Cascade CMS 8.17.1

Cascade CMS version 8.17.1 includes support for SQL Server 2019, new notification duration settings, and various accessibility improvements and fixes.

New driver for SQL Server installations

Cascade CMS 8.17.1 uses the Microsoft JDBC Driver for connections to SQL Server databases. The SQL Server Context template in the tomcat/conf/context.xml configuration file has been updated to accommodate the new driver.

Note - Please use the bundled context.xml configuration file when upgrading to 8.17.1 or make the necessary changes to the driverClassName and url attributes in your existing configuration file.

Potential increased upgrade time and storage requirements for SQL Server installations

Cascade CMS 8.17.1 adds support for multi-lingual/Unicode characters throughout the system in Microsoft SQL Server databases by converting columns with the data type varchar(max) to nvarchar(max). For databases with a large number of records in affected tables, particularly the cxml_mail table which stores user Notifications, this can significantly increase both the time and the database storage space required during this update.

We recommend testing the upgrade in a test environment using a copy of your production database first, to assess the time and storage space for the database and transaction log   required for it to complete.

First time installation?

Be sure to import our default database schema prior to installing Cascade CMS for the first time. Then follow the appropriate installation instructions for your environment.

Upgrade Steps

  1. Shut down your currently running Cascade CMS environment.
  2. Before you upgrade, we strongly recommend that you back-up your production database as well as set up a test environment and perform a trial run of the upgrade. All customers are entitled to a test license for this purpose.
  3. Read the release notes and upgrade guides for all releases between your version and the latest version.
  4. Check the table below to see which installer type is required.

Which installer should I use?

With certain upgrade paths, a full installation of Cascade CMS is required in order to ensure that the application has the latest required libraries. See the table below for a summary of which installer you should use based on the version from which you are upgrading. For any versions that do not require a full installation, using the ROOT.war upgrade method is allowed.

Upgrade Path
Upgrading From Full Installation Required
7.x Yes
8.0.x - 8.17 Yes

Server Requirements (for CMS deployment)

System requirements for Cascade CMS
  Requirement Notes
CPU
  • 8-core (recommended)
  • Quad core (minimum)
Cascade can be run in virtualized environments like VMware and Hyper-V.
Memory
  • 8GB RAM (recommended)
  • 6GB RAM (minimum)
It is recommended to allocate approximately 1/2 of the server’s total memory to Cascade CMS.
Hard Drive Space
  • 25GB (recommended)
  • 15GB (minimum)
 

Supported Platforms

Supported platforms for Cascade CMS.
  Supported platform(s) Supported version(s) Notes
Java platforms OpenJDK
  • OpenJDK 11.0.7
64-bit is recommended for all platforms.
Operating System Microsoft Windows Server
  • 2019
  • 2016
  • 2012 / 2012 R2
 
Mac OS X Server
  • 10.4 or later
 
Linux
  • 64-bit (recommended)
  • 32-bit
 
Databases1 MySQL
  • 8
  • 5.7
  • 5.6
 
Microsoft SQL Server
  • 2019
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2014 (deprecated)
Support for SQL Server 2014 will be removed in the next on-premise release on or after 9/25/2021.
Oracle
  • 19c
  • 18c
  • 12c
 
Web servers Apache    
Microsoft IIS    
Sun Java System Web Server   Formerly Netscape Enterprise Server.
Zeus Web Server    
Web browsers Chrome
  • Chrome 50+
 
Microsoft
  • Edge
  • Internet Explorer 11
 
Mozilla Firefox
  • Firefox 45+


Safari
  • Safari 8+


1 Support is maintained for up to 3 versions from each database vendor. When support for a new database version is added, support for the oldest version is deprecated and will be removed in the first on-premise release 6 months on or after the date of deprecation.