What's new#

This release of HCL™ Accelerate includes various bug fixes and enhancements. This release is recommended for all customers. This topic provides a summary of enhancements and bug fixes.

If you are upgrading from a previous version, the following updates are included in this release.

2.3.6#

• Bug fix

  On the Value Stream page in the Search with DQL field and for VSM stage queries in the JSON using issue.type, corrected dot coloring and filtering issues.

2.3.5#

• Value stream update

  On the Value Stream page in the Search with DQL field and for VSM stage queries in the JSON, you can retrieve counts for fields including: issue, pr, count, and so forth. For more information, refer to the DevOps query language page.

• Security

  Fixed security issues.

• Known issue

  When a user successfully logs into HCL™ Accelerate, it is possible to navigate to web pages visited prior to the initial login page via the browser back button.

• Bug fixes

  • Value streams
    • When you hover over a dot existing in multiple stages, a unique ID attribute will display based on the stage where the action is performed.
    • Removed faulty display component appearing behind header.
    • On the dot details panel, the title is fully displayed.
    • When the window size changes, dots display inside the respective stages.
  • Swim lanes
    • Dots display correctly without overlap.
    • When you collapse an expanded phase, click on a field containing multiple dots, click an arrow for one of the dots, only one dot detail panel is displayed.
  • For API-driven pipelines, future deployments executed in a stage environment no longer override the previous deployments.

2.3.4#

• Value stream updates

  On the Value Streams page for VSMs exceeding the browser window width that require horizontal scrolling, the search and filter fields remain accessible along the entire horizontal width of the VSM.

  When you click Value Streams > My Favorites and then click the tabular list view icon for value streams in a narrow window with more than three metrics added, corrected both column overlapping page layout issues and non-display of overflow menu for user added metrics in the tabular list view header.

  On the Value Streams page, when you click a value stream and click the Sprint filter, one of the sprints in the drop-down list is identified as Current.

  On the Value Streams page, Swimlane, and Pipeline pages, corrected header spacing differences.

• Pipeline update

  On the Pipeline page, improved page layout features including: page margins, overflow menu visibility, smoother scrolling, spacing, text ellipses functionality, and UI wording related updates.

• Bug fixes

  • Value streams
    • On the Swimlane page, when you click either the phases, stages, or any items in the dynamic row selector and hover over the time in stage, null is not displayed.
    • When you click Value Streams > Add new value stream, enter and save information in the required fields of the Create a Value Stream window, delete the aforementioned value stream, and either: refresh the page, click All Value Streams, click My Favorites, a blank page is not displayed.
    • On the Swimlane page, when you click on a dot, the panel points to the column where the dot is located.

  • For the example DQL filters in the following table:

    Filter	DQL query
    1	issue.status='In Progress' AND pr.source!=GitHub
    2	pr.status=open AND pr.labels!='Any Label'
    3	pr.status=open AND pr.reviews.count=0
    4	pr.status=open AND pr.reviews.count>0

    When Filters 3 and 4 are combined with Filter 1 with the OR operator, Filter 1 dots are displayed. When Filters 1 and 2 are combined, the data is filtered properly.

2.3.3#

• Value stream updates

  When you click Value Streams > My Favorites and then click the tabular list view icon for value streams in a narrow window with more than three metrics added, corrected both column overlapping page layout issues and non-display of overflow menu for user added metrics in the tabular list view header.

  On the Value Streams page, when you click a value stream and view it in a narrow window, the value stream legend at the bottom of the page is not truncated on the right side and the page can be scrolled either to the right or left side.

• Pipeline update

  On the Pipeline page that contains parameterized Jenkins applications in DEV, QA, PROD, or any environment in the pipeline, when you click on the overflow menu and select Edit Jenkins job to display the Edit Jenkins parameters modal and close then reopen the modal, the latter modal correctly displays the parameters.

