Release notes and system requirements for the beta release

The release notes provide a list of topics and links that you can use when you evaluate IBM® Rational® Collaborative Architecture Management.

Contents

About this beta release

This beta is for Rational Software Architect users who want to share models with extended teams. These teams require easy access to models, and no longer need to have Rational Software Architect installed to view model content. This beta makes sharing and collaborating with extended teams easier, and enables you to do the following things:
  • Use a Web browser to view Rational Software Architect model content, including diagrams and detailed properties of each model resource stored in the Jazz-based repository.
  • Import Rational Software Architect models from a source-control-managed repository to a Jazz™ repository, and even schedule the transfer so model content is updated automatically on the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management model server.
  • Search for entities of architecture models in the repository by using a basic text search
  • Query references between architectural entities in the repository in two ways: using tabs or visually
  • Review and collaborate on architecture models by sketching on diagrams or making notes or comments on individual entities; architecture authors can use Rational Software Architect to read and respond to the comments that extended teams create
  • Create snapshots so you can view an entire project at a given point in time
  • Create reviews so team members can view model resources and mark them as approved
  • Create dashboards with viewlets such as active resources, recent comments, and constraint violations
  • Link diagrams and models to external resources, including artifacts that are stored in IBM Rational Requirements Composer, IBM Rational Quality Manager, IBM Rational Team Concert™, and even other IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management servers.

System requirements

The following tables contain the system requirements for the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management. The first table refers to the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management server system requirements, and the second table refers to the IBM Rational Software Collaboration Client – an extension to Rational Software Architect.

System requirements for the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management Server

Operating systems Software Hardware
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Service Pack 2 (Enterprise for x86-64 only)
  • Microsoft™ Windows XP Professional
  • Red Hat Enterprise Server 5 (x86-32)
Supported Web browsers:
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0
    Important: Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 is not supported in this beta.
  • Mozilla Firefox 3.5 or 3.6
  • 2 - 4 CPU with 4 to 8 GB RAM (2 GB minimum) and 80 GB or more of hard disk space. More memory generally improves performance; required memory depends on the number of concurrent users, amount of data being requested, and the size of the database
  • Optimum swap space is double the physical memory
  • Display monitor with at least 1024 x 768 color resolution using 256 colors
  • 1 GB for installation and 500 MB for temporary space

System requirements for IBM Rational Software Collaboration Client

The system requirements for the Collaboration Client extension into Rational Software Architect are identical to the Rational Software Architect system requirements found here:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27019496

What's new in this beta release

Component area Description
Review and approve A review is a set of artifacts that you create to be reviewed and approved by specific team members. The review follows a lifecycle that changes as participants complete and approve the review.

There are two kinds of reviews: a Formal review and an Informal review.

  • Formal reviews are useful if you want participants to review controlled, static versions (known as a snapshot) of the artifacts or you need to see the exact version of artifacts that are approved. When you add artifacts to a Formal review, the current artifacts in your project appear in the Review editor, but when you start the review, the artifact versions are "frozen" in the review; these are the version of the artifacts that participants will see and review. Note, however, that during the review, you can elect to edit the live artifacts, pause the review, replace the artifacts in the review with the edited artifacts, and then have participants re-review the artifacts.
  • Informal reviews are useful if you know that the artifacts will not change significantly during the review or if it is not important if participants review artifacts that may be changing. When you add artifacts to an Informal review, participants always see the "live" or most recent versions of the artifacts in the project.
Snapshots A snapshot is a capture of an entire project at a specific moment in time. It includes all artifacts that reside within a project. You might want to create a project snapshot after importing models onto the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management model server or after you complete a review of specific artifacts.
Model import Before you can view Rational Software Architect models and diagrams on the Web, you must import model data to the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management model server by using the Rational Software Architect import engine.

Importing model data is not a one-time action; you must re-import model data each time that you want changes made in your local workspace to be visible on the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management model server. You can also schedule imports so they occur automatically on a regular basis and create a snapshot after an import is complete.

In addition, you can write ANT scripts so you can pull model content directly from your source control management system to the model server.

