Introducing Control-M 9.0.21

At a customer, we are preparing an upgrade to Control-M 21. As you know the first step is to have a look on what’s new, what’s changed, corrected/known issues and of course the compatibility for the new version 9.0.21. This new version seems very interesting, let me introduce it to you.

Whats New?

Below some of interesting news in Control-M version 21.

Control-M MFT

The following is a list of enhancements that are now available in Control-M MFT:

• You can now transfer files to and from Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake Storage, and Google Cloud Storage.
• You can now limit access to the File Transfer Server with an Allowed/Blocked users list.
• Internal users can now upload and download files via the Control-M MFT File Transfer Server web interface.
• You can now create a copy of an existing file on the target host.
• Control-M MFT security enhancements include TLS 1.3, new supported ciphers, algorithms, and key types. A unique default encryption key for the MFT plug-in and the File Transfer server now supports Password and Key authentication.

Automation API

• You can now protect Control-M Automation API secrets from unauthorized users.
• You can deploy to an environment at the job or sub-folder level, significantly reducing the time to deploy a job modification.
• You can now define a z/OS job.
• A new type of API token is available which supports long running sessions.
• You can now import and export Site Standards in JSON format.

User and Roles Management

• Users and Roles are now managed in Control-M Web.
• New default roles: An Administrator has full access to all functionalities. A Team leader has partial access with the ability to manage permissions for each member of the team, and Viewer has view access only.
• The new User and Roles management interface is available from Control-M Web in the Configuration domain (Compatibility mode must be off)
• Identity Provider support (IdP) via SAML 2.0 in addition to LDAP. Associate with organizational groups enables you to associate the new role’s level of authorization with an existing IdP/LDAP security group.
• A new option to associate with organizational users enables you to define the level of authorization directly through the role by associating the role with specific users in your organization regardless of the IdP/LDAP users’ security groups settings.
• New Interface Access allows you to define the interfaces that users associated with the role can access Control-M.
• Users access is set only when associated it to a role.
• New access control for Reports, API secrets, and Workflow insights.
• WCM and Self Service privileges were consolidated to planning and monitoring domain access.

Control-M Workflow Insights

Control-M Workflow Insights is a new add-on that enables you to improve and optimize your Control-M business workflows.

The Control-M Workflow Insights collects various Control-M workflow metrics into a new offline Elasticsearch cluster, and exposes a new Workflow Insights domain in the Control-M Web client that enables customers to track and monitor business workflow metrics over time via various dashboards.

The following lists the dashboards that you can view in Workflow Insights:

• Workflow Health
• Workflow Trends and Peak Volumes
• Workflow Distribution
• Workflow Alerts
• Workflow Definition Updates
• SLA Management Services
• Optimization Insights
• Job Executions

What’s changed?

The following sections describe what’s changed in Control-M version 9.0.21:

Control-M External Java

Control-M now requires an external JRE. To ensure that Java remains updated, JRE deliveries are now decoupled from Control-M and are no longer part of the installation. This reduces installation size and enables you to use the JRE that is common within your organization. You must ensure that Java 11 is available on the Control-M component host machines.

Authorizations

The Control-M/EM Authorizations functionality is no longer available in the CCM. You must now define Control-M/EM users and roles in Control-M Web as said before in the section “Users and Roles Management”.

LDAP

The LDAP configuration functionality is no longer available in the CCM. You must configure LDAP in Control-M Web.

SLA Management, Control-M/Forecast, and Self Service

Control-M/EM installation now includes SLA Management, Control-M/Forecast, and Self Service.

Control-M/Agent

Control-M/Agent installation now includes Application Integrator and Automation API.

Control-M 21 Compatibility

As you know, it is not readable to list all compatibility matrix in this blog. To know the lists of supported operating systems, databases, and other products (BMC products and third-party products) for Control-M components, please check the below links from BMC Product Compatibility page:

Control-M/Server for UNIX and Microsoft Windows 9.0.21

Control-M/Enterprise Manager 9.0.21

Conclusion

In short, Control-M 21 will expand the orchestration framework, increase operational efficiency, and improve self-service and collaboration.

My colleagues or myself will share soon more information about Control-M Upgrade, follow us to get fresh feedback 😉

And you? Do you want to get more information about Control-M 21, upgrade your environment or even share your feedback about this version? In all cases, don’t hesitate to comment this blog or contact me in private message 🙂