This document provides release notes for Oracle Communications Order and Service Management (OSM) release 7.4.1.

New Features

This section describes new features and enhancements in this release.

OSM Cloud Native Deployment

OSM 7.4.1 introduces the ability to deploy, manage, and monitor OSM in a cloud native environment using container images, Kubernetes clusters, CI/CD tools, Prometheus, Grafana and other components. See "OSM Cloud Native Deployment" for further details.

New Features in OSM Traditional Deployment

This release includes the following features and enhancements in the traditional deployment of OSM:

OSM Cloud Native Deployment

You can now deploy OSM in a Kubernetes-based shared cloud (cluster). This enables you to implement modern DevOps “Configuration as Code” principles to manage system configuration in a consistent manner.

With OSM deployed in a cloud native environment, you can achieve several benefits.

The following are some benefits:
  • Choice of deployment on private cloud or public cloud infrastructure.
  • Reduced installation time and environment replication time.
  • Robust, repeatable, and auditable installation and configuration process.
  • Reduced total cost of ownership with reduced hardware utilization.
  • Reduced downtime during maintenance processes.
  • Automated recovery in case of node and pod failures to avoid outages.
  • Reduced lead time for scaling, from several weeks to a few minutes.
  • Automated system lifecycle management.
  • Faster time-to-market for new services.
OSM cloud native supports the following deployment models:
  • On Private Kubernetes Cluster: OSM cloud native is certified for a general deployment of Kubernetes.
  • On Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Container Engine for Kubernetes (OKE): OSM cloud native is certified to run on Oracle's hosted Kubernetes OKE service.

OSM cloud native provides a toolkit that includes utility scripts, Helm charts, default configuration files, and samples required to deploy OSM in a Kubernetes environment, following standard practices such as versioned Helm releases, configuration as code, and pipeline-based automation. With OSM cloud native, managing the domain configuration as code (CaC) is paramount. OSM cloud native provides guidance on effective management of this configuration to ensure that instances can be created in a standardized and repeatable fashion.

For instructions on planning and setting up your cloud native environment, see OSM Cloud Native Deployment Guide.

Also, see the following guides:

Updated Third-party Software

This release includes support for updated third-party software.

See OSM Compatibility Matrix for details.

View OSM Metrics Using Prometheus and Grafana

You can configure Prometheus to view OSM metrics. To view OSM metrics using Prometheus, you configure a scrape job in Prometheus.

OSM metrics scraped by Prometheus can be made available for further processing and visualization using Grafana.

OSM exposes metrics via Prometheus APIs.

For details about configuring Prometheus for OSM metrics and viewing metrics in Grafana, see "Managing Metrics" in OSM System Administrator's Guide.

Deploy Cartridges to the OSM DB Using XMLIE

You can deploy cartridges to the OSM DB directly using XMLIE while OSM is shut down. This approach is strongly recommended for controlled environments such as production, pre-production or UAT, and for environments managed using a CI/CD pipeline. It is also the preferred approach for semi-formal environments, such as test systems.

For more details, see "Deploying Cartridges to the OSM Database Using XMLIE" in OSM Modeling Guide.

Default Database Partition Statistics

This release provides a default database partition statistics package that you can populate the partition to improve the performance of OSM. The OSM Installer installs the shell script, the default partition statistics seed data, and SQL templates into the installation_root/Database/partition-statistic folder when installing the DB schema. For more details, "Using Default Statistics Package" in OSM System Administrator's Guide.

Configure JMS Message Persistence to Use JDBC Store

For production systems, Oracle recommends that JMS message persistence be configured to use a JDBC store rather than a file store. This is a change from older OSM releases where the recommendation was to use a file store. A key consideration is that WebLogic added support for the use of JDBC stores for tlogs in Fusion MiddleWare 12cR1. In the past, this was only possible for JMS persistence and this meant that part of the application state still had to be persisted to a file store.

For more details, see OSM Production Installation Overview in OSM Installation Guide.

Fixes in This Release

OSM release 7.4.1 includes fixes and enhancements from the patch sets included in OSM release 7.4.

In addition, OSM release 7.4.1 includes fixes and enhancements from the following patch sets:

  • Order and Service Management 7.3.0 patches up to and including 7.3.0.2.1 (patch number 29774162)

  • Order and Service Management 7.3.1 patches up to and including 7.3.1.0.13 (patch number 30088594)

  • Order and Service Management 7.3.5 patches up to and including 7.3.5.1.22 (patch number 32315344)

  • Order and Service Management 7.4.0 patches up to and including 7.4.0.0.4 (patch number 31868385)

Known Problems

For details about known issues and resolutions in OSM cloud native, see "Known Issues" in OSM Cloud Native Deployment Guide.

Order-to-Activate Cartridge Compatibility

To install or upgrade the Order-to-Activate cartridges, you must ensure compatibility between the following:

  • OSM software version and Order-to-Activate cartridge version

  • OSM Order-to-Activate cartridge version and Oracle Application Integration Architecture (Oracle AIA) Order to Cash Integration Pack for OSM version

For Order-to-Activate cartridge compatibility information, see Order-to-Activate Cartridge Product Compatibility Matrix (in the OSM Cartridges for Oracle Application Integration Architecture section of the OSM documentation) on the Oracle Help Center website: 

http://docs.oracle.com/en/industries/communications/order-service-management/index.html

Deprecated and Removed Features

This section lists the deprecated and removed features in OSM releases.

Deprecated Features in OSM 7.4.1

This section lists the deprecated and removed features in OSM 7.4.1.