• Bug fixes

  • Value streams
    • When you click Value Streams > All Value Streams and then click the tabular list icon for value streams in a narrow window, the table heading metric fields truncate and you can hover over the fields to display a pop-up detailing the metric names with definitions.
    • On the Value Streams page, when you click a value stream and click either Expand or Collapse, the up and down arrows are pointing in the correct direction.
    • On the Value Streams page, when you click a value stream and click the Release or Sprint filters and select a release or sprint that is not in one of the five most recent, a blank page is not displayed.
    • On the Value Streams page, when you click a value stream and click the Commit or Pull request filters and select a pull request or commit, the pull request and commit filters remain selected after the page reloads.
  • For pipelines with HCL™ Launch and Azure DevOps integrations, when you click the add button for DEV, QA, PROD, or any environment in the pipeline, you can select only one process and save it to the deployment plan.
  • When you click Insights > All Dashboards and then click a dashboard, the Build Counts display the correct Requestor information from Jenkins when you click Group By and select Requestor. Also, the Deployment Counts display the correct User information from Jenkins when you click Group By and select User.
  • On the Value Streams, Pipeline, Insights, Dashboards, Releases, and Settings pages, resolved various page layout issues.
  • When a user logs out of HCL™ Accelerate, a login page is displayed for all web browser types and tabs associated with that session.

2.3.2#

• Value stream updates

  When you click Value Streams > My Favorites and then click to display the tabular list of value streams, an overflow menu is available for each value stream in the table so you can Remove or Unfavorite items from your list.

• Pipeline updates

  You can edit HCL™ Launch application components already created on the pipeline by clicking on the right side of the application and select Manage components to add and remove components of the application, Edit description to modify the description that only affects the application in the selected pipeline, or Delete application.

  On the Value Streams page, the Value Stream, Swim Lanes, and Pipeline tabs have moved to the right side of the page.

• Bug fixes

  • On dot details panel, wrap long dot names on three lines.
  • On dot details panel, Jira Reporter is not displayed as Assignee if the dot is unassigned.

  • Extra spaces in pipeline environment names are not displayed on the Pipeline page.

    Note: DQL queries with the displayed truncated environment name may not work if there are trailing spaces in the name. Inspect the environment name in the configuration modal or API attributes JSON file to confirm that extra spaces are the issue.

  • On the deployment plans page, corrected Plan not found error that prevents the user from accessing the plan.

2.3.1#

• HCL™ Accelerate plug-in index file

  For HCL™ Accelerate installation, provide the plug-in index file at the following URL:

  https://hclcr.io/files/devops/accelerate/accelerate-plugin-index/

  Note: If you are not able to expose the plug-ins index file due to a firewall issue, change the PLUGINS_INDEX_URL environment variable on the reporting-consumer microservice to point to an index location you can access while ensuring there is a process of taking the index from the public location to an internal location that HCL™ Accelerate can access.

  In addition to the plug-in index file, HCL™ Accelerate polls images from an HCL Docker registry hosted at the Harbor URL:

  https://hclcr.io/accelerate

• Bug fix

  On the Pipeline page, the application's snapshot rows display correct alternating component coloring starting with white, gray, white, and so forth.

2.3.0#

• Dynamic swim lanes

  Use dynamic swim lanes to quickly display vital project information across various organizational roles enabling informed workflow decisions. Dynamic swim lanes are adaptable and provide tailored data sets according to the different roles and requirements detailed in the following table.

  Role	Dynamic swim lanes view
  Developers, scrum masters, daily stand-up	View work items per person, show and hide selected stages, and choose sprint view for displaying pointed data sets.
  Development managers, director	Check overall sprint status, view stage position of work items, display remaining work from past sprints for possible future sprint allocation, and click SPRINT for a consolidated work item view displaying the current status.
  Scrum masters, development managers	For tracking targeted Epics, use the pinning feature to keep the prioritized items at the top of the list.
  All roles	Dynamic swim lanes display current state of releases, contents of both upcoming and past releases, determine when work items are released, view work items per stage, and click RELEASE for a detailed release contents list and click SPRINT for the same result.

• API-driven pipeline

  API-driven pipeline applications enable you to effectively populate the pipeline and move dots through the system solely through build and deployment uploads.

• Content snapshots visibility on the pipeline

  Components and associated component versions are visible on the pipeline for HCL™ Launch.

• HCL Software Factory (SoFy)

  HCL SoFy 2.3.0 is releasing on HCL Software Factory (SoFy) in upcoming weeks. For more information, visit the HCLSoFy website.

