NetIQ AppManager 9.5 Release Notes

December 2018

AppManager 9.5 includes new features, improves usability, and resolves several previous issues.

Many of these improvements were made in direct response to suggestions from our customers. We thank you for your time and valuable input. We hope you continue to help us ensure that our products meet all your needs. You can post feedback in the AppManager forum, our online community that also includes product information, blogs, and links to helpful resources.

The documentation for this product is available on the NetIQ website in HTML and PDF formats on a page that does not require you to log in. If you have suggestions for documentation improvements, click comment on this topic at the bottom of any page in the HTML version of the documentation posted at the AppManager Documentation page. To download this product, see the Downloads page.

1.0 What’s New?

The following outline the key features and functions provided by this version:

1.1 Operating System and Database Support

AppManager 9.5 adds support for the following Microsoft database:

  • For the AppManager repository (QDB) and Control Center repository (CCDB), SQL Server 2017 Standard and Enterprise editions

1.2 Enhancements

AppManager 9.5 includes the following enhancements:

Copy Management Group

This release enhances the Management Group functionality of Control Center Console by adding a new feature called Copy Management Group. By using copy management group, you can reuse previously customized settings of existing management groups by copying them instead of creating new ones. You can copy an existing management group's UI instance along with its properties (except policy and members) and create a new management group. You can copy all views (Event, Job, Knowledge Scripts, Service Map Views, and Servers), column settings, customization, and view filters. The new management group is arranged alphabetically in the tree view pane of the Enterprise Layout. It has a default name consisting of the management group from which it is copied, followed by an underscore and time stamp. You may rename the newly created management group based on your requirement.

NetIQ AppManager Application Programing Interface

This release provides with an API, called NetIQ AppManager Application Programing Interface (NetIQ AppManager API). The NetIQ AppManager API is a developer tool, which provides you with endpoints to perform common Control Center Console operations such as operations regarding Knowledge Script, event, management group, custom properties, remote deployment.

Transport Layer Security 1.2 (TLS) Support

This release of AppManager provides you with a support for TLS 1.2.

1.3 Web Agent Manager (WAM)

Web Agent Manager (WAM) is a web-based tool that allows you to configure all your AppManager UNIX agent components across the network, which you want to monitor with AppManager, without interacting with the UNIX agents individually.

Following are the salient features of WAM 8.0:

  • Includes a unified web console to manage AppManager UNIX agents

  • Runs on Windows and Linux operating systems

  • Includes user access control and permissions management

  • Patch management, such as installing and uninstalling patches and patch history

Web Agent Manager 8.0 is available for download at the Micro Focus download page.

2.0 System Requirements

Before you upgrade to version 9.5, all components must be version 9.2 or 9.1, with the exception of the Windows agent. You can upgrade version 7.0.4 and later Windows agents to version 9.5. At this time, the UNIX agent does not support upgrading to version 9.5.

AppManager version 9.5 requires that the CCDB and the primary QDB be the same version. You can either create a new version 9.5 primary QDB or upgrade your existing version 9.2 or 9.1 primary QDB to version 9.5. You cannot upgrade QDBs earlier than version 9.1 to version 9.5.

A version 9.5 CCDB will support version 9.2 or 9.1 QDBs as non-primary QDBs.

Before you upgrade the CCDB to version 9.5, ensure that it does not contain any QDBs that are earlier than version 9.1. If it does, either remove the QDBs or upgrade them to version 9.1 or 9.2.

AppManager version 9.5 requires specific requirement for all components of AppManager to support TLS 1.2.

For detailed information about hardware and software requirements, see System Requirements in the Installation Guide for AppManager.

3.0 Installing AppManager

For information about installing AppManager, see the Installation Guide for AppManager.

For information about upgrading AppManager, see the Upgrade and Migration Guide for AppManager.

4.0 Known Issues

NetIQ Corporation strives to ensure that our products provide quality solutions for your enterprise software needs. The following issues are currently being researched. If you need further assistance with any issue, please contact Technical Support.