Setup and configuration wizard Many improvements have been made to the setup and configuration wizard. It is now much easier to install and configure the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management server. The following major improvements have been made:
  • The IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management setup and configuration process uses the new Jazz Team Server setup wizard that makes it easier to register the fronting application.
  • The Jazz Team Server setup wizard also includes IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management-specific steps related to creating a sample project and user accounts. These steps are designed to help you get your environment set up quickly.
  • After you finish the setup process and click Finish, you are automatically directed to the Jazz Team Server Administration page where you can administer the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management application by specifying settings related to process templates and project management.
  • The Jazz Team Server setup wizard also tests the Public URI root; a warning now appears if you enter an incorrect value.
CLM linking and backlinking You can create links from model resources that reside on the model server to resources that reside on other Jazz-based products such as:
  • Rational Team Concert
  • Rational Requirements Composer
  • Rational Quality Manager
  • Other projects hosted on a IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management server.

Before you can create a link to another resource, you must configure linking. For details,

Explorer and explorer filtering You can view model resources in a tree-like structure that allows you to expand and collapse a model in a hierarchical manner.

You can filter model resources in the Explorer view so that you see only those items that you want to work with. This filtering helps focus the Explorer view on items of importance, and allows you to customize which elements appear, and which elements that are hidden.

By default, the Explorer hides smaller elements related to larger resources. You can right-click an element in the Explorer, and click Show Resource Contents to show the "owned" content.

You can also "pin" specific elements in the Explorer so they always remain open.

Type filter resources can now be edited in the project settings page and be applied on a project. You can also override the projects settings and apply your own filters.

After you have performed a search for model elements, you can make the Explorer focus on the elements found through the Focus in Explorer button in search section toolbar. As a result, the Explorer tree expands to show all the items representing the search results; all irrelevant items are hidden by ellipsis nodes.

Collaboration Client After you use the import engine to load model workspaces onto the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management server, you can configure Rational Software Architect to synchronize comments made between models in Rational Software Architect with models that have been imported onto the model server. The collaboration client provides similar Web functionality allowing you to comment, draw, and link within Rational Software Architect.

The Collaboration Client adds two new views: Team Modeling and Commenting; the Collaboration Client also adds some specific search functionality that allows you to search model repositories.

Using BIRT, you can create custom reports related to model resources.

Relationship diagrams You can use relationship diagrams to view the model resources that are affected if a change is made in another part of a model.
Commenting, drawing You can create a comment, a textual discussion item that is associated with an artifact or a resource within an artifact, to provide team feedback during the development of a model resource. Comments are displayed in the Comments view, in the Recent Comments section of the Mini Dashboard.

You can also add drawings on top of diagrams to further define, explain, collaborate, and expand upon a model resource.

General notes

The following table contains information about supported items in the beta program:
Component area Description
Rational Software Architect Only install, set up, and use the beta software in a non-production environment. If possible, install and configure the beta on a clean machine with Rational Software Architect v8.0 or v8.0.1.
Rational Software Architect model versions You can only export and use models that were created in versions 7.5.4, 7.5.5, 8.0, and 8.0.1 of Rational Software Architect. Even if you successfully export a workspace that contains models that were created in version 7.5.3 or earlier, problems with the model occur, such as invalid diagram data.

Rational Software Architect 8.0.1 sketches and sketch shapes do not import into the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management server.

IBM Development and Test Cloud Domain units

Units from the "IBM Development and Test Cloud Domain" are not currently supported in Rational Collaboration Architecture Management deployment diagrams.

OSLC Requirements Management and Architecture Management specification The integration with Rational Requirements Composer is based on early drafts of the OSLC Requirements Management and Architecture Management specification; therefore, the functionality is limited. As the specification is completed, the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management server is expected to support more capabilities.
UML-based profiles The beta does not support models that reference Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and UML Profile-Based Integrated Architecture (UPIA) WebSphere® business models, because the workspace import tool does not consider XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) files.

Known problems and workarounds

The following table contains known problems and workarounds for the beta release:
Problem Workaround

Authentication (logging in and out of /rmps pages)

You may notice problems logging out of /rmps pages. For example, it may appear as though nothing happens when you log out of pages that contain rmps/admin. When you attempt to log back in, the page appears blank; even refresh does not fix the problem.

If you close the browser and go back to rmps/admin in a new browser, you should be able to access the page again.

