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What is new in this release

New feature:

The new features described in this topic are current as of the original release of the product version. Changes in this documentation related to service releases are marked with fix pack icons.newfeat

This version offers robust improvements, whether you are new to the product or making the transition from a prior release. Use this topic to obtain a high-level summary of the new features in this release. To learn more about the new and changed features in key areas that affect the specific roles in our business, see the information about what is new for installers on distributed operating systems, installers on IBM i operating systems, installers on z/OS operating systems, administrators, security specialists, developers, and troubleshooters.


New Liberty profile: a lightweight application foundation

WebSphere Application Server includes the Liberty profile that is optimized for both operational and developer productivity. Key operational benefits include, but are not limited to, the following capabilities:

The Liberty profile currently supports a subset of the following parts of the full WebSphere Application Server programming model:

(v8550) We can enhance the liberty profile with our own product extensions. A Liberty product extension can contain features that extend the server runtime capabilities, server templates to create customized server configurations, and other content. Your features can make use of a powerful new system programming interface (SPI) that provides entry points to the runtime and access to system-level services that are not available to applications.

Familiar WebSphere Application Server enterprise qualities of service, such as security and transaction integrity, are enabled as required.

Deploy applications to a Liberty profile server

This profile supports two models of application deployment:

  • Deploy an application by dropping it into a "dropins" directory.

  • Deploy an application by adding it to the server configuration.

(v8550) The file transfer feature enables remote deployment of applications.

Because it is composable, each Liberty profile server is usually configured to include only the capabilities that are needed by the applications that it serves. This approach keeps each deployed server small and agile.

Network deployment of Liberty profile servers

The job manager provides the ability to distribute and deploy a Liberty profile server and applications, and start or stop embedded resources. Administration through the job manager provides the following key features:

  • Support for central administration through job manager host target jobs. We can submit job manager jobs that support the full lifecycle of Liberty profile resource deployment from initial install, to updates, to uninstall. A deployment manager is not required, although we can use the job manager function available on a deployment manager to administer the Liberty profile and its resources.

  • Quick installation of the Liberty profile. We can extract the Liberty profile resource and simply run the install Liberty profile resource job. There is no requirement to run a formal installation tool, such as Installation Manager, to use Liberty profile resources. Liberty profile resources are packaged as compressed files that are ready for use after extraction.

  • Support for flexible sharing of resources such as a SDK, runtime binary files, server configuration, and application binary files among many server instances.

  • Non-destructive update enables easy installation of new versions of any resources. We can switch easily between old and new resources, or run concurrent versions of resources.

  • No requirement for agent on target hosts, which reduces administration costs.

(v8550) The Liberty profile now supports a new, highly scalable, Liberty collective management infrastructure that is an alternative to using job manager. The Liberty collective management infrastructure provides the following key features:

  • Support for central administration using the Liberty collective controller JMX (JMX) managed beans (MBean). We can use the MBeans to support the full lifecycle of the Liberty profile resource deployment from the initial install, to updates, to uninstall. A WebSphere Application Server full profile deployment manager or job manager is not required.

  • Support for file transfer through the Liberty collective controller to transfer files to and from Liberty profiles, including application archives and configuration files.

  • The Liberty cluster feature enables Liberty profiles in the collective to be organized into application server clusters, enabling simplified lifecycle management using MBeans that operate on the cluster as a whole.

  • Quick installation of the Liberty profile. We can extract the Liberty profile resource and simply use the MBeans to perform installation. There is no requirement to run a formal installation tool, such as Installation Manager, to use Liberty profile resources. Liberty profile resources are packaged as compressed files that are ready for use after extraction.

  • Support for flexible sharing of resources such as a SDK, runtime binary files, server configuration, and application binary files among many server instances.

  • Non-destructive update enables easy installation of new versions of any resources. We can switch easily between old and new resources, or run concurrent versions of resources.

  • No requirement for agent on target hosts, which reduces administration costs.

  • Clustered collective controller supports high availability of administration infrastructure, and scalability to manage over 3000 Liberty servers.

  • Support for Jython clients.

(v8550) Faster installation with smaller footprint

  • Take advantage of improved installation of the Liberty profile with Installation Manager. The Liberty profile is now an independent Installation Manager install with a correspondingly small offering size. Use Installation Manager to add Java to your Liberty profile install. Java is packaged separately, so install just the version we need, or use our own Java that meets Liberty minimum requirements.

