VMware

vFabric tc Server 2.7 Release Notes

vFabric tc Server 2.7.2 | 04 OCT 2012
vFabric tc Server 2.7.1 | 17 JUL 2012
vFabric tc Server 2.7.0 | 22 MAY 2012

Last Document Update: 04 OCT 2012

What's in the Release Notes

These release notes cover the following topics:

What's New in vFabric tc Server 2.7.2

This VMware® vFabric™ tc Server release includes the following versions of tc Runtime:

  • tomcat-7.0.30.A.RELEASE (updated). See the Tomcat 7.0.30 changelog for details.
  • tomcat-6.0.35.B.RELEASE (same as in tc Server 2.7.1)

What's New in vFabric tc Server 2.7.1

This VMware® vFabric™ tc Server release includes the following new features:

  • Updated tc Runtime versions: vFabric tc Server 2.7.1 includes the following versions of tc Runtime:
    • tomcat-6.0.35.B.RELEASE (same as in tc Server 2.7.0)
    • tomcat-7.0.29.A.RELEASE. See the Tomcat 7.0.29 changelog for details.
  • Obtaining JMX credentials using LDAP: You can now configure a tc Runtime instance to obtains its JMX credentials using LDAP. See the Administration Guide.
  • Improvements to instance pinning: If an instance is started but does not find the tc Runtime version to which it is pinned, the instance now logs a warning message and uses the highest version of tc Runtime it can find of the same major release (tc Runtime 6 or 7). See Pin tc Runtime Instances to a Specific Version for details.
  • RPM Improvements: The tc Server installation and upgrade from RPM has been improved for a better user experience on RHEL.

These changes are in addition to those in vFabric tc Server 2.7.0.

What's New in vFabric tc Server 2.7.0

This VMware vFabric tc Server release includes the following new features:

  • tc Runtime Versions: The vFabric tc Server 2.7.0 release updates the version of the included tc Runtime versions to tomcat-6.0.35.B and tomcat-7.0.27.A.
  • Java 7: Support for Java 7, in addition to the existing support for Java 6. (Note that Spring Insight does not yet support Java 7, only Java 6.)
  • WebSocket Support: WebSockets are now supported as a result of the introduction of tc Runtime 7.0.27.A, based on Apache Tomcat 7.0.27. See WebSocket How-To.
  • createInstance.sh|bat: Interactive command script to quickly create an evaluation tc Runtime instance configured for SSL. The script can generate a new keystore or use an already existing one. See Create Evaluation Instances With the createInstance Script. The createInstance script is for evaluation purposes only.
  • async-logger Template: New tcruntime-instance template for automatically configuring asynchronous logging for a tc Runtime instance. See Templates Provided by tc Runtime.
  • Spring Insight 1.8.3: New features in version 1.8.3 of Spring Insight include:
    • Support for monitoring applications in JBoss and Apache Tomcat application servers, in addition to vFabric tc Server. After you install the Insight Agent on these application servers, you use Insight Operations in the same way. See Install and Configure Insight Agent, which provides information specific to each supported application server.
    • The Insight Dashboard includes an agent installer that you can download from the Insight Dashboard to target machines runnning applications you wish to monitor in tc Server, JBoss, or Tomcat. See Install and Configure Insight Agent.
    • New core plug-ins to support third-party software that you might use in your applications, such as MongoDB, vFabric RabbitMQ, EJB3, Redis, and BlazeDS. For the complete list, see Core Plug-in Reference.
  • RPM Installation Documentation: The tc Server installation guide now includes information about installing on RHEL using RPMs from the VMware repository. See RHEL: Install vFabric tc Server Standard Edition Using RPM.
  • Configure FIPS-140 Documentation: The tc Server Administration Guide has a new section that describes how to configure FIPS-140 mode for a tc Runtime instance. See the Administration Guide.

The following features have changed in vFabric tc Server 2.7.0:

  • Changes in SSL Template Behavior: The behavior of the SSL templates, such as bio-ssl, has changed. For example, the templates now generate a keystore at the time the instance is created, rather than providing a default one that was adequate only for testing purposes. See Additional Information About Using the SSL Templates.
  • Additional Security Changes: By default, new tc Runtime instances created with tcruntime-instance disable SSLv2 support, configure only ciphers allowed by VMware (previously it allowed all ciphers), and generate a random password for the default admin user in the conf/jmxremote.password file.
  • RPM Install Changes: When you install from RPM on RHEL, the yum install command now creates a Unix user called tcserver; in previous versions of tc Server, the user was called tc-server.

Known and Fixed Issues

The following problems have been identified in this release of vFabric tc Server. Where possible, a workaround is provided.

The table indicates the version in which the problem was found and, where applicable, the version in which it was fixed. If the Fixed In column is blank, it means the problem still exists in the latest version of tc Server.

Issue Number Description Found In Fixed In
TCS-2547 If you upgrade your tc Server installation on RHEL using an RPM, the existing tc Runtime versions are not preserved. This may result in existing tc Runtime instances that were created prior to the upgrade to have a conf/tomcat.version file that points to a tc Runtime version that does not exist on disk. When this happens, the instance will default to the latest tc Runtime version, which in the case of 2.7.0.RELEASE is 7.0.27.A. This has a few unwanted side effects:
  • All existing tc Runtime instances are essentially auto-upgraded to the newer runtime, even if the user has not explicitly upgraded the instance using tcruntime-instance.
  • There is no way for users to 'roll back' to older runtime versions.
  • Any instances previously using a 6.0.X tc Runtime version will be automatically upgraded to a 7.0.x tc Runtime , and the instance will fail to start. In this case the upgrade command can be used to revert to the 6.0.x runtime, however the preceding bullet still holds true (that there is no way to downgrade.)
 2.7.0 2.7.1
TCS-2554 If you enable the diagnostics template for a tc Runtime instance, and have background threads that issue database calls, a memory leak can result in the instance because the ThreadDiagnostics objects are not correctly cleaned up when the HTTP thread is recycled. 2.6.5 2.7.1