Review and Approve

After you complete a review, not all fields on the Review Overview tab update correctly.

The data % column updates correctly; however, the Review Results columns do not.

Refresh your browser to update the Review Results column.

Review and Approve

Due to limitations using Internet Explorer 7.0, you may notice problems when creating a review; Internet Explorer 7.0 is not supported in this beta.

When you create and save a review, the review process buttons at the top of the page do not load; the participants and resources tabs appear empty as well.

Open the review using Internet Explorer 8.0 or Mozilla FireFox.

Review and Approve

When every participant has reviewed all their resources contained within the review, the status in the Overview Tab should automatically update to Reviewed. In this beta, the review is still In progress with the percent updated to 100%.

To have the status moved to Reviewed, you have to reload the review.

Review and approve - Review editor

By default, the Resource Comments section is not in focus in the Review editor and the Show All Resource filter is not set.

To see the comments made on a review, open the Resource Comments section and click the Filter button. Then, change the Resource filter to All.

Review and Approve

If you see a warning message that an import has started, the Resource Comments section in the right panel doesn't appear.

If you close the warning message, the Resource Comments section appears.

Review and Approve

When you view a Review, the default Resource filter in the Resource Comments panel on the right is the first resource in the list; if you make a comment on a resource later in the list, the comment will not appear.

To fix the problem, you must open the filter form (click the Filter button in the Resource Comments toolbar) and choose All from the Resource filter drop down box.

Model import

When using the Rational Software Architect import engine to import workspaces with Rational Team Concert projects, the import engine must be configured with an appropriate installation of Rational Team Concert.

Make sure you click Browse for the Eclipse Installation Directory field in the Rational Software Architect Import Engine window; then, select the Rational Team Concert installation directory.

Model import

Marking models are not supported in Rational Collaboration Architecture Management. Attempting to import a marking model alongside marked models may result in unpredictable behavior.

If you have models that have corresponding marking models, make sure these marking models are not included in the same project(s) that you are importing onto the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management model server.

Model import

On the Windows Vista platform, the import engine may appear to be lacking an importEngine.log file, which records logging information. Otherwise, the import engine may appear to be functioning properly.

This problem is caused by the fact that the import engine is running as a user that does not have permission to create files in the install directory of the import engine (usually <drive letter>/Program Files/RSAImportEngine).

If you do not see the importEngine.log file on Windows Vista, use one of the following steps workarounds. However, make sure you stop any running import engines before you try one of the following two solutions:

  • Start the import engine as the "Administrator" user, which is done by right-clicking on the Start Import Engine item in the Windows Start Menu and choosing the Run as Administrator option. This command is only available to users that have the Administrator password.
  • Run import_engine.exe with "-logfile=<path_to_log_file_and_the_file_name>" and "-startengine" parameters to set a location where the current users has permissions to create the log file.

Jazz Project Area Management

The basic process template does not contain any rules; therefore, any user can update or edit any comment that has been added to a resource.
You can apply the Default process template to a new project if you want to explore the various roles offered within this beta.

Server Shutdown Command

Occasionally, the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management server will take a while (5 minutes) to shut down even after running the shut down command.

Do not shut down the server directly using the operating systems process management tools (For example, Windows Task Manager or the Linux 'kill' command). Instead, wait approximately 5 minutes.

Logging

When logging into the web client and attempting to access a project area with a user (that has appropriate permissions), an error sometimes appears stating the resource does not exist or the user does not have privileges. Most of the time it seems to navigate correctly; however, intermittently the error will appear and requires the user to go back and try to access it again.

Log out and log back in to correct the problem.

Default viewlets using Internet Explorer

You may notices that some viewlets do not load correctly using Internet Explorer.

Remove the default viewlets, and then add them back again.

Setup and Configuration Process

When you get to the Finalize Application setup wizard page, when you click the Finalize Application button, the setup and configuration wizard does nothing. The finalize process will progress through the steps; however, if some of the steps fail, it may be because you need to enable popups for this server.

If this problem occurs, enable popups on the server, and run through the setup and configuration wizard again.

Setup and configuration process

When you create an ADMIN user in the setup and configuration wizard, occasionally, this user ID may not have the appropriate permissions specified so you can create an import definition.

