RCE 10.4.0 (December 20, 2022)

Workflow Integration Editor (Workflow as Component)

• Implementation of a graphical editor to guide users through the workflow integration process
  • Supports the integration ("wrapping") of a complete workflow or parts of a workflow as a component by
    • selecting the workflow file in the Project Explorer or
    • selecting components of a workflow in the Workflow Editor
  • The usual metadata can now be added to integrated workflow components: version, icon, group, documentation, description, limit parallel execution, contact information
  • A specific workflow editor supports removing/deselecting individual connections or components that should not be part of the integrated workflow
  • Inputs and Outputs of the integrated workflow component can be selected and individually renamed
  • Context-sensitive help supports the user during the integration process
  • Integrated workflow components can be edited again after integration

Command Parser

• Reworked the infrastructure that parses and executes console commands (e.g. "wf run ...")
  • Command parsing is now done centrally, which allows for better help output and behavior
  • In particular, commands have a consistent way of defining parameters now; list parameters are also handled more consistently
  • Named parameters and flags are now accepted in any order
  • Added support for more specific help output, e.g. "help wf"
  • More parts of the command help output are now generated automatically, improving consistency
  • Likewise, the command reference in the User/Developer Guide is now generated directly from code, improving consistency
• Please note that some of the new help descriptions are not completely reviewed yet; this will be improved in the next releases

Event Log (Preview)

• Added a first draft of the RCE Event Log, which is meant to give users and administrators a concise and helpful overview of relevant events in an RCE instance
  • This preview does not cover all planned event types yet; in particular, workflow and component/tool execution is not fully covered yet
  • For this reason, there is no prominent Event Log access in the GUI yet - this will be added in a future release
  • To access the preview data, see the "Event Log" section in the User Guide

Optimization Algorithm API

• The optimization algorithm documentation has been completely revised, completed and added to the Optimizer Component help
• Several methods have been added to the API
• New GUI options have been added to display the algorithm properties on different setting tabs if desired

Third-Party Artifact Management

• In the near future, we will split our project repository into two parts: One primarily containing custom code and files, and one containing third-party artifacts, to allow more lightweight development and independent versioning. Internal changes have been made to support this.
• Additionally, internal changes were made to improve future flexibility regarding third-party libraries, e.g. for specialized RCE distributions.

Internal Network Connection

• Redesigned the "Add Network Connection" dialog, including an explicit option for reconnecting after a disconnect

Update/Security Information for RCE Releases

• Added a single point of reference for update recommendations and known security issues to our website at https://rcenvironment.de/update-status.html
  • This is intended for users and administrators and will be updated whenever new information becomes available
  • This page also provides Java runtime (JRE) version compatibility information

Other Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed a bug in the Component Palette that caused inconsistent behavior after renaming custom groups
• Fixed a bug concerning the update behavior on the Fault Tolerance tabs
• Fixed a bug affecting the filter behavior in the Workflow Console view
• Fixed a bug that caused incorrect saving behavior of some configurations when adding network connections
• Some minor fixes in the Script, Design of Experiments, Optimizer and Output Writer Component
• Fixed Linux specific GUI issues (invisible checkmarks; table columns could not be restored after resizing to zero width)
• Fixed a bug that leads to incorrect calculations of total steps within the Parametric Study component
• Fixed non-standard JSON comments in example and reference configuration files
• Added support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography SSH keys for outgoing connections; for technical reasons, this is not supported for incoming connections yet
• Added support for XML namespaces to the mapping features of CPACS components
• The Optimizer's algorithm selection has been updated to no longer allow invalid configurations for discrete design variables
• In some dialogs, better feedback is now provided when the ok button is disabled (e.g. add/edit Input/Output dialogs)
• Removed deprecated 'Remote Workflow Access' example and documentation content
• Various minor fixes, general documentation and usability improvements

Internal and Technical Changes

• Updated Checkstyle and its configuration
• Added support for rendering documentation content (User/Developer/Admin Guides and integrated Eclipse Help) from AsciiDoc sources
• Third-party library upgrades
  • Upgraded ActiveMQ to 5.16.5
  • Upgraded Jackson Core and Jackson Databind to 2.14.0
  • Upgraded SSHD to 2.9.1
  • Upgraded JSch fork by mwiede to 2.4.0
  • Upgraded Commons-Codec to 1.15
  • Upgraded Commons-IO to 2.11.0

RCE 10.3.1 (February 23, 2022)

Application Infrastructure

• Fixed a bug where rapidly starting multiple RCE profiles in parallel could interfere with
  each other and cause startup errors. While this was virtually impossible to trigger
  in normal usage, it could affect automated/scripted RCE deployments.
• Improved the logging system, improving its robustness during startup and possibly its
  performance in situations where log entries could be written rapidly, e.g., during workflow
  execution on busy servers.

GUI

• Fixed an issue where opening the tool integration wizard directly from the context menu of
  a workflow component was not possible if the component was previously renamed.
• Fixed an error where the workflow execution validation report dialog could not be opened
  when running RCE with Java 11.

