What’s New in Hazelcast Platform 5.4

Enterprise

Tiered Storage ensures that frequently accessed (high-hit) data remains in fast memory and less frequently accessed (low-hit) data is stored on cheaper disks. We are delighted to confirm this functionality is now generally available as an Enterprise feature.

Tiered Storage uses an in-memory index to provide faster access to map entries. A dedicated memory manager decides which entries to store in the memory tier and which to store in the disk tier. If a map entry is not accessed for some time, it is flushed or spilled to disk – if a map is frequently accessed, it stays in memory. Tiered Storage allows the cluster to hold more data than the total available RAM.

For more information on how to enable and configure this feature, see Overview.

Enterprise

A new CP Map data structure is the latest addition to our CP Subsystem. Unlike traditional maps built for availability (AP), CP Maps guarantee data consistency even during network partitions, ensuring that every member within the cluster sees the same data. CP Maps are ideal for storing sensitive information or managing mission-critical workflows.

The CP Subsystem is the Hazelcast component that builds a strongly consistent layer for a set of distributed data structures. As well as network partitions, the CP Subsystem withstands server and client failures. Hazelcast Management Center allows you to inspect the CP Subsystem as a whole – for individual data record access, you can use the Hazelcast Command Line Client (CLC).

For more information on how to use this new CPMap data structure, see CPMap.

Enterprise

Enable Thread-Per-Core (TPC) on both clients and cluster members to improve system performance, especially in environments where the number of CPU cores on your machines does not match the recommended hardware. TPC is an alternative to traditional Staged Event-Driven Architecture (SEDA) that supports easier scaling based on the number of available cores.

For more information on how to enable and configure TPC, see Thread-Per-Core (TPC).

Enterprise

User Code Namespaces provide a container for Java classpath resources, such as user code and accompanying artifacts such as property files. This helps you effectively manage access to resources in different namespaces through either static or dynamic configuration. This is an Enterprise feature that extends and replaces the now deprecated User Code Deployment functionality.

For more information on how to enable and configure User Code Namespaces, or migrate from User Code Deployment, see User Code Namespaces.

Kafka Connect Source connector is now generally available, which means that Kafka Connect sources can scale across the whole cluster instead of just a single member. For more information, see Kafka Connect Source Connectors.

Mongo SQL Connector (SQL over MongoDB) is now generally available. With the addition of security support, you can now secure your data connection with TLS when creating MongoDB mappings over SQL. For more information, see Mapping to MongoDB.

JDBC SQL Connector (SQL over JDBC) is now generally available. In addition to MySQL and PostgreSQL, the JDBC SQL connector now also supports Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server databases. For more information, see Mapping between Hazelcast and MSSQL.

Hazelcast Platform 5.4 requires Java 17 or later.

For detailed release notes that include new features and enhancements, breaking changes, deprecations and other fixes, see 5.4 Release Notes.

You can use the Hazelcast Command Line Client (CLC) to connect to and interact with clusters on Hazelcast Platform and Hazelcast Cloud directly from the command line or through scripts.

With Hazelcast CLC 5.3.7 you can now import a subset of the Java client configuration. You can also define custom template actions using advanced scripts, and add a success note when a project is created successfully.

For detailed release notes that include new features and fixes, see Hazelcast CLC 5.3.7.

To get started with Hazelcast CLC, see Installing the Hazelcast CLC.