MQ messages up to 100MB in length for services that were created using the API toolkit.
  • Specifying a custom CCSID for a CICS service. z/OS Connect EE has been enhanced to allow users to specify a custom CCSID when creating a CICS service.
 20.0.0.3
  • 3.0.8.1 for Aqua 3.1 users
  • 3.2.8.1 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.31

19 Mar 2020		 19.0.0.12
  • 3.0.8.0 for Aqua 3.1 users
  • 3.2.8.0 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.30

26 Feb 2020
  • A version 2 of the SMF 123 subtype 1 records for monitoring API provider requests. Version 2 of the SMF 123 subtype 1 records give you more detailed information about your API provider requests.
  • Change in location for the CICS tracking token. Since z/OS Connect EE V3.0.16.0, a tracking token has been included on every request sent to CICS® over IPIC.
  • Updated communication stubs for API requester. Both of the communication stubs for the z/OS Connect EE API requester are updated to set a return code, which is available to COBOL applications in the special variable RETURN-CODE.
 19.0.0.12
  • 3.0.7.1 for Aqua 3.1 users
  • 3.2.7.1 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.29

16 Jan 2020
  • Support to create Db2 service projects. The API toolkit has been enhanced to create Db2 service projects. The service can be easily defined by importing a Db2 native REST service from the Db2 service manager. This feature requires the latest version of the API toolkit.
  • Quick Start Scenarios for Db2. To help you get started we have created some new Quick Start Scenarios which include instructions on creating Db2 native REST services, creating a z/OS Connect EE server using the new Db2 template, configuring the z/OS Connect EE server, creating the new Db2 service projects, and creating an API.
  • Addition of requireAuth attribute to zosconnect_apiRequesters element. The z/OS Connect EE API requester is enhanced to allow you to specify the requireAuth attribute on the zosconnect_apiRequesters element for all API requesters.
 19.0.0.12
  • 3.0.7.0 for Aqua 3.1 users
  • 3.2.7.0 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.28

19 Dec 2019
  • JWT caching. For customers using API requester and JWTs, z/OS Connect EE has been enhanced to support JWT caching.
  • SAF cache with API requester and ID assertion. For customers using API requester and the ID assertion feature, a new cache containing SAF credentials has been implemented. By default this cache is cleared after 600 seconds (10 minutes). This value is configurable in the server.xml configuration file by setting a new attribute, safCacheTimeout, on the zosconnect_authorizationInterceptor configuration element. The cache can also be cleared using the modify command.
  • New interceptor interfaces. New interceptor interfaces have been added that enable monitoring of API requests between z/OS Connect EE and the system of record, and requests that fail early before interceptors are currently invoked.
 19.0.0.9
  • 3.0.6.10 for Aqua 3.0 users
  • 3.2.6.10 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.27
20 Nov 2019
  • No new features in this release, but enjoy some useful bug fixes!
 19.0.0.9
  • 3.0.6.10 for Aqua 3.0 users
  • 3.2.6.10 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.26

22 Oct 2019
  • Support for Boolean fields in Services. The z/OS Connect EE API toolkit has been enhanced with the capability to expose service fields in JSON payloads as a Boolean data type.
 19.0.0.9
  • 3.0.6.10 for Aqua 3.0 users
  • 3.2.6.10 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.25

19 Sep 2019
  • JSON Web Token (JWT) support for API requesters. z/OS Connect EE API requester JWT support can now be used when a CICS, IMS, or z/OS application calls a RESTful API that requires a JWT.
  • Greater than 32K length JSON string fields support. For API requester, support for greater than 32K length JSON string fields is now available.
 19.0.0.6
  • 3.0.6.9 for Aqua 3.0 users
  • 3.2.6.9 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.24

19 Aug 2019
  • Identity assertion for API requesters. With the identity assertion support, you can invoke an API requester from a z/OS application with an identity that is provided in the application context.
  • Enhanced SPI for interceptors for monitoring applications. For customers writing interceptors for monitoring applications, the interface Data in the z/OS Connect EE SPI has been updated to provide system of record information for the REST client and WOLA service providers.
 19.0.0.6
  • 3.0.6.8 for Aqua 3.0 users
  • 3.2.6.8 for Aqua 3.2 users
3.0.23

23 Jul 2019
  • Enhanced support for array counters. This version and API toolkit V3.0.6.7 have been enhanced to allow numeric service fields to be defined as counters for fixed and variable length arrays.
  • Cached connections with IMS when using API requester. If you use API requester with IMS, you must add a call in your IMS application to close and clear the cached connection. Failing to do this may lead to memory not being reusable until the IMS process terminates.
 19.0.0.6
  • 3.0.6.7 for Aqua 3.0 users
  • 3.2.6.7 for Aqua 3.2 users
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