> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kinetica.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# 6.1 Release Notes

## APIs

* The Python API can be installed from
  [PyPI](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/gpudb)

* Database [backups](/content/admin/backup_restore) possible while the
  system is still online

* The [/wms](/content/api/rest/wms_rest) endpoint has had numerous enhancements:

  * Support for tables with multiple geospatial columns
  * Additional `RASTER` and `CB_RASTER` mode options
  * The ability to use a default class for the `CB_RASTER` mode

* The Java API BulkInserter will automatically retry any failed inserts to
  attempt to handle errors automatically

* The `PIVOT` operation is enabled via the
  [/aggregate/groupby](/content/api/rest/aggregate_groupby_rest) endpoint options `pivot` and
  `pivot_values`. See [Pivot](/content/concepts/pivot) for more information

* The `UNPIVOT` operation is enabled via the new
  [/aggregate/unpivot](/content/api/rest/aggregate_unpivot_rest) endpoint

## Cloud Deployment

* Marketplace instances with proper licensing and monitoring hooks are now
  available for AWS and Azure
* An auto-launcher for AWS and Azure has been developed to allow users to
  "bring your own license" and set cluster size parameters for easy button
  deployment

## Connectors

* [Spark Connector](/content/connectors/spark_guide) redesigned to focus on
  massive parallel ingestion performance
* [FME Connector](/content/connectors/fme_kinetica_format) now supports all native
  data types and null values

## Core

* Column-based compression now available for most data types to
  reduce the size of data in memory
* [Dictionary Encoding](/content/concepts/dictionary_encoding) now available to reduce memory usage for
  low-to-medium cardinality fixed-length string columns
* Multi-table [joins](/content/concepts/joins) performance has been enhanced
* A variety of date/time, conversion, aggregation, and math
  [functions](/content/concepts/expressions) have been added
* Result tables from the [/aggregate/groupby](/content/api/rest/aggregate_groupby_rest),
  [/aggregate/unique](/content/api/rest/aggregate_unique_rest),
  [/aggregate/unpivot](/content/api/rest/aggregate_unpivot_rest),
  [/create/projection](/content/api/rest/create_projection_rest), and
  [/create/union](/content/api/rest/create_union_rest)
  operations are now updatable and can exist as in-memory tables or as persisted
  tables
* The size limit for [primary keys](/content/concepts/tables#primary-key) has been increased to 160
  bytes
* The ability to specify a new [shard key](/content/concepts/tables#shard-key) in a result table is
  available

## Geospatial

* By moving to a new *OpenGL* Framework architecture, geospatial
  visualizations--most notably polygon and line geometries with high vertex
  counts, scatter plots, and complex graphs or charts--have been greatly
  improved
* 2D Chart rendering has also been accelerated
* Added the highest priority filters and
  [geospatial functions](/content/location_intelligence/geo_functions) as
  defined by ST\_Geometry to enhance geospatial processing
* Geospatial columns are now fully supported
* Spatial joins via [Expressions](/content/concepts/expressions)

## Installation / Management

* The *Kinetica* deployment process has been simplified. The
  [Kinetica Administration Application (GAdmin)](/content/admin/gadmin) interface handles all deployment administration,
  even across multiple nodes.
* The new [Host Manager](/content/admin/host_manager) service is an independent supervisor
  process that manages several processes that are part of *Kinetica*, restarting
  them automatically should they fail unexpectedly. *Host Manager* also
  helps investigate problems and monitor cluster-wide performance.
* A new [Job Manager](/content/admin/job_manager) feature monitors all incoming jobs for
  *Kinetica* and maintains request ordering across the nodes in your Kinetica
  cluster. *Job Manager* can assist in cancelling extremely long or stalled
  jobs.
* *GAdmin's* user interface has been overhauled to provide a more user-friendly
  experience, including inline documentation, [APIs](/content/api), and
  driver links/downloads; access to [SQL Query Tool](/content/admin/gadmin/query#gadmin-sql); and
  simplification of [cluster administration](/content/admin/gadmin/cluster). Also,
  *GAdmin* is now compatible with Internet Explorer.

## Reveal

* Time series reports are now filterable
* The roles and permissions model for non-admin users has been improved to
  provide a better out-of-the-box experience

## Security

* [Reveal](/content/bi/reveal) and
  [ODBC](/content/connectors/sql_guide) are now integrated with the *Kinetica*
  authorization system
* *Kinetica* now supports mapping database roles to LDAP/Active Directory
  groups
* Database auditing capability per user and per endpoint has been significantly
  improved
* Additional settings have been added to the *ODBC* client and server
  configuration files to allow for a more comprehensive setup

## SQL

* All new [geospatial functions](/content/location_intelligence/geo_functions)
  have been exposed for SQL usage

* Operations: `INSERT`, `CREATE TEMP TABLE AS`, `CREATE VRAM TABLE AS`

* Functions: `KI_SHARD_KEY`

* Data type: `DATETIME`

* New KI hint that enables specifying a Job ID tag to assist in cancelling the
  job if necessary: `KI_HINT_JOBID_PREFIX(x)`

* Additional alterable properties available:

  * `ALTER TABLE ... SET ... COMPRESSION [TO compression_type]`
  * `ALTER TABLE ... SET [ACCESS MODE|PROTECTED]`
  * `ALTER TABLE ... [SET SCHEMA | MOVE TO] ...`

* Schema/collection alteration from SQL is now supported; operations available:

  * `ALTER [SCHEMA | COLLECTION] ... ALLOW HOMOGENOUS [TABLES] <TRUE | FALSE>`
  * `ALTER [SCHEMA | COLLECTION ] ... SET PROTECTED <TRUE | FALSE>`
  * `ALTER [SCHEMA | COLLECTION] ... RENAME TO ...`
  * `ALTER [SCHEMA | COLLECTION] ... SET TTL ...`

* Support for equality of lists, e.g.,

  ```
  SELECT *
  FROM calcs
  WHERE (str, num) = ('FURNITURE', 12.3);
  ```

## User-Defined Functions (UDFs)

* Performance enhancements to accelerate output table creation
* Improved GPU multi-tenancy by including GPU usage metrics data structure
* *Deepchem* package added to the *User-Defined Function* runtime environment
* A [UDF simulator](/content/udf/simulating_udfs#udf-simulator) script is packaged with the Python API
  that allows you to simulate running any type of UDF (*Java*, *C++*, or
  *Python*) without the UDF having to be created in the database