Release Notes 2025.1

Redwood Software, Inc. is proud to announce the release of ActiveBatch® version 2025.1!

See the General Information section for detailed installation and upgrading steps.

 

Important Information
Support Ended For Mobile App This decision allows us to strategically focus our development resources on enhancing ActiveBatch with features that bring greater value and innovation to the majority of our user base. By streamlining our support efforts, we can accelerate the delivery of new capabilities and improvements across the platform.
Support Ending for OpenVMS on Alpha and Itanium We will no longer offer the dedicated Execution Agent for these platforms. Consider migrating your OpenVMS workloads to utilize ActiveBatch's Secure Shell (SSH) Job Steps which offers a secure and efficient way to execute commands and scripts on your OpenVMS systems.

 

 

 

Enhancements
Updated Amazon S3 Extension

The Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) extension has been expanded to support 2 new Amazon S3 operations:

  • Copy Object (copy an object from one location in S3 to another location)

  • Move Object (move an object from one location in S3 to another location)

The S3 Extension now prevents specification of a path separator in the S3 Bucket name, this prevents inconsistencies between the List and Upload operations.
New RESTful API Operations

The ActiveBatch RESTful API now supports the following new operations:

  • GET Full Calendar operation

  • GET Full Execution and Generic Queue operation

  • GET Full Job operation

  • GET Full Reference operation

  • GET Full Object List operation

  • GET Full Resource Object operation

  • GET Full Service Library operation

  • GET Full Alert Object operation

  • GET Event Service & Event Triggers operation

  • GET Completion Triggers operation
Implemented EDE Encryption for Database Password

 

The Database Password used by the Job Scheduler Service to communicate with the backend database now supports Enhanced Data Encryption (EDE) by default. A new Change Password wizard has been implemented in the management console and AbatDbPwd.exe is depreciated.
Retire “Remember Password” feature on Console and Web Console

 

 Caching the password presented a potential security risk.
New Option to set infinite timeout for SecureShellSSH Job Step

 

The default timeout for the SSH job step is now infinite to be in line with previous behavior. Users can still set #SSH.CommandTimeout to provide a specific command timeout value. Any value <= 0 will be interpreted as infinite.
Updated SharePoint Extension: Additional OAuth Functionality

 

A new option was added to all RESTV2 OAuth User Account’s for Grant Types that have a "Client Secret" field to also support "Client Assertion" (this include Client Credentials, Password, and Authorization Code grant types). This is a read-only field provided for user documentation purposes; it is generated automatically by ActiveBatch.

 

"Client Assertion" can be used instead of "Client Secret" to authenticate against an application in Azure (but has uses outside Azure as well as it is standard OAuth)

 

In order to use "Client Assertion", the user simply has to load the relevant certificate with private key for signing into the ActiveBatch RESTV2 User Account, and then the "Client Assertion" field is generated automatically by ActiveBatch signed with the certificate's private key.

 

"Client Assertion" should be used when authenticating against SharePoint Online, as "Client Secret" is not supported.
Registry Entries for Certificate Thumbprints

 

 Users can now specify the thumbprint of the target certificate in the registry configuration.
Updated Silent Installation Options

 

 New options added to supply the DEK and TK value to the ActiveBatch installer during silent install.

 

 

 

Corrections
Web Console Login Failures

 

 Resolves issue with user passwords that do not contain special characters producing "access denied to the service" error when trying to log in to the Web Console.
Saving Service Library Failures

 

Resolves issue saving Service Libraries after installing the MS Windows Oct 2024 Patch (OS Build 26100.2161).
Oracle Connection Jobs Failing

 

 

 Resolves NULL password error message when creating an LOB Oracle Adapter.

SSIS job - Specified Cast is not valid

 

 Resolves issue an issue when attempting to select the target package when populating the fields of the SSIS job step.
Databricks Cloud Authentication Issues

 

 

 Resolves issue using use the ActiveBatch Databricks extension for instances hosted outside of Azure.

DBPurge Job Deadlocks after upgrading to v2024.3.

 

 

 Resolves issue with DBPurge Jobs Failing.
Secure Variables Decryption Failure For Process Type Jobs

 

 Resolves issue where secured variables were not properly decrypting when supplied to process-type jobs. These variables are now normally evaluated.

FTP/MFT Steps do not respect regional characters

 

 

Resolves issue where FTP/MFT Job Steps were not handling Filenames containing regional characters correctly.

FTP/MFT Jobs Report Failure On Empty File Transfer

Resolves the error created when using the FTPSFTPFTPS Job to upload an empty XML file, the ActiveBatch Job fails with the Attempted to divide by zero error even in cases where the file is uploaded to the FTP server.