• Plug-ins added

  HCL™ Accelerate plug-ins added in this version are listed in the following table:

  Name	Description
  HCL Compass	Issue tracking and imports work items into VSMs.
  HCL Launch	Continuous deployment and continuous integration plug-in.
  HCL OneTest	Automated testing and imports test results as metrics into Insights.
  HCL OneTest Server	Automated testing and imports test results as metrics into Insights.
  WhiteSource	Security scan, view security and license compliance data.

  Visit the new HCL plug-ins site for documentation, support, and additional details.

• Performance updates

  Notable performance improvements yielding load reduction of CPU usage.

• Security

  Updated third party containers to fix vulnerabilities in Nginx, RabbitMQ, and MongoDB related to the WhiteSource plug-in. Refer to MongoDB version 3.6 End of life (EOL) details listed below under version 2.2.5 for Docker Compose upgrades and new installation of various HCL™ Accelerate versions.

• Bug fixes

  • On the Pipeline page with Jenkins jobs, when you click the overflow menu and select Configure parameters, the issue of a blank modal window display is resolved.
  • On the Value stream page, when you click and select Replace value stream map, in the case of an error after uploading a JSON file, a specific error message is displayed instead of the following generic error message:
  • When creating an UrbanCode Deploy Status task, saving the Status type resolves previous issues with the deployment plan remaining in an unopened state.

2.2.5#

• MongoDB version 3.6 End of life (EOL) and compatibility flags

  To anticipate the MongoDB 4.0 upgrade plan for HCL™ Accelerate version 2.3.0, various scenarios require your consideration for successful implementation. For Docker Compose upgrades and new installation of various HCL™ Accelerate versions, the preparation for the upcoming MongoDB 4.0 version requires attention to the associated setFeatureCompatibilityVersion MongoDB flag addressed in the following table:

  	Scenario 1	Scenario 2	Scenario 3
  HCL™ Accelerate version	1.4.4 or earlier	Upgraded from 1.4.4 or earlier to a version between 1.4.5 to 2.2.4	New installation of 1.4.5 or higher
  MongoDB version	3.4	3.6	3.6
  MongoDB compatibility flag version	3.4	3.4	3.6
  Solution A	Upgrade to version 2.2.5, then to 2.3.0	Upgrade to version 2.2.5, then to 2.3.0	Upgrade directly to version 2.3.0
  Solution B	N/A	Run MongoDB command db.adminCommand( { setFeatureCompatibilityVersion: 3.6 } ) to set compatibility flag to version 3.6, then upgrade to version 2.3.0	N/A
  Solution C	Contact support.	Contact support.	N/A

  Note: Refer to the MongoDB site for details on the setFeatureCompatibilityVersion flag.

2.2.4#

• Performance enhancements

  Properties and Versions tabs load properly on the deployment plan pages.

• Bug fixes

  • On the State of Sprint Report, clicking View issues in sprint expands and displays issues in tabular format.
  • Altair GraphQL Client is accessible.

2.2.3#

• Performance enhancements

  General performance fixes on the deployment plan pages.

• Bug fix

  Custom metrics support average and mean.

2.2.2#

• Bug fixes

  • Fixed dots not moving to next stage if newer and older versions are in the same stage. Dots move when the API is invoked.
  • Selecting versions for a deployment template only displays its own values versus those of a previously selected version.
  • GraphQL Playground works in offline scenarios.

2.2.1#

• Metric definitions updates (Insights only)

  Clarified metric definitions for the following: lead time, cycle time, load, throughput, and distribution.

• 3rd party image updates

  Updated bitnami/rabbitmq to version 3.8.9

  Updated bitnami/nginx to version 1.19

• Bug fixes

  • On the Templates page accessed via Releases > Templates, from the overflow icon when you select Copy this plan for a template, the template is copied and the Template duplicated successfully modal window is displayed.

  • On the Integrations page accessed via Settings > Integrations, from the overflow icon when you select Delete for an integration, the Are you sure you want to delete this integration? delete confirmation modal window is displayed as shown below.

    

  • Improved the install experience on OpenShift version 4.4 and greater. OpenShift templates will no longer need to be manually modified prior to install.

    Note: Red Hat dropped support for OpenShift version 4.3 in December 2020 and therefore, we can no longer support it from a product perspective.