Third-Party Libraries

• Migrated to log4j 2.x (from 1.x, which is EOL). While there were no known security issues
  in log4j 1.x that affected RCE, we still recommend upgrading as a general precaution.

Other

• Merged typo fixes (GitHub pull request 39)
• Internal preparations for improved command-line parameter handling
• Fixed minor internal issues
• Updated year references to 2022

Security / EOL Policy

We are preparing a formalized policy regarding RCE releases and their security/EOL status;
see https://rcenvironment.de/clarification-of-our-version-support-eol-policy.html for more
information. Until we finalize this policy and establish a permanent place for related
information, we define this as the preliminary security/EOL status of RCE releases:

• Minimum RCE version including all security fixes/upgrades ("security baseline"): 10.3.1
• Minimum recommended version for significant bugfixes/improvements: 10.3.1
• Explicit, immediate end-of-life (EOL) versions: 10.1.0 or older

While we do not have a formalized EOL date for RCE versions 10.1.1 to 10.3.0 yet, we
always recommend upgrading all installations to the minimium security baseline.

RCE 10.3.0 (December 9, 2021)

Palette View

• Implementation of a new workflow palette with the following features:
  • By default, all components are sorted into the top-level groups 'Standard Components', 'User Integrated Tools' and 'User Integrated Workflows'
  • Groups and subgroups can be added, edited and deleted
  • Workflow components can be moved into custom groups
  • Workflow components can be reset to their default group
  • The "Manage Custom Groups" dialog allows users to organize their user-defined groups, especially when components are not available on the network
  • Empty groups can be hidden in the palette
  • Additional component information can be displayed in a dedicated dialog
  • A filter mechanism enables the search for components
  • The component help (F1) can be opened directly from the palette

System Monitoring

• Major rework of the System Monitoring (CPU/RAM usage information) feature, including fixes and performance improvements

Network View

• Added a "Show configuration snippet" feature
  • Selecting this from the context menu of a connection shows a dialog containing an auto-generated configuration block ("snippet")
  • This snippet can copied into the main JSON configuration file to make the connection persistent
• Minor bug fixes in the Network View

Tool Integration

• A new parameter "comment" has been added for tool properties of integrated tools in order to give the workflow designer some more information about this property
• Added export functionality for the tool documentation to the Properties view

Workflow Components

• Design of Experiments
  • Minor gui improvements in the properties view for the method selection
  • Minor bug fixes when using the Design of Experiments component
• VampZero Initializer
  • Set the component to deprecated

Command Console

• Added 'wf start' command to start a workflow without waiting for its termination

Security and Third-Party Libraries

• Upgraded Apache SSHD (SSH/Uplink server port) to 2.7.0
• Upgraded Bouncy Castle (Cryptography) to 1.69
• Upgraded Cucumber (QA library) to 1.2.6
• Upgraded Ant (QA dependency) to 1.10.12

Documentation

• Added description of setting up RCE as a systemd service to the Administrator Guide
• Moved description of setting up RCE as a Windows services from the User to the Administrator Guide
• Various improvements in the Administrator Guide, especially regarding Uplink

Other

• Reduced the volume of debug.log messages on Uplink relay (server) instances
• Added internal property "rce.eventLogOutput" to redirect event log output to the console (value "stdout" or "stderr") or to a different file (value "file:")
• Added CPU, RAM, PID, and JVM version information to the event log on startup
• Some mior fixes concerning the undo behaviour
• The validator of the Input Provider has been improved
• Fixed a bug in the runtime view of the Optimizer that resulted to NaN values when data was saved
• Minor fixes, documentation and usability improvements

RCE 10.2.4 (August 19, 2021)

Network / Uplink

• Fixed a server-side issue that could cause lockups in low-bandwidth situations
• Reduced internal memory consumption per file transfer on relay servers
• Improved message prioritization (e.g. file transfers having lower priority than tool announcements)
• Fixed a server-side issue where client connections failing their heartbeat check were not closed correctly
• Fixed a client-side issue where tools received over an Uplink connection could sometimes be forwarded to other users in the local network even with the "Gateway" flag off; not a security issue as those tools were still only visible to users with proper authorization, and could not be executed
• Fixed a rare client-side issue where file transfers could stall indefinitely on the sender side; also reduced memory consumption
• Improved log output

Network / Other

• Fixed SSH connections retrying to login with the same password after the first attempt fails

Workflow Execution

• Fixed a rare issue where a local tool could be incorrectly rejected by the "allowed to execute" mechanism

RCE 10.2.3 (May 10, 2021)

Network

• Uplink: Added network message prioritisation and improved file upload/download behavior
  to prevent timeouts in low-bandwidth situations
• Uplink: Adjusted protocol parameters (e.g. increased timeouts) to further improve stability
• Uplink: Fixed bugs causing rare stability issues on client and server side
• Uplink: Improved client-side GUI behavior regarding connect/disconnect/retry
• Improved logging of various network events, mostly on server side
• Reduced the volume of low-level SSH events being logged

Components

• Optimizer: Fixed a bug that prevents the generic optimizer to fail for design variables of type vector
• Optimizer: Fixed a bug in the generic optimizer get_start_value() API command that returned None