  • We can also install the Liberty profile by extracting one or more archive files. Options include a core archive file that is approximately 50 MB which supports both web profile and OSGi applications, an extended archive which adds web services and messaging capabilities to the core Liberty function, and an additional archive that includes extras such as an embedded EJB container and Java Persistence API (JPA) client which can be used independently of the Liberty core.

  • After installation is complete, we can use the server packaging tool to create a minimum-sized serviceable archive for a specific Liberty server. We can then use this package to perform manual archive installation, or perform installation through job manager or the liberty collective controller.

(v8550) Enhanced performance monitoring and problem determination

  • Use dynamic caching for improved performance of web applications.

  • Take advantage of enhanced performance monitoring capabilities to monitor thread pools, database connection pools, messaging, and web services.

  • Use binary logging in Liberty servers to increase logging and tracing performance and reduce the load on the Liberty profile servers using the default log and trace facilities. Binary logging is based on the High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) technology provided in full profile servers. It is an alternative to the default log and trace facility.

  • Leverage timed operations in Liberty profile servers to issue warnings in log files when JDBC calls in their application server are operating more slowly than expected.

(v8550) Support for JMS messaging in Liberty profile

  • Liberty profile supports asynchronous messaging as a method of communication based on the JMS programming interface. The JMS interface provides a common way for Java programs (clients and Java EE applications) to create, send, receive, and read asynchronous requests as JMS messages. Liberty profile supports JMS messaging through the following providers:

    • Liberty embedded JMS messaging provider

    • Service integration bus

    • WebSphere MQ messaging provider

  • Liberty profile also supports automatic asynchronous messaging using message-driven beans. Messages are automatically retrieved from the JMS destinations, optionally within a transaction, and then sent to the message-driven bean in a Java EE application. This approach removes the need for the application to explicitly poll the JMS destinations.


Fast, flexible, and simplified application development

WebSphere Application Server includes the following key new features and enhancements to ease, simplify, and extend the application developer experience:

The Liberty profile

The Liberty profile provides a simplified and lightweight development and application-serving environment for web and OSGi applications. Familiar WebSphere Application Server enterprise qualities of service, such as security and transaction integrity, are enabled as required. Key benefits include, but are not limited to, the following capabilities:

  • Free and frictionless download for development purposes

  • Ultra lightweight modular runtime environment, with an install size of around 50 MB

  • Incredibly fast startup time: under 5 seconds for simple web applications

  • Simplified configuration for quick time to productivity

  • Availability of WAS Developer Tools as Eclipse plug-ins for broad tooling support

  • Platform support for distributed platforms, IBM i, z/OS, and Mac OS

Because it is composable, each Liberty profile server is usually configured to include only the capabilities that are needed by the applications that it serves. This approach keeps each server small and agile. The Liberty profile includes support for the following capabilities:

  • Blueprint

  • JDBC

  • JMX (JMX)

  • Java EE Web Profile

  • (v8550) JAX-WS

  • (v8550) Java Message Service (JMS)

  • (v8550) MongoDB - client configuraton support for an open source, highly scalable, noSQL database

  • Security for Liberty profile includes support for:

    • Basic user registry

      • (v8550) Support for password hashing

    • (v8550) Custom user registries

    • (v8550) EJB security

    • (v8550) LDAP registry federation support

    • LDAP user registry

    • (v8550) Messaging security

    • (v8550) Password encryption in configuration files

    • SSL

    • Web security

    • (v8550) Web services security

    • (zos) z/OS security, supported by the z/OS System Authorization Facility (SAF)

  • Web application bundle (WAB)

Integrated support for WebSphere Application Server Web 2.0 and Mobile Toolkit

The WebSphere Application Server Web 2.0 and Mobile Toolkit simplifies the addition of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) rich desktop and mobile user interfaces and Representational State Transfer (REST) Web services to Java Web applications. Web 2.0 capabilities, such as Ajax and REST, help application developers to create more connected, interactive applications, that result in higher customer satisfaction, user productivity, and enhanced decision making. New mobile Ajax components enable developers to create mobile web applications that run on devices such as smartphones and tablets.

New migration suite of tools to prepare, analyze, and migrate WebSphere applications and other competitive applications

Enjoy faster application migrations using the extensive set of tools to help plan for and implement application migrations. The IBM WebSphere Application Server Migration toolkit is a suite of tools and knowledge collections, provided at no charge, to quickly and cost-effectively migrate to WebSphere Application Server V7, V8.0 or V8.5, whether from a previous version of WAS or competitive application servers including Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Application Server, JBoss Application server, and Apache Tomcat. This toolkit provides a single solution for identifying, analyzing, and resolving application code quality and compliance requirements. We can obtain this migration toolkit from the developerWorks IBM WebSphere Application Server Migration Toolkit page.

