KNIME Server Release Notes and Update Guide

For a list that includes the new Analytics Platform 4.6 features see here.

Highlighted new functionality is:

A detailed changelog for KNIME Server 4.15 is also available.

There are new re-execution capabilities in widgets that are similar to the capability previously only provided via the Refresh Button Widget node. Data teams can now be more flexible with the UX of their data apps and build in automatic re-execution upon value change in certain widgets.

The current WebPortal has been the default since KNIME Server 4.12. In order to remove legacy dependencies, the old WebPortal has been completely removed from this release.

Data and IT teams can now provide inference workflows as a service with KNIME Edge. Applying models on the edge is a technical solution for a number of requirements, including reducing costs, minimizing latency, increasing reliability, and enabling deployment of inference services in multiple geographic regions.

The WebPortal login page has been redesigned to match the overall look and feel of KNIME WebPortal. In addition, it can be themed the same way as the WebPortal itself. To learn more about how to modify the look of KNIME WebPortal, refer to the Theming section of the KNIME WebPortal Administration Guide.

It is now possible to change the default for the Skip execution if previous job is still running option when creating schedules. This is controlled via two configuration settings:

com.knime.server.action.schedule.force_skip_execution=<true|false>: Specifies the default value for Skip execution if previous job is still running for scheduled job execution in KNIME Analytics Platform. This only works for KNIME Analytics Platform 4.5 or higher. The default value is false.

com.knime.server.action.schedule.enable_skip_execution_checkbox=<true|false>: Specifies if the option Skip execution if previous job is still running for scheduled job execution is enabled in KNIME Analytics Platform. This only works for KNIME Analytics Platform 4.5 or higher. The default value is true.

In addition, it is now possible to enforce minimum password requirements in case the integrated database is used for authentication:

com.knime.server.auth.min.password.length=<value>: Specifies the minimum length that is required for user passwords. The default value is `-1, which means no minimum password length. This configuration option is only relevant when using the internal user database.

com.knime.server.auth.complex.passwords=<true|false>: Specifies if complex passwords should be enforced. A complex password contains at least one lower-case character, one upper-case character, one number, and a non-alphanumeric character. The default value is `false. This configuration option is only relevant when using the internal user database.

KNIME Server 4.14.0 requires Java 11 to run. In case you are already using an older version of KNIME Server and it is still running on Java 8, please first update to Java 11 JDK, and then update the JAVA_HOME variable in the systemd configuration file (Linux), or in the service properties (Windows), or in the setenv script (setenv.sh on Linux, setenv.bat on Windows) located under knime_server/[apache]/bin (if no service is used.)

Even though all the data on the Server should be preserved during the update it is highly recommended to create a backup of all important data (see KNIME Server Administration Guide for backup information).

Start by downloading the following files and make sure that the owner of these files is your KNIME user:

Next backup these files before starting the update process:

Then follow these steps:

If possible, start the executor installation in graphical mode (using the correct installation user!). If you have internet access, go to File → Update KNIME… and it will suggest updating to the new version. Follow the steps in the wizard. If you don’t have direct internet access, you must download the zipped update sites from the commercial downloads page. Then register the ZIP files in File → Preferences → Install/Update → Available Software Sites and go to File → Update KNIME…​

Under Linux, if you cannot start the graphical user interface, you can use the update-executor.sh script that is in the root of the executor installation.

Call the script on the command line and provide a list of update sites that contain the new versions of the installed extensions and all installed extension will be updated (given that an update is available):

If you get error messages when executing update-executor.sh about missing "installable units", make sure that you have provided all necessary update sites.

If you want to selectively update only certain extensions, you have to build the update command yourself. An update is performed by uninstalling (-u) and installing (-i) an extension at the same time:

For the given command, the parameters have the format specified in the Installing additional extensions section of the KNIME Server Administration Guide.

The KNIME Server license continues working with the new Server. If you haven’t received a license file or if it is not working correctly, please contact KNIME support or your dedicated KNIME account manager.

KNIME Server 4.11 introduced an integrated message broker for communication between KNIME Server and KNIME Executor, based on Apache Qpid (https://qpid.apache.org/). This can be thought of as using an architecture that corresponds closely to distributed KNIME Executors, but runs on a single host, which is used by both KNIME Server and KNIME Executor.

Unlike distributed KNIME Executors, it is not necessary to install a separate message broker such as RabbitMQ. Instead, Apache Qpid is bundled as part of all KNIME Server installations. New installations of KNIME Server use Qpid by default. Older installations might still use RMI, which has been removed with KNIME Server 4.13.

If you are still using RMI, you need to switch your installation to Qpid. Changes are required in two locations:

Due to a change in Tomcat responses sent by KNIME Server 4.11 and 4.12 are not compressed even though compression is configured in the server.xml. In order to enable compression again, you have to add the attribute noCompressionStrongETag=false to all <Connector> elements in your server.xml, e.g.

If you create a new server installation using the KNIME Server Installer for 4.13.0 this attribute will be added automatically.

One important step during update process is the backup of the knime.xml file so that it can be copied back into the KNIME Server installation folder. The knime.xml file contains a secret key for encrypting the communication between the server and the installation folder. If this is not restored before starting the server, the server will not be able to load jobs and schedules previously created.

This is a known bug when updating from a KNIME Server version 4.11.1. This bug is fixed starting with KNIME Server version 4.11.2.

To solve the issue you need to follow these steps:

If this solution does not work, please contact KNIME support team via support@knime.com

The KNIME Analytics Platform client with which you are connecting to the KNIME Server and with which the server was built needs to have a lower or equal version to the KNIME Executor. If this is not the case, please ask your KNIME Server Administrator to update the KNIME Server and/or KNIME Executor to the release version of the KNIME Analytics Platform client you are using locally.

Starting with KNIME Analytics Platform version 4.2, which is the KNIME Executor version for the KNIME Server 4.11 we are, by default, not allowing access to the local file system on the KNIME Server via the new File Util nodes. You can enable this again as described here.

Please note that this only affects nodes that are part of the revised file handling framework.

Please update the knime-tomcat.jar as described in the Application server update section. This must be done before restarting the KNIME Server.

Eclipse does not remove old or uninstalled plugins from the hard disk unless garbage collection is run. This may cause unused plugins and jar files, such as log4j, to continue to persist on the hard disk even if they are unused. To remove the old plugins, including unused versions of log4j run the following command inside the KNIME Executor directory.

(released June 15, 2022)

(released July 27, 2022)

(released September 21, 2022)

(released November 23, 2022)

(released February 1, 2023)

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(released December 15, 2023)