Determination Anywhere 2025.04 release notes
Read this release note alongside the Determination release notes, which give updates to the core tax engine, which includes logic modifications and regulatory adjustments. These updates extend to the tax engine within Determination Anywhere.
Release highlights
With Determination Anywhere version 2025.04, we have made enhancements to the DA Store app and the standard DA Cloud app. Changes specific to the DA Store app are labeled accordingly, while all other updates apply to both apps unless explicitly stated otherwise.
New features
DA Store App - File Based Support (1681326)
With DA 2025.03 release, we introduced the “DA Store” app, designed for deployment in limited infrastructure environments, such as those found in brick-and-mortar stores. This app operates efficiently – requiring less than 1 CPU and approximately 2 GB of RAM for the tax engine, as well as less than 1 CPU and around 0.5 GB of RAM for the sync module – per Pod within the cluster.
In that version, the DA Config Sync Client component, responsible for managing tax content and configuration changes synced from the DA Mothership (or DA Hub), supported JDBC-reliant databases, specifically MariaDB, for file storage before the tax engine utilized the data.
With the new release, the DA Sync Client can support file system storage for those customers who don’t maintain databases within their store infrastructure. This provides greater deployment flexibility for our customers while maintaining consistent performance.
DA Store App – Version Controlled Tax Content and Config Sync (1375879)
We’ve listened to our customers' requests for greater control over tax content releases and the application of updates on the DA Client side. With the introduction of the DA Store app, customers can now manage the tax content and configuration versions synced to DA more effectively.
Until a UI screen is implemented, please coordinate with your PS Managed Services team to pause new content updates from reflecting on the DA side. This will allow you to test the updates within DA before turning on the new version for the active transactional DA tax engines.
DA Store App – Optimize Memory Usage (1691116)
The memory requirements for the DA Store app have been further optimized while ensuring tax engine performance remains unaffected. Given the reduced memory capacity of physical store infrastructure and the high-performance demands during checkout, the DA Store app has been fine-tuned to meet these requirements.
As of this release, the app supports a minimum of 800 millicores of CPU and 2 GB of RAM to run the tax engine pods within the cluster.
note
There is an ongoing effort to further reduce CPU usage to 600 millicores in future updates.
DA Store App – Transaction Sync (1562166)
The DA Store app now supports the collection of transactional data processed by the tax engine within a file system, enabling synchronization of this data to the Thomson Reuters (TR) DA Mothership. This “audit” data is then made available for reporting in NGRA. Data synchronization is facilitated by two key components – the Transaction Sync Client and the Calc Call History Sync Client.
To ensure continuity during network outages, the file system must be configured to retain data for multiple days, letting the DA Client side to resume synchronization once communication with the TR DA Mothership is restored. Please coordinate with your PS Managed Services team to ensure the setup aligns with your business outage requirements.
note
A future release will enable transaction synchronization to JDBC-enabled components (database).
DA Store App – Telemetry Sync (1581669)
Similar to the synchronization of transaction data with the TR side, the DA Store app now supports the collection and syncing of telemetry data from both the DA Client and DA Hub. This telemetry data captures critical performance metrics from the DA Client side, feeding into central monitoring systems to enhance visibility into component operations, enabling early issue identification and resolution.
In addition to being accessible through APM (Application Performance Management) tools, this telemetry data will also be available in the DA Dashboard UI on Enterprise Cloud, providing comprehensive monitoring capabilities.
note
- Pods set up for sync clients will require separate memory and CPU allocation.
- Currently, all four sync clients – Transaction, Calc Call History, Telemetry, and Config – run in a single Pod, with each client requiring approximately 500 MB of RAM.
- We plan to consolidate all sync clients into a single Container within a Pod, improving system resource utilization and streamlining app image distribution.
- The Config Sync client is mandatory, while the other sync modules are optional. Customers can disable any optional sync modules if not required, reducing system resource consumption.
DA Store App – Data Validation & Reconciliation on DA Client (1519584)
In addition to data verification processes for tax content and configuration data on the TR DA Mothership side, the DA Client now incorporates data validation and reconciliation processes to ensure the integrity of synced data.
- Validation – makes sure that synced data is a valid cache and can run successfully within the tax engine. This occurs on the DA Config Sync Client and the tax engine(s).
- Reconciliation – verifies that the cache loaded into the tax engine remains uncorrupted over time by comparing it against the originally created file.
Validation occurs in real time as data syncs to the client side, while reconciliation can be scheduled based on customer preferences. However, it is recommended to run reconciliation during off-peak or offline hours to optimize memory utilization and avoid impacting transaction processing.
Both processes log errors, and alerts can be integrated with APM tools. If an error occurs, restarting the tax engine pod is advised to reload the latest cache.
note
With this release, any changes to tax content or configuration will only take effect in the tax engine after a tax engine pod restart, which can be scheduled during offline hours. A future release will introduce a parallel cache loading mechanism – eliminating the need for restarts – provided sufficient memory and CPU are available to run the process alongside ongoing transactions.
Advanced Authentication – DA Client to Mothership on OCI (1026342)
For DA Mothership components running on OCI (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure), authentication between DA Client components and the DA Mothership previously relied on Cognito-based authentication. However, basic authentication credentials are easily decoded and provide limited protection against unauthorized access.
To enhance security, APIGEE-based authentication has now been introduced, offering client-side token generation, rate limiting, and alignment with TR’s enterprise security standards.
Transaction Data Residency + Audit Data Sync (1409805)
Data Residency allows customers to redirect transactional data to their own systems for reporting, rather than syncing it back to TR. Previously, DA supported either data residency (to Object Storage, such as S3) or audit functionality, but not both simultaneously.
With this release, customers can now leverage both capabilities – DA supports data residency while simultaneously enabling transaction data sync for auditing and reporting on the TR side. The Transaction Sync Client manages data delivery to either location.
Please coordinate with your PS Managed Services team to enable data residency.
note
For customers who only require data residency without transaction sync, the Transaction Sync Client setup is not necessary. In such cases, the data residency flow can be enabled directly from the tax engine component.
DA Container – Environment Variable Customization (1683958)
Previously, implementing client-specific customizations required temporary container shell commands or direct chart modifications, leading to deployment inconsistencies and maintenance challenges. There was no support for defining custom environment variables through configuration overlays.
In this release, support for custom environment variables has been added, including the “extraEnv” parameter, enabling seamless integration with third-party monitoring tools. This enhancement ensures stable and consistent deployments without modifying core application code.
Fixes
The topics here describe previously known issues fixed with this release.
TransEditor Groups Affecting Tax Calculations (1742807)
The TransEditor (TE) Group check-in/check-out process was causing TransEditors to be excluded from the tax calculation. This issue stemmed from incorrect caching logic applied to both TEs and TE Groups within the tax engine. The update now modifies the caching mechanism so that TE Groups are retrieved from the database – mirroring the existing approach used for individual TEs.
Security vulnerabilities (1678838)
We have successfully identified and resolved high and critical vulnerabilities in the DA Client components, as flagged by our security tools. As part of this effort, Tomcat and Spring security libraries within DA have been updated to their latest versions.
Additionally, Gradle lock files have been implemented, and CI/CD pipelines have been enhanced with additional security verification steps to further strengthen the system's security posture.
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Determination Anywhere
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