Other

• Minor documentation fix regarding component versions
• Minor metadata, code, and JavaDoc cleanup

RCE 10.2.2 (Feb 04, 2021)

Network

• Fixed a memory leak in the handling of incoming SSH/Uplink connections (present in RCE 10.2.1)

Library Changes

• Upgraded Apache POI to 4.1.2 to fix a security issue
• Upgraded XMLBeans to 3.1.0 (transitive dependency)

Documentation

• Added missing flag --expose in documentation of wf integrate

RCE 10.2.1 (Dec 08, 2020)

Network (SSH, Uplink, and Remote Access Connections)

• Improved event.log entries: added more information, especially regarding login
  events and opening/closing connections, and reduced the number of events;
  fixed cases where the end of a session was not always logged
• Lowered timeout of SSH connections from 10 minutes to 1 minute for technical
  reasons; Note that this also affects interactive SSH sessions
• Set an explicit limit of three login attempts per connection (currently hardcoded)

Library Changes

• Upgraded OSHI to version 4.9.5, fixing a memory leak in long-running RCE instances
• Removed the obsolete dom4j 1.x library

Documentation

• Rewrote section on installation in user guide to better explain
  signature handling

Other

• Extended validity of RCE signing key (unchanged fingerprint: 0xBA880CB39DC1CE34,
  new expiration date: December 2, 2022)
• Reinstated commands keytool and sysmon, which were unavailable in 10.2.0
  by accident
• Minor bugfixes

RCE 10.2.0 (Nov 11, 2020)

Network

• Improved handling of (experimental) Uplink connections, improving robustness
  and preventing cases where account/client id combinations could remain blocked
  after disconnecting.
• Improved reliability of the Uplink network connection GUI.
• Changed GUI behavior (for all connection types): Double-clicking a network
  connection now triggers a connect/disconnect instead of opening the edit dialog.

Components

• Switch: Made it possible to configure multiple inputs, outputs and conditions
• Output Writer: Added a configuration option to allow overwriting files and
  directories if necessary
• Output Writer: Fixed validation and minor GUI bugs
• Design of Experiments: Fixed/improved validation messages

Scripting (General)

• Extended the Script API so that Python input parameter files can be written during
  workflow runs ("Input File Factory"), including tool pre/post scripts.

Python Agent

• Script: Added the first version of the experimental "Python Agent" option. Instead
  of starting a new Python interpreter on each execution, this option starts a
  long-running Python process that executes scripts on demand. This can significantly
  speed up workflows that use a lot of individual scripts.

Workflow as Component

• (experimental) Added a first version of Workflow as Component, a feature that allows
  wrapping and publishing whole workflows as virtual components/tools. Please
  note that this feature is currently only available via console commands. GUI
  support is planned in future releases.

Administration

• Added the first version of a compact "event log" in the profile directory.
  This file gives a concise overview of relevant system events, for example connection
  attempts or disconnects. Currently, this is mostly useful for server instances. The
  number of events being logged will be expanded in future releases.

• (experimental) SSH accounts can now be edited at runtime through a separate
  configuration which is reloaded on changes. This feature will be documented when it
  is considered stable, as some details are still subject to change. If you want to
  use this already, please contact us for details.

Other

• Adapted the deprecated SSH Remote Access API to make a C/C++ library using it
  work with RCE 10.x again.
• Deleted outdated developer documentation
• Minor other bugfixes
• Minor documentation improvements

RCE 10.1.1 (July 01, 2020)

Network

• Fixed a rare issue with Uplink connections that caused remote tool execution to fail

Security and Third-Party Libraries

• Upgraded to Jackson 2.11.1, Bouncy Castle 1.65.01, ActiveMQ 5.3.13,
  Apache SSHD 2.5.0, and Commons Collections 4.4

Other

• Minor documentation fixes

RCE 10.1.0 "Green Monkey" (May 11, 2020)

Profile Management and UI

• Added recently used profiles to the default profile selection menu
• Fixed bug in the profile selection menu that the correct versions will be displayed for recently used profiles
• Fixed bug when upgrading profiles

Data Management

• Added warning in case of directory names that are not valid on all platforms
• Fixed bug in the output writer that the file extension will be transferred correctly

Tool Integration

• Fixed bug in the tool execution that occured on Windows for "execution commands" that begin and end with a quotation mark
• Made integration more robust against errors in individual integrations

Workflow Example Project

• Added example file for CPACS 3

Monitoring

• Replaced the previously used SIGAR library with the more up-to-date OSHI library
• Updated the displayed information about RCE subprocesses to platform changes

Miscellaneous

• Removed irrelevant log output on startup and shutdown
• Fixed minor GUI bugs
• Fixed a bug in "wf graph" console command

Internal Improvements

• Updated the reference checkstyle version to 8.30
• Updated Maven-checkstyle-plugin to 3.1.1
• Updated Easymock to 4.2
• Improved source compatibility with recent versions of Eclipse
• Added "Automatic-Module-Name" bundle headers