Chapter 1. Red Hat Decision Manager versioning

Major releases of Red Hat Decision Manager include substantial enhancements, security updates, bug fixes, and possibly redesigned features and functions. Data migration is typically required when an application is moved from one major release to another major release, such as from Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6.4.x to Red Hat Decision Manager 7.0. Automated migration tools are often provided with new major versions of Red Hat Decision Manager to facilitate migration, but some manual effort is likely required for certain data and configurations. The supported migration paths are specified in product announcements and documentation.

For example migration instructions, see Migrating from Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6.4 to Red Hat Decision Manager 7.0.

Minor releases of Red Hat Decision Manager include enhancements, security updates, and bug fixes. Data migration may be required when an application is moved from one minor release to another minor release, such as from Red Hat Decision Manager 7.5.x to 7.6. Automated update tools are often provided with both patch updates and new minor versions of Red Hat Decision Manager to facilitate updating certain components of Red Hat Decision Manager, such as Business Central, KIE Server, and the headless Decision Manager controller. Other Red Hat Decision Manager artifacts, such as the decision engine and standalone Business Central, are released as new artifacts with each minor release and you must reinstall them to apply the update.

Before you upgrade to a new minor release, apply the latest patch update to your current version of Red Hat Decision Manager to ensure that the minor release upgrade is successful.

Patch updates of Red Hat Decision Manager include the latest security updates and bug fixes. Scheduled patch updates contain all previously released patch updates for that minor version of the product, so you do not need to apply each patch update incrementally in order to apply the latest update. For example, you can update Red Hat Decision Manager 7.5.0 or 7.5.1 to Red Hat Decision Manager 7.5.2. However, for optimal Red Hat Decision Manager performance, apply product updates as they become available. Occasionally, Red Hat might release unscheduled patch updates outside the normal update cycle of the existing product. These may include security or other updates provided by Red Hat Global Support Services (GSS) to fix specific issues, and may not be cumulative updates.

Automated update tools are often provided with both patch updates and new minor versions of Red Hat Decision Manager to facilitate updating certain components of Red Hat Decision Manager, such as Business Central, KIE Server, and the headless Decision Manager controller. Other Red Hat Decision Manager artifacts, such as the decision engine and standalone Business Central, are released as new artifacts with each minor release and you must reinstall them to apply the update.