Support for OSGi programming model enhancements for the full profile, including EJB support

Take advantage of enhanced modular application development by assembling OSGi applications from reusable bundles containing EJB assets for the full profile. The enterprise beans in the OSGi bundles can be developed from scratch, or we can include existing EJB assets and migrate them to use OSGi modularity with minimal code changes. Stateful, stateless, and singleton enterprise beans are supported. Your OSGi application can also contain message-driven beans (MDB).

We can deploy and configure an OSGi application containing enterprise beans in a similar way to deploying and configuring a Java EE enterprise application, by using wsadmin or the administrative console.

Support for IBM WebSphere SDK Java Technology Edition Version 7.0

This IBM Software Development Kit (SDK) provides a full-function SDK for Java that is compliant with the Java SE 7 APIs (APIs). With IBM WebSphere SDK Java Technology Edition Version 7.0, we can develop and deploy Java applications at the Java 7 API level and continue the "write once, run anywhere"Java paradigm at the Java API level. The SDK contains the Java application Runtime Environment and other tools that enable developers to create Java applications.

WebSphere Application Server supports IBM WebSphere SDK Java Technology Edition Version 7.0 as a pluggable JDK. Java 6 is installed with the product and used by default. We can optionally install Java 7 support and then enable it using the managesdk tool.


Integrated tools

WebSphere Application Server v8.5 includes:

Development workbench options

Accelerate developer productivity through integrated and optimized developer tooling. Rational Application Developer v8.5 provides a complete environment for enterprise development for Java, Java EE, web, web services, SOA, OSGi, and Portal designers and developers. Use this environment to develop, assemble, and deploy the applications to WebSphere Application Server v8.5, and test the applications using a rapid-deployment feature in the v8.5 runtime environment.

The IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse, v8.5 is a lightweight set of tools for developing, assembling, and deploying Java EE, OSGi, Web 2.0 and Mobile applications to WebSphere Application Server, including the Liberty profile.


Intelligent Management and enhanced resiliency

WebSphere Application Server v8.5 provides enhanced user availability and application server resiliency with integrated Intelligent Management capabilities and resiliency enhancements for the service integration bus.

(dist)(zos)(v8550) Use Intelligent Management for web servers

  • Intelligent Management for web servers increases the quality of service and decreases the total cost of ownership for the middleware. Intelligent Management capabilities are available for Apache or IBM HTTP servers in managed and unmanaged nodes. Leverage the Intelligent Management for web servers feature to take advantage of key capabilities such as automatic routing, edition aware caching and routing, node and server maintenance mode routing, health policies, and highly available connections to each cell. When you use Intelligent Management for web servers, we do not need to separately configure the On Demand Router (ODR) to achieve the same function.

    • (dist)(zos) Use Intelligent Management for application edition management

    Leverage the application edition management capabilities of IBM Intelligent Management to manage interruption-free production application deployments. Using this feature, we can validate a new edition of an application in the production environment without affecting users and upgrade the applications without incurring outages to the users. We can also run multiple editions of a single application concurrently, directing different users to different editions.

    (dist)(zos) Use Intelligent Management for intelligent routing

    Intelligent routing improves business results by ensuring priority is given to business critical applications. Requests are prioritized and routed based upon administrator-defined rules. Intelligently route requests using the On Demand Router (ODR). The ODR can momentarily queue requests for less important applications so that requests from more important applications are handled more quickly.

    (dist)(zos) Use Intelligent Management for application server health management

    Use the application server health management feature to monitor the status of the application servers as well as sense and respond to problem areas before an outage occurs. Manage the health of the application serving environment with a policy-driven approach that enables specific actions to occur when monitored criteria is met. For example, when memory usage exceeds a percentage of the heap size for a specified time, health actions can run to correct the situation.

    (dist)(zos) Use Intelligent Management to improve performance with dynamic clustering and overload protection

    With dynamic clusters, we can automatically scale up and down the number of running cluster members as needed in order to meet response time goals for the users. We can leverage overload protection to limit the rate at which the on demand router (ODR) forwards traffic to application servers in order to prevent heap exhaustion, CPU exhaustion, or both types of exhaustion from occurring.

    Improvements to the recovery of messaging engine errors

    When a recoverable database error is detected by the high availability (HA) manager, the messaging engine is stopped, and the standby messaging engine is started automatically, if available. The other applications running in the application server are not affected by the failure of the messaging engine.