Application Management Pack (AMP) Deprecated

Support for Application Management Pack (AMP) has been deprecated. However, you can still use AMP with traditional deployments of OSM. Oracle recommends using Prometheus metrics for both traditional and cloud native deployments of OSM.

Deprecated Features in OSM 7.4

The following features have been deprecated or removed from the feature set in the OSM 7.4 release:

Pie and Gantt Charts Removed

The Pie and Gantt Charts in the Process History pages have been removed from the Task Web client.

Deprecated Features in OSM 7.3.5

The following features have been deprecated or removed from the feature set in the OSM 7.3.5 release:

Customer Asset Manager and Account Manager Modules Removed

The Customer Asset Manager and Account Manager modules have been removed. Oracle recommends that you use corresponding functionality in Oracle Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) Cloud for your hybrid cloud solution.

Product Specification (was Product Class) Deprecated

The Product Specification entity (which was renamed from the Product Class entity in OSM 7.2.4), is deprecated. Existing entities are supported for backward compatibility, but new OSM product specifications (product classes) cannot be created. This functionality is replaced by the Product entity in the conceptual model.

Deprecated Features in OSM 7.3.1

The following feature has been deprecated from the feature set in the OSM 7.3.1 release.

Product Specification (was Product Class) Deprecated

The Product Specification entity (which was renamed from the Product Class entity in OSM 7.2.4), is deprecated. Existing entities are supported for backwards compatibility, but new OSM product specifications (product classes) cannot be created. This functionality is replaced by the Product entity in the conceptual model.

Deprecated Features in OSM 7.3

The following features have been either deprecated or removed from the feature set permanently in the OSM 7.3 release.

Legacy Dispatch Mode for Automation Plug-ins Removed

OSM 7.3 no longer supports automation plug-ins that have been built and deployed in Legacy dispatch mode. Only Optimized dispatch mode is supported.

Oracle Scripter Client Removed

Because the Reporting Interface is now installed by the OSM installer, the Oracle Scripter thick client is no longer necessary and has been removed.

Administrator Application Removed

Because the administrative functions previously performed by the Administrator Application are now located in the Order Management Web client, the Administrator Application is no longer necessary and has been removed.

Removed Support for Custom Order Update Orchestration Plan XQuery

The oracle.communications.ordermanagement.orchestration.generation.CreateOrder parameter has been removed from the oms-config.xml file. This parameter was internal only, and has now been removed.

Removed Support for Command-Line Passwords in XML Import/Export

It is no longer possible to pass an unencrypted password as a command-line argument to the XML Import/Export tool scripts. The -p db_password and the -clientpassword xmlAPI_password command-line arguments have been removed. In addition, the database.password and weblogic.password options in the build.properties file should not be included, and if they are included they will not be used. You must either use encrypted passwords in the config.xml file (using the EncryptPassword utility) or interactively provide the unencrypted password when prompted.

Product Specification (was Product Class) Deprecated

The Product Specification entity (which was renamed from the Product Class entity in OSM 7.2.4), is deprecated. Existing entities are supported for backwards compatibility, but new OSM Product Specifications (Product Classes) cannot be created. This functionality is replaced by the Product entity in the conceptual model.

Deprecated Features in OSM 7.2.4 and OSM 7.2.4.1

The following features have either been deprecated or have been removed from the feature set permanently in the OSM 7.2.4 and OSM 7.2.4.1 releases.

Removal of JumpTo Menu Action in Order Management Client

In the data tab of Order Management Web Client, the JumpTo menu action to move quickly to specific data is removed. Order items of large orders can be displayed in a table layout as of 7.2.0.3 (see knowledge article [Doc ID 1490196.1] for details), which saves screen space. This legacy method of navigating a large order without scrolling is no longer necessary.

Removed Support for Custom Order Update Orchestration Plan XQuery

The oracle.communications.ordermanagement.orchestration.generation.CreateOrder parameter has been removed from the oms-config.xml file. This parameter specified the default orchestration plan XQuery to create an order update. This parameter was not intended to be end-user adjustable, and has now been removed.

Improved Security in XML Import/Export

It is no longer possible to pass an unencrypted password as a command-line argument to the XML Import/Export tool scripts. The -p db_password and the -clientpassword xmlAPI_password command-line arguments have been removed. In addition, the database.password and weblogic.password options in the build.properties file should not be included, and if they are included they will not be used. You must either use encrypted passwords in the config.xml file (using the EncryptPassword utility) or interactively provide the unencrypted password when prompted.

Legacy Build-and-Deploy Dispatch Mode

Prior to OSM 7.0.3, when you built and deployed a cartridge that included automation plug-ins, OSM ran each automation plug-in in that cartridge in its own separate EAR file; this method of building and deploying automation plug-ins is now referred to as the Legacy build-and-deploy mode. Legacy mode simply refers to the manner in which automation plug-ins were deployed and executed prior to OSM 7.0.3.

You can now build and deploy a cartridge in Design Studio using the Optimized build-and-deploy mode, the current default mode; this mode improves the performance of processing of automated tasks and improves the performance of build and deployment of cartridges with automated tasks.

The Legacy build-and-deploy mode is deprecated, and it may be removed in a future release.

Deprecated Features in OSM 7.2.2

The following features have been deprecated or removed from the feature set in the OSM 7.2.2 release:

Support for HP-UX Itanium Ended

OSM is no longer supported on the HP-UX Itanium operating system. See OSM Installation Guide for details on supported operating systems.

Documentation Accessibility

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