The following tables provide information about the types of changes that you can make within a release, the release types, and the release management process to follow based on the types of changes that you want to deploy.
Types of changes within a release
| Change type | Technical changes | Activates by access group | Activates immediately | Activation requires restart | Release frequency | Requires a Support Request (Pega Cloud Services only) |
| Rules (including non-rule-resolved rules) | Rule- Rule-Application-Rule Rule-Obj-Class Rule-Ruleset-Name Rule-Ruleset-Version Rule-Access-Role-Obj Rule-Access-Deny-Obj | Yes | Yes | No | Daily/Weekly | No |
| Data instances | Data- | No | Yes | No | Weekly | No |
| Dynamic system settings | Data-Admin-System-Settings | No | YesCertain dynamic system settings activate only on system restart and require you to follow the Environment release process. | NoCertain dynamic system settings activate only on system restart and require you to follow the Environment release process. | MonthlyCertain dynamic system settings activate only on system restart and require you to follow the Environment release process. | No |
| Functional | Rule-Utility-Function Rule-Utility-Library | Yes | Yes Treat functional changes that reference code as a Code release, which requires a system restart to activate if you are making code changes. - Change type – This column lists the high-level category of changes that you can make in a release.
- Technical changes – Technical changes describe the rule types or artifacts for a change type. Rule- and Data- include all subtypes under that parent type, unless specifically identified for a different change type.
- Activates by access group – Rule resolution for this change type is controlled by the access groups of an operator.
- Activates immediately – Rule resolution uses this change type immediately after deployment.
- Activation requires restart – This change type requires a system restart before it is available to the rule resolution process.
- Release frequency – Release frequency indicates the period in which you can deploy this type of change to production.
- Requires a Support Request (Pega Cloud only) – As a Pega Cloud customer, you are responsible for any application changes that you make; however, as a best practice, inform and engage Pega Support before releasing application changes. You can open a Support Request on My Support Portal. For more information, see My Support Portal FAQ.
| No Treat functional changes that reference code as a Code release, which requires a system restart to activate if you are making code changes. - Change type – This column lists the high-level category of changes that you can make in a release.
- Technical changes – Technical changes describe the rule types or artifacts for a change type. Rule- and Data- include all subtypes under that parent type, unless specifically identified for a different change type.
- Activates by access group – Rule resolution for this change type is controlled by the access groups of an operator.
- Activates immediately – Rule resolution uses this change type immediately after deployment.
- Activation requires restart – This change type requires a system restart before it is available to the rule resolution process.
- Release frequency – Release frequency indicates the period in which you can deploy this type of change to production.
- Requires a Support Request (Pega Cloud only) – As a Pega Cloud customer, you are responsible for any application changes that you make; however, as a best practice, inform and engage Pega Support before releasing application changes. You can open a Support Request on My Support Portal. For more information, see My Support Portal FAQ.
| Monthly | Yes |
| Data model | SQL | No | Yes | No | Monthly | Yes |
| Code | Java JAR file Java .class file | No | No | Yes | Monthly | Yes |
| Environment | Changes outside of Pega (JVM, XML configuration) | No | No | Yes | Quarterly | Yes |
Understanding release types
| Release type | Activates for users | Application users affected | Significant UX impact | Release frequency | New application version | Self-service | Requires a Support Request (Pega Cloud only) |
| Bug fix | Immediately | All | No | Daily | No | Yes | No |
| Standard release | On access group update | By access group | No | Weekly | Yes | Yes | No |
| Database release | Immediately | All | No | Monthly | Yes | No | Yes |
| Code release | After restart | All | No | Monthly | Yes | No | Yes |
| Environment release | After restart | All | No | Quarterly | Yes | No | Yes |
| Major release | Per change type Activation of a Major release occurs based on the change types that the release contains. For information about how each change type is activated, see Table 1. - Release type – This column lists the high-level category of releases that you can deploy.
- Activates for users – This column indicates when this release type takes effect for users.
- Application users affected – This column provides the scope of application users that see the effect of this release type.
- Significant UX impact – This release type might require users to significantly relearn a process or has significant layout changes.
- Release frequency – This column provides the frequency of this type of release.
- New application version – This column indicates whether you must create a new application version for this release.
- Self-service – A user with appropriate permissions can execute this release type using the Pega Platform, and a Pega System Administrator is not required to roll back changes.
- Requires a Support Request (Pega Cloud Services only) – As a Pega Cloud Services customer, you are responsible for any application changes that you make; however, as a best practice, inform and engage Pega Support before releasing application changes. You can open a Support Request on My Support Portal. For more information, see My Support Portal FAQ.
| Per change type Activation of a Major release occurs based on the change types that the release contains. For information about how each change type is activated, see Table 1. - Release type – This column lists the high-level category of releases that you can deploy.
- Activates for users – This column indicates when this release type takes effect for users.
- Application users affected – This column provides the scope of application users that see the effect of this release type.
- Significant UX impact – This release type might require users to significantly relearn a process or has significant layout changes.
- Release frequency – This column provides the frequency of this type of release.
- New application version – This column indicates whether you must create a new application version for this release.
- Self-service – A user with appropriate permissions can execute this release type using the Pega Platform, and a Pega System Administrator is not required to roll back changes.
- Requires a Support Request (Pega Cloud Services only) – As a Pega Cloud Services customer, you are responsible for any application changes that you make; however, as a best practice, inform and engage Pega Support before releasing application changes. You can open a Support Request on My Support Portal. For more information, see My Support Portal FAQ.
| Yes | Quarterly | Yes | No | Yes |
Understanding the process to follow based on types of changes
| Does your release contain the following changes? | Follow this release process | Requires a Support Request (Pega Cloud Services only) |
| Rules | Data instances | Dynamic system settings | Functional | Data model | Code | Environment | Significant UX impact | | |
| X | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | Bug fix | No |
| X | X | X | X | - | - | - | - | Standard release | No |
| - | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | Database release | Yes |
| - | - | - | - Treat functional changes that reference code as a Code release, which requires a system restart to activate if you are making code changes. - Rules – Are you deploying Rules- records in this release?
- Data instances – Are you deploying Data- records in this release?
- Dynamic System Settings – Are you loading Data-Admin-System-Settings records in this release?
- Significant UX impact – Will users need to significantly relearn a process, or are there significant layout changes?
- Code – Are you loading JAR files as part of this release?
- Data model – Are there changes to your data model in this release (SQL)?
- Environment changes – Will there be operating system or application server changes in this release?
- Follow this release process – Based on your answers to these questions, follow this release process.
- Requires a Support Request (Pega Cloud Services only) – As a Pega Cloud Services customer, you are responsible for any application changes that you make; however, as a best practice, inform and engage Pega Support before releasing application changes. You can open a Support Request on My Support Portal. For more information, see My Support Portal FAQ.
| - | X | - | - | Code release | Yes |
| - | - | - Certain Dynamic System Settings activate only on system restart and require you to follow the Environment release process. | - | - | - | X | - | Environment release | Yes |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Major release | Yes |