    Enable the messaging engine to restart after a failure

    When a messaging engine fails due to recoverable database problems, it is disabled and failed over to another messaging engine in the cluster, if configured for high availability. In the event that the active messaging engine does not responding to the database, the standby messaging engine is able to take ownership of the database because the active messaging engine holds only short duration locks. This action also ensures that only one active messaging engine can access the database at a given time. The disabled messaging engine is automatically enabled after a specific time and is available for failover.

    Retain the count of the failed deliveries after the messaging engine is restarted

    When a message delivery fails, the messaging engine attempts to redeliver the message repeatedly and the delivery count increases incrementally each time. The redelivery count is persisted to the message store and is made available for the messages even after the messaging engine is restarted.

    Enhanced memory leak detection and protection

    WebSphere Application Server provides top down pattern-based memory leak detection, prevention, and action by watching for suspect patterns in application code at run time. WebSphere Application Server has some means of protection against memory leaks when stopping or redeploying applications. This product monitors application and module activity and performs diagnostic actions when an application or an individual module stops. This feature helps in increasing application up time with frequent application redeployments without cycling the server.

    Improvement to the messaging engine to prevent holding long running database locks

    When the messaging engine uses a database as the message store, we can configure the messaging engine to acquire short duration locks on the database; thereby, preventing it from holding long running locks on the database. The new locking mechanism also helps the standby messaging engine to acquire the database ownership when a JVM, hosting the messaging engine in a highly available clustered environment, becomes unresponsive until a specified period of time.

    Improvements to service integration bus performance

    Improved messaging engine startup time by loading the destinations concurrently in a multi-core architecture. The concurrent loading is possible if the message store is configured with the database which supports parallel reads by multiple threads. The performance improvement is directly proportional to the parallel processing capability of the database and the capacity of the system on which the messaging engine is running.

    Recovery of the messaging engine configuration from the message store

    We can use the recoverMEConfig command to restore the configuration information of the messaging engine from the message store in case the configuration files are lost or corrupted.


    Improved operations, security, control, and integration

    WebSphere Application Server v8.5 includes the following highlights for greater security and for enhanced operations and control for application development, management, and problem determination.


    Improved operations and control

    (v8550) Enhancements for IBM HTTP Server on z/OS

    IBM HTTP Server for WebSphere Application Server includes z/OS exploitation for MVS™ Datasets, operator console commands, WLM classification, SMF logging, and more codepage conversion flexibility.

    (v8550) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) serviceability and monitoring enhancements

    WebSphere Application Server provides enhanced serviceability and monitoring capabilities for the SIP container and proxy to enable SIP developers and administrators to more quickly identify and resolve problems when running SIP applications. Leverage the following improvements to monitor and aid problem determination within SIP networking environments:

    • Use new PMI counters to diagnose issues of network congestion, session replication, task duration, rejected messages, timer invocations, queue monitoring.

    • Use features within the High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) log and trace infrastructure to troubleshoot SIP call flows across SIP proxies and SIP containers. When HPEL is enabled, the collection of SIP context is automatically enabled and includes identifiers for the session, the SIP call, and the application session.

    • Use the SIP session memory dump utility to help debug problems related to SIP container sessions. By configuring the SIPContainerMBean method to use various trace methods, we can specify the SIP session details to dump to the specified trace file.

    • Use the Unmatched Message Listener API to receive incoming Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) request or response messages that cannot be processed by the SIP container so that the application receives a call back when a message is not matched to an existing dialog. Use this feature to identify and resolve records associated with calls that may have failed from a different geography, to recognize denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, or to discover network components that are not behaving correctly.

    • Enhanced SIP proxy logging capabilities include logging for both complete SIP messages and rejected SIP messages. To troubleshoot rejected messages, we can use trace logging to record the SipCallId of specific messages that have been rejected.

    Option to select and switch between IBM WebSphere SDK Java Technology Edition Version 7.0 or 6.0

    WebSphere Application Server provides support for the IBM WebSphere SDK Java Technology Edition Version 7.0 as an optional pluggable Java development kit (JDK). Java 6 is installed with the product and used by default. Use the managesdk tool to optionally install and enable Java 7. We can optionally switch between using Java 6 or Java 7 to best meet your business needs.

    Enhancements for Java batch support

    WebSphere Application Server provides powerful new batch application features. Enhancements include support for parallel batch processing to reduce batch job elapsed time, memory-overload protection for batch workloads, integration of workload scheduler to submit batch work from scheduler products like Tivoli Workload Scheduler, and numerous xJCL and programming model improvements to increase application development flexibility.

