Hotfix management

Hotfixes are software updates that Pega creates to fine-tune the behavior of a release of Pega Platform.

Apply hotfixes to your system with tools that are available from the user interface and the command line. To use these tools, you must have administrator rights. You can perform the same actions with all of these tools

Hotfix life cycle

At any given time, a hotfix on your system can be in one of these states:

  • Not installed – The hotfix was uploaded but is not yet installed on your system. Pega Platform cannot use the hotfix.
  • Installed but uncommitted – The hotfix is installed on your system. Pega Platform can use the hotfix, but the hotfix can be rolled back to remove it from the system.
  • Rolled back – The hotfix was installed, but has since been removed from your system. Pega Platform cannot use the hotfix.
  • Committed – The hotfix exists on your system permanently and cannot be rolled back.

Changes supported by hotfix management

The hotfix management tools support:

  • Rule changes including data instances and non-versioned rules that do not go through rule resolution
  • Code and engine changes
  • Some schema changes:
    • Adding tables
    • Adding views
    • Adding or modifying columns
    • Adding or modifying indexes

The tools do not support:

  • Changes to EAR or WAR files
  • Changes to scripts in the distribution: install, upgrade or command line scripts
  • Other schema changes not listed above