  • Delete application option in release pipeline deletes all other applications known issue in version 2.2 is fixed.

  • Improved the robustness of continuous-release-poller connection with MongoDB.
  • Improved load time of home page.
  • Selecting versions for a deployment template only displays its own values versus those of a previously selected version.
  • LDAP connections timing out corrected with added reconnect setting to the client.

2.2.0#

• Pipeline automatic promotion improvements

  Auto promote now applies to the Input environment for UrbanCode Deploy and Jenkins applications which enables the automatic deployment to other environments.

• User interface enhancements

  Dashboards can be marked as a favorite and they are displayed on the new My Favorites tab.

  New dashboard table view provides for filtering dashboards. You can filter the table to see only the dashboards you own.

• Enhancement added to lead and cycle time metrics

  Detailed tabular information can be attained from lead time and cycle time metrics.

• Additional value stream view data by and quick filters features

  You can now both view dots and limit data by priority, type, release, and sprint.

• HCL Software Factory (SoFy)

  HCL SoFy 2.2 is now available on HCL Software Factory (SoFy). For more information, visit the HCLSoFy website.

• Known issues

  Delete application option in release pipeline deletes all other applications. If you experience this issue, restore your deployment plan from its Change History tab. This issue is corrected in version 2.2.1.

• Plug-in updates

  For new installations of HCL Accelerate, you may have to install the plug-in and then integrate it in HCL™ Accelerate. On the Integrations page, an Install button is displayed for this plug-in type.

• Bug fixes

  • The release-events-api service now starts last to ensure a safer start-up order.
  • The pipeline's Schedule deployment and Join release functionality should now work as expected when deploying with a Jenkins application that has not yet run.

2.1.3#

• Enhancement

  On the Insights All Dashboards page, you can view dashboards in either card or list view. In the list view, you can sort fields in ascending or descending order by clicking on the following field names:

  • Name
  • Description
  • Creator
  • Last Modified
  • Modified By

2.1.2#

• Enhancement

  For the UrbanCode Deploy applications in a pipeline, you can auto-promote from the input to stage environments. Click the icon next to Input and then select Auto promote.

• Bug fix

  Corrected VSM load error GraphQL Error: Expected Iterable, but did not find one for field ParticleViewMode.sprints when ParticleViewMode.sprints is stored as null.

• Configuring release-events-api memory limits

  For the release-events-api performance issues in Kubernetes or OpenShift installations with explicit overrides of limits and requests memory allocations in the deployment, the following workaround provides guidelines to address loss of system stability associated with how the non-default settings were set up in the configuration. This issue is typically not encountered if the aforementioned explicit overrides are not implemented in the configuration. If more than 2 GBs of memory are required, perform the following procedure:

  1. Determine the memory requirement.
  2. Under spec > template > spec > containers in your yaml file, locate the line image: urbancode/velocity-se-release-events-api:x.x.x.xx.

  3. Add the command override as a sibling entry to image: in the form of the following:

     ```

      image: urbancode/velocity-se-release-events-api:x.x.x.xx
      command:
        - node
        - --max-old-space-size=xxxx
        - /release-events-api/release-events-api.min.js
     

     ```

  4. On the command line - --max-old-space-size=xxxx, enter the maximum memory requirement in the appropriate units.

2.1.1#

Enhancements

• Value stream names wrap in table on All Value Streams tab when displayed in View list layout.
• On Value stream tab under Legend, sprints are ordered with current sprint followed by the previous four consecutive sprints.
• Link rules only require defining one or more integrations. Previously, vsm.json files required defining at least two integrations if uploading a link rule.
• The DQL validator detects and prevents the query with double equal signs ==.

Bug fixes

• Fixed inaccurate display of Dashboards bar chart representations for single run or multiple runs in one day.
• Corrected issue of pipeline page not loading when navigating to the Value stream tab and then quickly switching to the Pipeline tab while the value stream is still loading.
• For a Jenkins version that has been successfully deployed to an environment, eliminated repeat deployments when numerous applications are in the pipeline. None is displayed for the selected version instead of the same version available for a repeat deployment.
• Problem of Pull request (PR) history loss for an issue in the VSM is remedied to link and access any PR historical data attached to the item.

