v1.4.3 Release Notes - August 26, 2019

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What's New in Hyperledger Fabric v1.4.3
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The following features are included in this release:

FAB-15388: Node OU certificate support for admin identities.
FAB-12620: Node OU certificate support for orderer nodes.

Node OUs are now supported for admin and orderer identity
classifications (extending the existing Node OU support for clients and peers).
These "organizational units" allow organizations to further classify identities
into admins and orderers based on the OUs specified in their x509 certificates.
This feature requires v1.4.3 'channel' capability to be enabled so that all
orderer and peer nodes identify administrators consistently.
Peers need to be updated to version v1.4.3 before channel administrators
update a channel to v1.4.3 channel capability.
Organizations that wish to take advantage of the new capability
will need to update their MSP information in the channel configuration.
For more details see:
https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-1.4/msp.html#identity-classification

Important Fixes
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FAB-16292 Fix nil pointer exception upon gossip peer expiration

There was an issue introduced in v1.4.2 where peers participating in channels with
gossip enabled may crash with a nil pointer exception, if another known peer goes down
for several minutes (when using default aliveExpirationTimeout peer configuration
of 25 seconds). To work around the problem on v1.4.2, automatically restart
the peer process if it goes down, or configure a large value for aliveExpirationTimeout
(peer environment variable CORE_PEER_GOSSIP_ALIVEEXPIRATIONTIMEOUT) to completely
avoid the problem until peer can be upgraded to v1.4.3.

FAB-16114 - v1.4.2 private data application capability enablement requires peer restart

Prior to the fix, enablement of the v1.4.2 application capability required
a peer restart to become effective. Since the v1.4.2 application capability
changes how peers disseminate private data for invalid transactions, peers
that have not been restarted after the application capability has been
updated on the channel may not disseminate the data to peers that are
attempting to pull the private data upon block commit. The pulling peers
may therefore get stalled while pulling private data.
The remedy on v1.4.2 requires restarting any peer that participates
in private data dissemination, after v1.4.2 application
capability has been enabled on a channel.
Starting in v1.4.3, the application channel capability becomes effective upon
processing the configuration block update, without requiring a peer restart.

FAB-16327 Fix service discovery with orderer endpoints configured at organization level

v1.4.2 introduced orderer endpoint configuration at the organization level
('OrdererEndpoints' stanza). Prior to the fix, if orderer endpoints are configured
only at the new organization level, and not at the global 'Orderer.Addresses'
level, then service discovery is not able return the channel configuration with the
orderer endpoints.
With the v1.4.3 fix, service discovery functions correctly even if orderer endpoints
are configured only at the organization level.

FAB-16089 Use latest npm version of ccenv image

In the ccenv image that is used to build node.js chaincode, npm is updated to
the latest version. This resolves issues from prior npm versions, such as
the ability to include 'prepare' statements in node.js chaincode
package.json.

Changes, Known Issues, and Workarounds
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FAB-12088 - Java chaincode support on s390x architecture
Java chaincode support is not available on s390x architecture.

FAB-12134 - Same chaincode source receiving fingerprint mismatch error
Chaincode installed in different ways may result in "chaincode fingerprint
mismatch data mismatch" error upon instantiation. This may happen when
installing chaincode by using different SDKs. To workaround the problem,
package the chaincode prior to installation and instantiation, by using
the "peer chaincode package" command.

Known Vulnerabilities
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FAB-8664 - Peer should detect and react when its org has been removed
This is a relatively low severity problem, because it requires a significant
conspiracy of network admins, but it will be addressed in a future release.

Resolved Vulnerabilities
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None.

Deprecations
------------
The following functions are deprecated and are targeted for removal in a future release.

Support for automatically vendoring the chaincode shim into user chaincodes.
The fabric-ccenv image which is used to build chaincode, currently includes
the github.com/hyperledger/fabric/core/chaincode/shim ("shim") package.
This is convenient, as it provides the ability to package chaincode
without the need to include the "shim". However, this may cause issues in future
releases (and/or when trying to use packages which are included by the "shim").
In order to avoid any issues, users are advised to manually vendor the "shim"
package with their chaincode prior to using the peer CLI for packaging and/or
for installing chaincode.
For more details see FAB-5177.

Support for CAR chaincode package format
Support for packaging chaincode using the CAR format will be removed in
a future release.
For more details see FAB-14720.

Support for specifying orderer endpoints at the global level in channel configuration.
Utilize the new 'OrdererEndpoints' stanza within the channel configuration of
an organization instead.
For more details see FAB-7559.

Support for invoking system chaincodes from user chaincodes.
System chaincodes, for example QSCC, are intended to be invoked by
a client rather than by a user chaincode. Invoking from a user chaincode
may cause deadlocks.
For more details see FAB-15285.

Support for user chaincodes to utilize the chaincode shim's logger via NewLogger().
Chaincodes that used the shim's NewLogger() will need to shift to their own preferred
logging mechanism.
For more details see FAB-15366.

Support for peer's Admin service.
The peer's Admin service exposes APIs such as GetLogSpec() and SetLogSpec().
Instead of using these services, utilize the HTTP operations service that was
introduced in v1.4.0.
For more details see FAB-15390.

Support for Solo ordering service.
With the introduction of Raft-based ordering service in v1.4.1, it is possible
to deploy a single-node (non-production) or multi-node
Raft-based ordering service with no external dependencies.
For single-node (non-production) ordering services, utilize Raft-based ordering
service with a single node instead of Solo ordering service.
For more details see FAB-15754.

For the full list of improvements and fixes, refer to the release change log:
https://github.com/hyperledger/fabric/blob/release-1.4/CHANGELOG.md#v143