Recommendations for a stable version for v24

[Olgun Onur Ozmen]

Hi,

The bug fixes in v24.4.xxx releases are a little scary.

I wanted to ask those who have migrated or upgraded their production environment to v24 and are actively using it.

• Which version are you using on v24? Are you experiencing any issues with that version?
• Is anyone using the latest release, 24.4.1 HF1 on production with heavy load?
• 24.4.1.hf2 (end of August) - 24.4.2 (end of September) are listed. Is anyone waiting for these before migrating to production?

Thanks.

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Olgun Onur Ozmen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgunonurozmen/
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[Leon Carroll]

I've got around six open cases with 24.4.1 in our dev environment so we're staying with 24.3.0 HF3 for the time being in test and production.  I'm hoping that hf2 or 2.4.4.2 fixes a few of these.

• SQL adapter doesn't handle termination characters in quoted string
• RA JMS doesn't support Activemq 6.x but JDK 17 doesn't support activemq 5.x
• Unix agent fails to update using CAU - (Fixed in 24.4.1_HF2)
• LDAP sync fails to log in to LDAP - (Fixed in 24.4.1_HF2)
• SAP BOBI integration fails to run scheduled report - SAP JCE not trusted
• A workflow scheduled to cancel with a maximum runtime, cancels early when a get_var from a SQL_Vara is used in the process tab - (Fixed in 24.4.1_HF2)

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[Keld Mollnitz]

Hi @Olgun Onur Ozmen,

My advice is to wait as long as possible to upgrade your Production environment to v24, especially if you are running business critical workloads. and if you think that the list of bug fixes is scary, then you can expect many more bugs as more and more customers start using v24..

My personal experience is that a new major version is not stable until after 5 or 6 service packs...

/Keld.

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[Olgun Onur Ozmen]

Hi @Keld Mollnitz , @Leon Carroll , 

Thanks for comment.

In v21, the 5-6 service packs you mentioned arrived before the EOS expired, but in v24, new features are constantly being added, so it naturally takes longer to reach that number of service packs. The EOS expiring is a bit of a problem. That's why we may have to opt for an earlier version. That's why I wanted to bring up this topic.

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Olgun Onur Ozmen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgunonurozmen/
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[Leon Carroll]

v24.4.1 works well and is stable with a few workarounds. Use 24.3 agents for Unix, SQL Agent, RA_JMS with JDK11, LDAP sync.  Use a v21 agent for Windows where a credential manager is used though this should be fixed in the next hotfix. If you are doing a fresh linux install you may be able to use the 24.4.1 agent directly.

Search the schedules for where Maximum runtime is set, check if there is any code in the process tab and move it to a script if it causes an error.  With events, swap pset to set for anything in the process tab where max runtime is set.

Otherwise, I think everything else is ok.  We've been running v24.3 in prod for six months.   There are quite a few issues fixed in 24.4.1 that are in 24.3.  24.4.1 is effectively the 5th service pack since the name freezes at 24.4 

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[Leon Carroll]

The Unix agent issue is now fixed in 24.4.1 HF2, I've tested upgrading agents and running jobs.  whoami returns the correct username.  I'm testing the Windows agent now but that looks ok so far. - I will be moving this release to Test but with a v24.3 SQL Agent unless that is patched in the next week or so.

The LDAP sync and JSCH max runtime bug was also fixed in this release.  

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[Thomas Tuerler]

I have upgraded to 24.4.1HF1, incl the Windows agent. in Test env, under heavy load, the majority of jobs sticks in 'Ready for start' status, the environment virtually stands still. The same effect I had in the production, a quick relief was switching back to the 12.3 Windows agent. Is it this what you refer to with your suggestion of using the 21 agent for Windows? Is this somehow related to the Java portion in the 24 agent? Do you know, is it fixed in 24.4.1HF2? 

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Thomas Tuerler
setis Schweiz GmbH
Switzerland
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[Leon Carroll]

Hoi Thomas

I've not seen any other issues with the V24.4.1HF2 agent but I haven't tried with a heavy load.  I have rolled back to a v21 windows agent only where I can't work around the Windows Credential manager issue there.  This is where an active interactive session has to be open on the target server with the target user to be able to retrieve the windows credentials from the V24 agent.

In production I am currently using V21.0.13 agents with the V24.3 engine and have updated target to v24.3 where I have a use case for UTF-8.  I'll be updating all of these later to V24 when I move V24.4.1_HFx up the chain.

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[Thomas Tuerler]

Hoi Leon.

Before lunch I had a situation, where the WPs did consume up to 1.2GB (!) of memory, could easily be a memory leak. So stability of 24.4. remains a topic ...

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Thank you, Thomas
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[Olgun Onur Ozmen]

Hi again,

has anyone tried 24.4.1 HF2 and hit the critical bug and expected to fix 24.4.2 ? 

Thanks.

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Olgun Onur Ozmen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgunonurozmen/
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[Keld Mollnitz]

Hi @Olgun Onur Ozmen,

which critical bug are you referring to ?

/Keld.

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[Olgun Onur Ozmen]

Hi @Keld Mollnitz

I don't know. I'm asking the question :) It's critical enough to affect the system's operation when used in a live environment.  This kind of information convinces us to wait for 24.4.2.

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Olgun Onur Ozmen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgunonurozmen/
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[Martin Polak]

May I ask where this info comes from?

Thanks & BR
Martin

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[Olgun Onur Ozmen]

Hi @Martin Polak , 

I don't have any information about a critical bug. I'm asking to comunity , if anyone has encountered a serious bug after deploying these versions to production. You might ask why I feel the need to ask this way. Let me explain.

Even if everything works perfectly in the test environment, stability or instability issues can arise depending on how different versions are used by different companies. I'm doing some preliminary research. For example;  a years ago during the transition from v12 to v21, we had heard about issues experienced by several different companies on the same v21 version . while just as we were about to fully deploy v21 in production then We waited for a few hotfixes. Later, we switched to these hotfixed versions. This protected us from experiencing the issues in production.  Similarly, for v21, I identified at least 25-30 bugs and reported them to Broadcom, and colleagues at different companies asked me if I had encountered any issues with this version. I told them to wait. This is a natural research and collaboration.  Let me ask you the same question. Could you share with us a single list of bugs that will be fixed in the latest version? (I'm referring to the issues that have been reported to you in the latest version that will be fixed).

I've been performing upgrade and migration operations for years. The critical point here is predicting which version will be stable for you in advance. That's why I brought this up in the community. Just research.

Thanks.

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Olgun Onur Ozmen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgunonurozmen/
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