FTP/MFT Jobs Report Failure When Using Empty Passphrase

Resolves the issue when using Private key authentication for the MFT or legacy FTPSFTPFTPS job steps, the job fails if the passphrase for the key is left blank.

File Constraint Ignoring Selected User Account

Resolves the issue where the Runtime User Account is used instead of the User Account specified on a file constraint.
Web Console corrupts User Account objects

Resolves issue where when the description is updated on a valid User Account and you use the same object as an execution User Account, the jobs are failing with “%ABAT-E-LOGONERR, error logging user onto Execution Machine."

 

 

 

General Information

See the ActiveBatch Installation and Administrator's Product Compatibility Matrix to make sure your database and operating systems are supported in 2025.1.

 

Before you consider the upgrade process, confirm your ActiveBatch environment is running on a version that has been thoroughly tested to support the upgrade procedure. See more details below.

Note About Version Numbers

In the past, ActiveBatch major release version numbers increased by 1 (e.g. Version 11, Version 12). Last year, we released our first major-release using a new calendar-based system. It is based on the year and the quarter within the year (e.g. 2024.4).

 

This current release is numbered 2025.1 since it is being released in the first quarter of this year.

 

Currently, the various user interfaces do not display the new version numbering system; rather, you will see version 14 (our internal version number). This will change in a future release, where the UI will match the new numbering scheme. Until then:

  • 2023.3 = 14.0.1
  • 2024.2 = 14.0.2
  • 2024.3 = 14.0.3
  • 2024.4 = 14.0.4
  • 2025.1 = 14.0.5

Locating your version information

  • The thick console internal version number is displayed on AbatConsole's Start Page.
  • The Web Console internal version is displayed when clicking the About ActiveBatch icon (located at the top far-right of the UI, second from the left).
  • The Job Scheduler internal version is displayed on the Job Scheduler Information page (see Views > Job Scheduler Information).
  • The Execution Agent internal version is displayed on the Execution Queue object - see Properties > Machine Characteristics > AbatVersionId.

Upgrading from Version 2023.x to 2025.1

You can upgrade from 2023.x, 2024.x to 2025.1. This release should be treated like a service pack upgrade. For more information, refer to ActiveBatch Installation and Administrator. See the Service Packs and Installation Maintenance Operations section.

 

Upgrading from Version 12 SP9 to 2024.x

You can upgrade from Version 12 SP9 to 2024.x. You do not need to upgrade to 2023.4. To upgrade to 2024.4, your current Scheduler must be running V12 SP9. If you are not running on the latest service pack, review the following KB article: Upgrading ActiveBatch V12 to the Latest Service Pack.

 

Once you are on the latest V12 service pack, see ActiveBatch Installation and Administrator. It provides all the details required to upgrade from V12 SP9 to 2024.3. See the section named Upgrading from V12.

Upgrading from version 11 SP5 to 2024.x

You cannot upgrade from Version 11 to 2024.x directly. You must upgrade from V11 SP5 to V12 SP9 first. From there, you can upgrade to 2024.x. See the ActiveBatch Installation and Administrator's - Upgrading from V11 for more information on this topic.

 

Product End-of-Maintenance and End-of-Life

End-of-Maintenance (EOM)

The EOM date is defined as the point at which the software will no longer receive updates or bug fixes, but support will still be available to you. EOM happens 12 months after the release date, and notifications will be sent to you before that date. Updates or patches for software applications that have reached their EOM date will no longer be provided.

End-of-Support (EOS) or End-of-Life (EOL)

The EOS date is defined as the point at which the software will no longer be supported, and no further updates or bug fixes will be provided. EOS happens 18 months after the EOM date, as described in the documentation at the time of the release.

  • EOM for 2024.2 is May 29, 2025.
  • EOL/EOS for 2024.2 is October 28, 2026.
  • EOM for 2024.3 is August 29, 2025.
  • EOL/EOS for 2024.3 is March 2, 2027.
  • EOM for 2024.4 is Nov 20, 2025.
  • EOL for 2024.4 is May 20, 2027.
  • EOM for 2025.1 is February 21, 2026.
  • EOL for 2025.1 is Sept 1, 2027.

End-of-Life (EOL) for other versions

  • EOL for V11 was June 30, 2024
  • EOL for V12 was Nov 30, 2024

Contact Information

If you encounter any problems with ActiveBatch and are under the Product Warranty or post-warranty maintenance service plan, contact Redwood at support@redwood.com or visit our website at http://www.redwood.com.