Updated March 21, 2019
As part of our ongoing effort to update strategic technical components, I wanted to highlight some of the changes surrounding this effort. The impact to you will depend on your infrastructure, configuration and features used. Most are items currently being worked on, so while we are telling you in advance our planned release timeframe, if something comes up during development, the timelines could change. Regardless, we wanted to give you advance notice and time to prepare and research what each means to you and your organization.
Support for SQL Server 2016 SP1 and 2017
In the RSA Archer 6.5 release, following our standard cadence of supporting the latest two versions, we’ve qualified Microsoft SQL Server 2016 SP1 and 2017. These versions provide access to innovative features related to performance, security, and analytics not previously available in Standard editions. This means that we have more tools in our toolbox to address existing issues and build innovative new features. RSA Archer’s very own James Griffith published a blog in September, which provides additional details.
Note: SQL Server versions older than 2016 SP1 are not validated nor supported in RSA Archer 6.5 or future releases.
.Net 4.7.2
The .NET Framework is the software framework that RSA Archer is built upon. We’ve been qualifying both .Net 4.6.1 and 4.6.2 for a number of releases. With the upcoming spring release, we plan to extensively test and officially Support .Net 4.7.2, the newest .Net version released earlier this year.
While the 4.6 versions will continue to be supported for previous RSA Archer releases, our spring release will only support 4.7.2. Many factors influenced this decision, from advances in security and encryption, to improvements in accessibility and new features that will be leveraged for future development.
Elasticsearch
With the release of RSA Archer 6.5, you are now able to utilize your own license and deployment of Elasticsearch, an industry leading third-party content indexing technology. It provides for highly efficient rebuilding of your search index. Let’s say you have millions of records to re-index, the time to do so drops from days to just hours. Executing complex searches is also much more efficient in retrieving the results from the data store. Currently, Elasticsearch is supported for Keyword and Global Search, with Advanced Search support on the near-term horizon.
To utilize your current Elasticsearch deployment, simply download the RSA Archer search plug-in to all applicable nodes and use the Archer Control Panel (ACP) to configure against either your single or multi-cluster Elasticsearch environment. For additional information on using Elasticsearch with your RSA Archer 6.5 release, refer to the Installation Guide and ACP Guide (see the recommendation in the Security Configuration Guide about securing your installation using a secure plug-in). If you do not have an existing deployment and want additional information, visit the Elasticsearch Web site.
Note: This integration between RSA Archer 6.5 and Elasticsearch 6.2.4 is available for on-premise customers. Availability for RSA Hosted customers is planned for a future release.
Caching Service for On-Prem Customers
What is caching used for anyway? The caching service captures metadata when a user logs into RSA Archer. Metadata is information like application details, field types, values lists, cross references, etc. It is not “content” such as record level detail information. When a user performs a search or looks at a record, instead of having to make a call to get both metadata and content, it can simply pull the metadata from the cache. The result is a drastic reduction of load on your database and the ability to support many more concurrent users.
Previous versions of RSA Archer utilized an embedded caching service that was due to be replaced. After careful analysis of customer usage patterns, customers’ existing technology inventories, the scenarios under which caching has the greatest positive impact, and the total cost of RSA Archer ownership, we have decided to change our approach in future release versions.
Beginning with the spring 2019 RSA Archer release, the caching service will no longer be provided with the product installer or be supported for prior releases. We will however support the use of a caching service for customers who obtain their own license from an external vendor.
In looking at market leading caching services, we’ve identified ScaleOut State Server (SOSS) as a premier provider. As such, they will be the first vendor with whom we complete an integration. Per market demand, we will assess additional vendor integrations to add in the future.
UPDATE: In our continued effort to identify other market leading caching providers, I am excited to announce that Redis will also be a supported integration in the spring release (RSA Archer 6.6). Redis™ has an Open Source and Enterprise offering, both of which are available for use with RSA Archer.
As underlying platform technologies advance, the RSA Archer product team will continue to improve and update the RSA Archer technology stack. We will keep you informed of these latest and future enhancements with similar blogs. Please follow our blog series and join us on the Free Friday Tech Huddles or the Virtual Roadmap sessions to learn the latest.