4.1 Check for deployment packages update Fails in TLS Enabled Environment

Issue: When TLS 1.2 protocol is enabled, and TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.0 or SSL protocols are disabled, the below functionality stops working and raises an error The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.

  • AppManager Auturun setup > Check for Updates > Check your version of AppManager modules

  • Control Center Console >Deployment > right click on Packages View > Check for Deployment Packages Updates

Workaround: The issue is due to NetIQ Server (to which application connects to check for updates), which currently does not support TLS 1.2 communication. As a workaround, user needs to enable TLS 1.0 on AppManager Autorun setup and Control Center Console machines.

4.2 AppManager 9.5 Not Compatible with Operations Center 5.7 and 5.6

Issue: AppManager 9.5 is not compatible with Operations Center versions 5.7 and 5.6. In environments with Operations Center 5.7 or 5.6, upgrading to AppManager 9.5 will break the link between Operations Center and AppManager.

Workaround: A patch that will allow a complete upgrade for environments with Operations Center is in progress. For further clarification or for more information about the patch, contact Technical Support.

4.3 QDB Upgrade Cannot Continue if Certain Knowledge Script Conditions Exist

Issue: During upgrade of a QDB, if the installation program detects that any of the following conditions exist for Knowledge Scripts that are present in the QDB, it displays details about the scripts that are causing the error and will not allow the installation to continue:

  • Multiple versions of the same script are present.

  • Scripts do not strictly adhere to XML standards.

  • Scripts with missing script logic are present.

The conditions listed above can occur in environments where a version 5 or earlier QDB has been upgraded to AppManager version 9.1. The installation program does not make any changes to your environment when it detects these conditions.

Workaround: Contact Technical Support for assistance in resolving the error. After the error is resolved, you can continue the upgrade.

4.4 Migrating QDB to New SQL Server Requires Manual Creation of New Linked Server in Some Cases

Issue: When you migrate a QDB that uses SQL Server authentication to a new SQL Server, Control Center is not able to create a new linked server after you update the SQL Server information in Manage Repositories in the Control Center console.

Workaround: Use SQL Server Management Studio to manually create the new linked server:

  1. Expand SQL_Server_Name\Server Objects.

  2. Right-click the Linked Servers folder and select New Linked Server.

  3. On the General page, in the Linked Server field, specify the name and instance, if applicable, of the SQL Server that hosts the QDB for which you are creating the link.

  4. On the General page, for Server type, select the SQL Server radio button.

  5. On the Server Options page, set the RPC and RPC Out values to True, and then click OK.

4.5 Possible Delay in Synchronizing Ad Hoc Jobs Propagation from Repositories to Knowledge Scripts View

Issue: After you propagate a Knowledge Script Group member to ad hoc jobs, the right-click option to propagate to ad hoc jobs might still be available, but the list of ad hoc jobs that are pending propagation is empty. This occurs if the changes are made in the repositories before the next refresh interval for the Knowledge Scripts view. At the next refresh interval (one hour by default), the changes are reflected in the view.

Workaround: Manually refresh the Knowledge Scripts view by clicking Refresh Current View or pressing F5.

4.6 Deployment Package Checkin Fails on Windows Server 2016 if Windows Firewall Service is Not Available

Issue: In Microsoft Windows Server 2016 environments, deployment package checkin fails with the following error message if the Windows Firewall service is not available:

Unknown error code from BITS: 800706D9

There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper.

The error occurred while the remote file was being processed.

Check that the deployment web service is installed and active.

The error occurs for package checkins during Control Center installation and for manual checkins.

Workaround: Resolve issues with the Windows Firewall service. For more information, see the Microsoft article Cause of 800706D9 error (Windows update, firewall etcetera).

5.0 Contact Information

Our goal is to provide documentation that meets your needs. If you have suggestions for improvements, please email Documentation-Feedback@netiq.com. We value your input and look forward to hearing from you.

For detailed contact information, see the Contact Support page.

For general corporate and product information, see the NetIQ Corporate website.

For interactive conversations with your peers and NetIQ experts, become an active member of our community. The NetIQ online community provides product information, useful links to helpful resources, blogs, and social media channels.