If you notice that this user ID does not have permissions to create an import definition or access a personal dashboard, make sure the user ID has the JazzUsers role and Collaborator license.

Setup and Configuration Process

After you run through the setup and configuration wizard for the model server, you may notice pathmap-related warnings when you try to import model resources to the server. The import warning may state that pathmaps to UML_PROFILES and UML_LIBRARIES are not set.

After you run through the setup and configuration wizard, restart the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management model server to prevent warnings related to pathmaps.

Jazz Team Server Project Areas

When you log into /jts/admin as an administrator to create a new project area, when you click on Application Administration -> Architecture Management -> rmps - Project Areas, the resulting page is blank.

If this problem occurs, complete the following steps:
  1. Clear your browser's cache.
  2. Close the browser.
  3. Restart the browser.
  4. Login to the web (/rmps/web), and then navigate to /rmps/admin.
The new project area should appear.

Snapshots

You may notice that a snapshot that was requested as part of an import may appear to have completed successfully on the snapshot status page; however, the snapshot may actually be empty.

To work around this problem and create a correct snapshot, you can request the snapshot again manually through the Models menu.

Known limitations

The following table contains known problems and limitations:

Known limitation Additional information

Model import

Do not import models concurrently. The Reimport and overwrite all resources check box located on the Request Import page should not be used during an import.

There is a potential for data loss if this check box is selected.

Review and Approve

When creating a new review and adding a resource (for example, a Main diagram) to it, when you hover the mouse over the resource information icon, it displays 'More Information is not available".

This problem only happens on WebSphere Application Server only. On Tomcat, this information was displayed.

Review and Approve; email notificiation

When you create and save a review on the server, the link in the review email opens XML rather than the Review page on the server. The link that appears in the review email is not formed correctly and should redirect to the Review page.

 

Review and Approve

When you go to the Models > Review page, a review is created. Without saving a review, it is created anyway and appears in the Reviews viewlet.

You can use the delete button to remove any unnecessary reviews.

Review and approve - email notification

When you create a review, an email is sent to all participants that states the word "Null" in the subject line. A more meaningful subject should appear instead.

 

Context-Sensitive Help (F1 Help)

The IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management Server Context-Sensitive Help does not work; it is working in the Collaboration Client extension within Rational Software Architect.

 

Relationship diagram

There is no way to save a relationship diagram, even though an asterisk appears indicating the diagram has been modified and should be saved.
When you click the Cancel button, you really are just closing the relationship diagram.

Snapshots

The snapshot name and description cannot contain the characters <, >, & or %.

 

Team Modeling view within Rational Software Architect

You cannot open deployment topologies from the Team Modeling view within Rational Software Architect with the Collaboration Client installed.

 

Email notification within Rational Software Architect

You can receive email notification when a change occurs to a specific model element on a IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management server. You can enable email notification by selecting the desired model element and pressing the Subscribe button on the main tool bar. However, email subscription is currently not working from the Collaboration Client extension within Rational Software Architect. To receive email notification, you must subscribe through the web UI.
 

Setup and Configuration Process

During the setup and configuration process, make sure you assign the "Collaborative Architecture Management - Collaborator" or "Collaborative Architecture Management - Functional User" licenses to the new administrator user.
 

Setup and Configuration Process

On the Summary page of the Setup and Configuration wizard, you can click 1. Create Users or 2. Administer the Server to give you a jump start in setting up your project area or administering the server. The problem, if you click either of these links, there is no way to go back into the wizard and click Finish. The behavior of the wizard is confusing; however, once you arrive at the Summary page, the server is truly setup and configured even though you never click Finish. If you click Finish (without clicking 1. Create Users or 2. Administer the Server, you are redirected to a page where you can administer the server.
 

IBM Development and Test Cloud Domain units

Units from the "IBM Development and Test Cloud Domain" are not currently supported in Rational Collaboration Architecture Management deployment diagrams.

Diagrams containing these elements will fail to load.

Rational Software Architect 8.0.1 sketches and sketch shapes do not import into the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management server.

 

Restarting the server using a remote tool

If you restart the server using a remote tool, some diagram images may not load correctly.

 

Reporting bugs or problems with the beta

To report a bug or problem with the beta, use the contact information posted on the IBM Rational Collaborative Architecture Management wiki:

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