2.1.0#

• Forward proxy support

  Forward proxy communication with HCL™ Launch is now supported. While a reverse proxy is not fully supported a fallback mechanism is in place. The fallback mechanism eliminates the need for callbacks from HCL™ Launch. This allows for a more robust communications with HCL™ Launch.

  Support added for issue.sprints.active as a stage query to the DevOps query language.

• Integrated with HCL Software Factory (SoFy)

  HCL™ Accelerate is now available on HCL Software Factory (SoFy). SoFy is a catalog of Kubernetes enabled products as docker images and helm charts, hosted in a cloud-native registry. For more information, see the HCLSoFy website.

• Gate enhancement

  Rules can be created for gates that can be used to automate the gate process.

  Metrics type rules can be defined and a gate set based upon the rule.

• Metrics updates

  Added distribution metric to Insights, metrics bar, and VSM table.

  Metrics type rules can be defined and a gate set based upon the rule.

• Required software updates

  The Jenkins UrbanCode Velocity plug-in is now prerequisite and must be installed. The allows for running Jenkins jobs as a part of a deployment plan in HCL™ Accelerate. Version 2.1.0 of the plug-in is required. For more information about the plugin, see the Jenkins website.

• Bug fixes

  Fix to correctly display Group by: Week data in a chart.

2.0.5#

• Jenkins processing updates

  Jenkins tasks are automatically failed if the integration with the Jenkins server is not available.

• Deployment plan updates

  Release participants can now see list of assigned users and groups on deployment plan tasks.

Bug fixes

• Fixed problem when the dot history sometimes does not display.
• Fixed issue with applicable tasks not displaying unless the Applicable button is toggled.

2.0.4#

This release includes an announcement about advanced capabilities using HCL Accelerate and IBM UrbanCode™ Release. See the HCL Accelerate 2.0.4 includes IBM UrbanCode Release and delivers advanced capabilities for your organization’s DevOps processes document for details.

• Value stream updates

  A list of favorite value streams can be create by marking a value stream as a favorite. The list can be prioritize to quickly locate a value stream.

• License sharing

  Starting with IBM® UrbanCode™ Release version 6.2.4.1 and HCL™ Accelerate 2.0.4 a single pool of floating and authorized licenses can be shared by users of the two products. For example, an user assigned a authorized user license type can use the same license for accessing both IBM® UrbanCode™ Release and HCL™ Accelerate.

  HCL™ Accelerate users can now be assigned an authorize license key by selecting Reserve License on the Users page.

• Value stream updates

  Parser type plug-in code has been updated to fix a problem with the NPM wrapper when there are no plug-in properties.

  Support added for issue.sprints.active as a stage query to the DevOps query language.

• New Pipeline Designer role

  The new Pipeline Designer role allows a user to edit a pipeline but not able to run it.

• Gate enhancements

  The rules and reason for failure is displayed when a gate fails.

• Performance updates

  The time it takes to load a list of Jenkins jobs when mapping a list to environment has been improved.

  Improved load time of previous environment versions in pipelines.

Bug fixes

• Fixed overflow of application list when working with Jenkins jobs in pipelines.
• Integration containers are now automatically terminated if not needed. It used to be possible for integration containers to become orphaned and use system resources eventually causing MongoDB to crash.
• Fixed issue with VSM link rule integration names not updating if the integration name is changed separately.

2.0.3#

• Performance updates

  Changes to code for paginating user tables has been changed to increase performance when loading user lists.

  The time it takes to load a list of Jenkins jobs when mapping a list to environment has been improved.

  Improvements made to processing of manual tasks to improve processing time and eliminate an error exception logged when an imported task did not have the groupsAndUsers property defined.

• Plug-in updates

  Parser type plug-in code has been updated to fix a problem with the NPM wrapper when there are no plug-in properties.

Bug fixes

• Integration with HCL Launch version 7.1.0.1 fails with HTTP status code 500.
• Bottleneck detection errors are not handled well for value streams with data creation errors. Algorithm updated and more verbose reporting when bottleneck detected.
• Edit icon does not display when hovering over chart.

2.0.2#

Deployment plans can add task dependencies from the user interface. Plug-in image versions are now displayed on Plugin page. Improved reserved participants to include LDAP and SSO users and check reservation availability. Added LDAP and SSO users alongside local users in a single users list. Bottleneck detection is now based on Lead Time definition.

