We are thrilled to announce the release of Rocket® UniData 8.4.1 on May 20, 2026 a feature rich release designed to boost observability, application modernization, performance monitoring, security, and replication reliability.
Whether you’re a developer, administrator, or part of an ops team, this release delivers meaningful improvements that help you build smarter, run faster, and operate with confidence.
Let’s explore what’s new!
Observability Takes Off: OpenTelemetry (Phase 1)
Gain deeper, actionable insights into UniData workloads with the initial release of OpenTelemetry (OTEL) support. Delivering immediate observability value today and establishing a solid foundation for future monitoring and observability enhancements, including:
- A new OTEL licensing flag to enable OpenTelemetry functionality.
- Updates to the confprod and confcmd commands for the OTEL flag.
BASIC Language Enhancements
Try/Catch Error Handling
This new feature paths the way in providing modern and resilient control of error flow in UniBasic applications, with:
- A new TRY/CATCH language construct.
- Plus new options to control runtime behaviour:
- Treat fatal errors as exceptions.
- Control whether the debugger is entered on unhandled exceptions.
Dynamic Objects with Native JSON Support
You can now streamline and modernize application integrations using enhanced object handling.
- UniBasic now supports dynamic objects, enabling more flexible data handling.
- With the BASIC debugger updated to work seamlessly with dynamic objects.
Compiler Directives
New compiler directives enable conditional compilation for version‑specific or feature‑specific logic.
New predefined compiler variables include:
- UniData version identifiers
- TRY/CATCH support detection
- Object and local call capabilities
UniData Performance Monitoring (udtpm) – Now on Windows
The udtpm performance monitoring tool has officially landed on Windows, bringing capabilities once limited to UNIX platforms.
Allowing you to:
- Gain granular visibility into user activity and system performance across Windows systems.
- Use --findpath option to quickly identify full file paths.
Replication Improvements
Replication in 8.4.1 is more robust and comprehensive.
- Sequential I/O support
- BASIC operations such as OPENSEQ and WRITESEQ on published files are now replicated.
- The Replication protocol level has been upgraded to 10011.
- Replication tooling enhancements now report additional configuration values.
Note: Systems must be protocol‑level compatible when upgrading.
Security & Encryption Enhancements
Security gets an upgrade across the board:
- OpenSSL upgraded to version 3.5.
- Improved validation of encryption key lengths.
- Enhanced error messaging for encryption and decryption failures.
- Secure HTTP requests now include SNI (Server Name Indication) by default.
Platform & Runtime Upgrades
- Python upgraded to version 3.13, bringing performance and security improvements.
- AIX builds now use the IBM Open XL C/C++ compiler.
Licensing & Configuration Updates
- Subscription licenses now expire at midnight, improving alignment with subscription‑based licensing models.
- New configuration options improve:
- Debugging
- Auditing
- Runtime diagnostics.
Plus Even More Improvements
- Expanded and clearer error messages across:
- ADE
- RFS recovery
- UniBasic runtime
- Improved auditing output and reporting tools
- Query language enhancements, including support for FROM list# clauses
- Numerous usability, diagnostics, and documentation‑driven improvements
Why wait? Upgrade to Rocket® UniData 8.4.1 today and take advantage of modern observability, developer productivity, performance monitoring, and operational reliability. Whether you’re modernizing applications, improving diagnostics, or strengthening replication and security, this release delivers meaningful value.
You can download Rocket® UniData 8.4.1 from Rocket Business Connect (RBC).
Want to learn more? UniData 8.4.1 documentation is now available online, or contact your Sales representative.
Rocket® MultiValue maintains a standard Product Lifecycle policy. To view the lifecycle for your version of UniData, review the lifecycle dates and statuses on the Product Availability Matrix (PAM).
For more information on future UniData releases and to collaborate with fellow UniData users, please visit the Rocket® U2 | UniVerse & UniData® forum.
