Written by practitioners · from real IBM ELM projects

IBM Lifecycle Query Engine (LQE) 7.0.3 with SQL

By Bartosz Chrabski23 Nov 20233 min read

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We are thrilled to update you on the progress of the Report Builder 7.0.3 Beta, a venture IBM embarked on earlier this year. The user productivity enhancements, which streamline the management, scheduling, and exporting of reports, are on track for a timely release with IBM Engineering 7.0.3 later this year.

Updated October 2026The relational store described below as a beta has since become the main LQE data store. The ELM 7.0.3 documentation covers configuring the LQE relational database connection and states that LQE rs supports only data warehouse databases created with Db2 or Oracle; Derby databases are not supported. From ELM 7.1 onwards, IBM documents the LQE relational store as the default data storage, replacing LQE Apache Jena, and JRS 7.1 added the option to enable the relational store during Jazz Team Server setup. In ELM 7.2.0, Jena-based storage is no longer supported. IBM asks teams that still use LQE Jena to migrate and validate their reports on ELM 7.1.0 SR1 or a later 7.1.0 iFix before upgrading to 7.2.0. Sources: LQE relational database connection (ELM 7.0.3), Installing and enabling LQE relational store (ELM 7.1), Upgrading to ELM 7.2.0 with LQE rs (IBM Support).

Excitingly, IBM is also introducing another reporting beta, aimed at optimizing the scalability of the Jazz Reporting Service (JRS) Lifecycle Query Engine (LQE) while concurrently reducing the system resources required for LQE’s data store. Since its inception, LQE has relied on Apache Jena to store engineering lifecycle data for reporting with Report Builder and Engineering Insights. Although Apache Jena has been a reliable choice, its file-based nature introduces scaling limitations and demands significant system resources, especially in terms of RAM.

Organizations managing numerous projects and applications have experienced scaling constraints with Apache Jena. To address this, our JRS team is diligently working on a phased, measured, and easily adoptable replacement for Apache Jena. This strategic move aims to offer improved scalability without compromising performance, ensuring a seamless experience for IBM Engineering administrators and practitioners.

The LQE performs several activities to build and make available its engineering knowledge graph:

Periodically read the OSLC Tracked Resource Set (TRS) feed of each application (DOORS Next, Workflow Management, Test Management, etc.) to gather the initial set of resources from each application, as well as changes over time.
Fetch any new or changed resources from the application.
Store the resources in the LQE data store.
Calculate a unified type system metamodel for all sources and data.
Accept queries from Report Builder, Engineering Insights, or other clients and provide the requested data from the LQE data store.

JRS 7.0.3 is introducing as beta, the ability to use a relational database as the LQE data store, part of the activity, alongside the existing LQE Apache Jena (LQE Jena) data store. When this capability is configured and you author a report, you can switch between the SPARQL based query (LQE Jena) and the SQL query (LQE rs). You can also run a comparison on the report which as a result shows the difference in elapsed time and any result differences.