2.0.1#

• Scalability of services

  The main HCL™ Accelerate services can now scale to handle larger installations and greater amounts of data.

• Locking of releases

  The release manger can change a release status to lock. No changes can be made to the release after it is locked. Request for changes must be This gives the release manager control over last minute changes and ensures no changes are made after a final review. The lock is set on the Release Overflow page.

• Environment gating

  Users can now manually approve versions and gate environments based on approvals. The gate fails if approval requirements are not met. If a version does not pass all approvals the release manager can override the deployment. This feature provides for governance and compliance of open source tools and fragmented tools. This feature is located on the Environment Overflow page.

• Built in reports

  A new State of Sprint report allows for gathering statics of the value stream in relationship to a sprint. This report is helpful to a scrum master or manager in reducing risk of the current sprint and look at older sprints. You can access the report on the Reports page.

• Plug-in SDK

  Using the plug-in SDK you can create your own plug-ins and upload them to HCL™ Accelerate. To access to the plug-in SDK, click Settings > Integrations > Download Plugin SDK.

• Bottleneck detection

  Using machine learning, the model looks at current and previous state of a value stream to determine which stage the user should focus on first. This algorithm is always updating with new information to locate the next largest bottleneck. Types of bottlenecks include: Long Wait Time – the average time of stage is longer than any other by a substantial amount Batching – items pile up then are released at the same time In-Flow and out-flow mismatch See the Value Stream page Metrics Bar or Metrics Table fields.

• Contributor and Load Metrics

  Two new metrics are now available: Contributor Count and Load Count

  • Contributor count shows how many users are working on items in the Value Stream. The metric is based off the stages in Lead Time (work select -> customer) and counts how many unique individual owned items in those stages. Allows the tool to compare other metrics to rationalize about other metrics.
  • Load is also based off Lead Time and is a count of all the items in the stages at any given time. This allows you to see if there is a correlation of how much work is truly in progress vs how much is getting done. Usually there is a sweet spot to not give too much work and get the right amount out. With both our metrics are in a state where we can start rationalizing about different strategies without customers and how to use them correctly. See the Value Stream pageMetrics Bar or Metrics Table fields.

2.0.0#

• Scalability of services

  The main HCL™ Accelerate services can now scale to handle larger installations and greater amounts of data.

• Locking of releases

  The release manger can change a release status to lock. No changes can be made to the release after it is locked. This gives the release manager control over last minute changes and ensures no changes are made after a final review. The lock is set on the Release Overflow page.

• Environment gating

  Users can now manually approve versions and gate environments based on approvals. The gate fails if approval requirements are not met. If a version does not pass all approvals the release manager can override the deployment. This feature provides for for governance and compliance of open source tools and fragmented tools. This feature is located on the Environment Overflow page.

• Built in reports

  A new State of Sprint report allows for gathering statics of the value stream in relationship to a sprint. This report is helpful to a scrum master or manager in reducing risk of the current sprint and look at older sprints. You can access the report on the Reports page.

• Plug-in SDK

  Using the plug-in SDK you can create your own plug-ins and upload them to HCL™ Accelerate. To access to the plug-in SDK, click Settings -> Integrations > Download Plugin SDK.

• Bottleneck detection

  Using machine learning, the model looks at current and previous state of a value stream to determine which stage the user should focus on first. This algorithm is always updating with new information to locate the next largest bottleneck. Types of bottlenecks include:

  • Long Wait Time - the average time of stage is longer than any other by a substantial amount
  • Batching - items pile up then are released at the same time
  • In-Flow and out-flow mismatch See the Value Stream page Metrics Bar or Metrics Table fields.

• Contributor and Load Metrics

  Contributor metrics shows how many users are working on items in the Value Stream. This metric is based off the stages in Lead Time and includes the number of unique individual owned items in those stages.

  The Load metrics is also based off Lead Time and includes a count of all the items in the stages at any given time. You can use this metric to see the amount of work that is in progress versus the amount of work being completed.

  Access these metrics from the Value Stream page using the Metrics Bar or Metrics Table fields.

Parent topic: Welcome