    OSGi Blueprint security improvements

    We can configure bean security in the Blueprint XML file of your OSGi applications, so that the methods of the bean can be accessed only by users assigned a specified role. We can configure bean-level security, so that a single role is associated with all the methods of the bean, or we can configure method-level security, where different roles are associated with specific methods.

    Support for the OSGi application console

    The WebSphere Application Server administrative console provides pages that we can use to examine or debug a specific set of OSGi bundles running on an application server. We can, for example, view and explore the package and service dependencies between the bundles in an OSGi application.

    Support for the Service Component Architecture (SCA) OASIS programming model implementation

    WebSphere Application Server v8.5 adds support for the SCA OASIS programming model implementation. The product provides partial support for the following OASIS specifications:

    • OASIS SCA Assembly Model Specification 1.1

    • OASIS SCA Policy Framework Specification 1.1

      The product supports OASIS policy attachment, but does not support OASIS policy set definitions.

    • OASIS SCA-Bindings specifications:

      • SCA JMS Binding Specification 1.1

      • SCA Web Service Binding Specification 1.1

    • OASIS SCA-J Common Annotations and APIs Specification 1.1

    This product also supports EJB binding, POJO, JAXB and SDO as data types.

    Support for Derby 10.8

    Connect the applications to the latest versions of a wide array of industry-leading databases to enable maximum deployment flexibility. WebSphere Application Server v8.5 has been tested with and includes the Derby 10.8 database.


    Simplified problem determination

    Cross component trace (XCT) enables correlation of log and trace entries with minimal cost

    Use the cross component trace facility to identify the root cause of problems across components. XCT annotates log and trace entries so that log entries related to a request that is serviced by more than one thread, process, or even server are identified as belonging to the same unit of work. This enhancement enables administrators and support teams to follow the flow of a request from end-to-end as it traverses thread or process boundaries.

    Enhancements to log and trace filtering using application name, request ID, or custom extensions

    Use the High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) LogViewer command-line tool to filter records based on the content of log and trace record extensions. The application server automatically creates an appName extension for each log and trace record related to a Java EE application, indicating the name of that application. The application server also automatically creates a requestId extension when cross component trace is enabled for each log and trace record created during the processing of certain types of requests (for example HTTP or JMS requests), indicating the unique ID of that request. We can add custom extensions to HPEL log and trace entries using the LogRecordContext API.

    Improved troubleshooting using IBM Support Assistant Data Collector

    The IBM Support Assistant Data Collector for WebSphere Application Server tool focuses on automatic collection of problem data and is now included as part of this product. It also provides symptom analysis support for the various categories of problems encountered by IBM software products. Information pertinent to a type of problem is collected to help identify the origin of the problem under investigation. The tool assists customers by reducing the amount of time it takes to reproduce a problem with the proper RAS tracing levels set, as well as by reducing the effort required to send the appropriate log information in to IBM Support.


    Extended repository options

    Enhanced security for administrative configuration audit tracking

    WebSphere Application Server v8.5 enables you to track changes made to the application server configuration using checkpoints made through the extended repository service. A full checkpoint is a complete copy of the entire configuration repository. A delta checkpoint is a subset snapshot of the configuration repository that is made when you change a product configuration. Use a checkpoint to restore the configuration repository back to a prior state. To determine what has changed in the configuration, we can extract from a delta checkpoint to obtain the before and after versions of the files that were saved.


    Improved integration and service mapping

    (v8550) Service mapping to enable simple SOA integration capabilities through service routing and transformation

    When using the WAS full profile, we can use service mapping to route and transform requests and responses between service clients and service providers, so that you remove the dependency of the service client on either the service provider location or the service provider interface. Service mapping makes it easier for application developers to shield their applications from minor changes in the services on which those applications depend, and administrators can control to which service interactions the service mapping applies.


    Subtopics


    Related concepts

  • Resources for learning
  • Release notes
  • Guided activities for the administrative console
  • Overview: Administering
  • Overview: Securing
  • Overview: Developing
  • Overview: Monitoring performance
  • Overview: Tuning performance
  • Overview: Troubleshooting


    Related tasks

  • WebSphere Application Server product offerings for supported operating systems

  • Specifications and API documentation
  • Deprecated, stabilized, superseded, and removed features

    What is new for installers

    (iseries) What is new for installers

    (zos) What is new for installers

  • What is new for administrators
  • What is new for security specialists
  • What is new for developers
  • What is new for troubleshooters

    (dist)(zos) Administer Intelligent Management

  • Administer the batch environment


    Related information:
    edition
    WASdev community downloads page
    WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Concepts, Planning, and Design Guide