What's new for administrators in HCL Commerce Version 9.0.0.0

As an administrator you install, configure, and maintain HCL Commerce and the associated software and hardware. Learn about the new features and functionality offered by HCL Commerce that will help you be successful in performing your administrative tasks.

This section describes the new additions and changes within only the initial HCL Commerce Version 9.0.0.0 release. For more information about new additions and changes for HCL Commerce Version 9 that are available through update packages, see:

For more information about update packages, including how HCL Commerce releases update packages, see Maintenance.

Deployments

HCL Commerce Version 9 uses Docker to make the set up, deployment, and management of commerce system environments quick and easy. Now deployment engineers (IT, organizations) can configure development, and test environments in a matter of hours with more automated processes and intervention. Installing new instances is fast and error free and upgrading to new releases is seamless. These enhancements give your business the agility that is needed to seize market opportunities, launch sites, and innovate the customer experience more quickly than ever before.

HCL Commerce Version 9 is packaged as Docker images (except the database server). These Docker images run on the Docker engine, which can be built on xLinux systems that support Docker. HCL Commerce Version 9 Docker images are built with Docker Community Edition(CE), while the images can deploy on compatible Docker editions, including Docker CE and Docker Enterprise Edition (EE). By using Docker images, you can benefit from reduced time to install and configure, easier maintenance, and less computing resource waste.

The adoption of Docker in HCL Commerce Version 9 drives many related changes:

Important: The concept of instance is eliminated from the HCL Commerce Version 9 deployment procedure. HCL Commerce Version 9 does not support creating instances with Configuration Manager. Because HCL Commerce Version 9 is docker based, a new concept of environment is introduced. A HCL Commerce Version 9 environment plays the same role as an instance in HCL Commerce Version 7 and 8. That mean, if you want to create multiple instances with HCL Commerce Version 7 or 8, in HCL Commerce Version 9, deploy multiple sets of the HCL Commerce environment.

Distributed servers

HCL Commerce is modularizing into loosely coupled components. In this release, the Store server and Search server are decoupled from the larger HCL Commerce server, now called the Transaction server. This separation is along well-defined service interfaces that allow for better horizontal scaling of your e-commerce system.

HCL Commerce Version 9 evolves the traditional architecture into a microservices architecture with separate servers as Docker images. In this version, the Transaction server is separated into five major functional servers:

Transaction server

Runs the transactional business logic and APIs that serve other HCL Commerce servers. The Transaction server container where all transactional operations run. For instance, the server is used for completing the following operations:

Processing transactions from your storefront.
Processing REST calls from the store, and, if needed, routing calls between servers.
Hosting all business user and administrative tools.
Processing database and utility operations, such as to load data or rebuild the search index.

Utility server

A WebSphere Application Server-based server that runs application administration utilities. Unlike the other servers, the Utility server does not exist in the development environment.

Search server

A WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Liberty-based server that provides search engine capabilities for front end applications.

Customization server

A WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Liberty-based server that runs custom business logic in the form of xC extensions for supported components.

Store Server

A WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Liberty-based server that runs the storefront for all stores. It includes all custom storefront assets, such as JSP pages and widgets.

The separation of servers allows developers to work in parallel with fewer dependencies.

New information Learn more...

Db2 version 11

In previous versions, support was provided for the Derby database within the development environment. In HCL Commerce Version 9.0, Derby is no longer supported. All environments now require an IBM Db2 or Oracle database.

New information Installing the IBM Db2 database.

Oracle Database 12c, Oracle Database 18c, and Oracle Database 19c

In HCL Commerce Version 9.0, both the development environment and the runtime environment support Oracle Database 12c, Oracle Database 18c, and Oracle Database 19c.

New information Installing and configuring Oracle Database.

Security

In HCL Commerce Version 9, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is enabled and used by default. In previous versions the use of AES was optional.

All security related utilities are now run from the Utility server Docker container. In previous releases, utilities were run from the command-line on the HCL Commerce server.

In previous versions, the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console was used for security related configuration. HCL Commerce Version 9 does not provide the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console. As an alternative, use scripts to configure security on the application server.

Migration

In HCL Commerce Version 9 a tool is provided to help you migrate from EJB beans to JPA. For more information, see Migrating IBM Websphere Commerce Version 8 EJB entity beans to Java Persistence API.