InterSystems Supported Platforms Update Feb-2023

Welcome to the very first Supported Platforms Update!  We often get questions about recent and upcoming changes to the list of platforms and frameworks that are supported by the InterSystems IRIS data platform.  This update aims to share recent changes as well as our best current knowledge on upcoming changes, but predicting the future is tricky business and this shouldn’t be considered a committed roadmap.

We’re planning to publish this kind of update approximately every 3 months and then re-evaluate in a year.  If you find this update useful, let us know!  We’d also appreciate suggestions for how to make it better.

With that said, on to the update…

IRIS Production Operating Systems and CPU Architectures

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

• Recent Changes
  • IRIS 2022.1.2 adds support for RHEL 9.0.  9.0 is a major OS release that updates the Linux Kernel to 5.14, OpenSSL to 3.0, and Python 3.9
  • IRIS 2022.2.0 removes support for RHEL 7.x.  RHEL 7.9 is still supported in earlier versions of IRIS.
• Upcoming Changes
  • RHEL 9.1 was released in November, 2022. Red Hat is supporting this minor version only until RHEL 9.2 is released, so InterSystems will not be adding 9.1 as a supported platform.
  • RHEL 9.2 is planned to be released in late Q2, 2023 and Red Hat is planning to support 9.2 for 4 years.  InterSystems is planning to do additional testing of IRIS on RHEL 9.2 through a new process we’re calling “Minor OS version certification” that is intended to provide additional security that a minor OS update didn’t break anything obvious.
  • RHEL 8.4 extended maintenance ends 5/31/2023, which means that IRIS will stop supporting this minor version at that time as well.
• Further reading: RHEL Release Page

Ubuntu

• Recent Changes
  • IRIS 2022.1.1 adds support for Ubuntu 22.04.  22.04 is a major OS release that updates the Linux Kernel to 5.15, OpenSSL to 3.0.2, and Python 3.10.6
  • IRIS 2022.2.0 removes support for Ubuntu 18.04.  Ubuntu 18.04 is still supported in earlier versions of IRIS.
  • IRIS 2022.1.1 & up containers are based on Ubuntu 22.04.
• Upcoming Changes
  • Ubuntu 20.04.05 LTS and 22.04.01 LTS have been recently released.  InterSystems is planning to do additional testing of IRIS on 20.04.05 LTS and 22.04.01 LTS through a new process we’re calling “Minor OS version certification”.  We’ll have more on these “Minor OS version certifications” in a future newsletter.
  • The next major update of Ubuntu is scheduled for April, 2024
• Further Reading: Ubuntu Releases Page

SUSE Linux

• Recent Changes
  • IRIS 2022.3.0 adds support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4.  15 SP4 is a major OS release that updates the Linux Kernel to 5.14, OpenSSL to 3.0, and Python 3.9
• Upcoming Changes
  • Based on their release rhythm, we expect SUSE to release 15 SP5 late Q2 or early Q3 with support added to IRIS after that.
• Further Reading: SUSE lifecycle

Oracle Linux

• Recent Changes

  • IRIS 2022.3.0 adds support for Oracle Linux 9.  Oracle Linux 9 is a major OS release that tracks RHEL 9, so it, too, updates the Linux Kernel to 5.14, OpenSSL to 3.0, and Python 3.9
• Upcoming Changes
  • Oracle Linux 9.1 was released in January, 2023.
• Further Reading: Oracle Linux Support Policy

Microsoft Windows

• Recent Changes
  • We haven’t made any changes to the list of supported Windows versions since Windows Server 2022 was added in IRIS 2022.1
• Upcoming Changes
  • Windows Server 2012 will reach its end of extended support in October, 2023. If you’re still running on the platform, now is the time to plan migration.
• Further Reading: Microsoft Lifecycle

AIX

• Recent Changes
  • We haven’t made any changes to the list of supported AIX versions since AIX 7.3 was added and 7.1 removed in IRIS 2022.1
• Upcoming Changes
  • InterSystems is working closely with IBM to add support for OpenSSL 3.0.  This will not be included in IRIS 2023.1.0 as IBM will need to target the feature in a further TL release.  The good news is that IBM is looking to release OpenSSL 3.0  for both AIX 7.2 & 7.3.
  • IBM released AIX 7.3 TL1 in December and certification is in progress.
  • The next TL releases are expected in April.
• Further Reading: AIX Lifecycle

Containers

• Recent Changes
  • We are now publishing multi-architecture manifests for IRIS containers.  This means that pulling the IRIS container tagged 2022.3.0.606.0 will download the right container for your machine’s CPU architecture (Intel/AMD or ARM).
  • If you need to pull a container for a specific CPU architecture, tags are available for architecture-specific containers.  For example, 2022.3.0.606.0-linux-amd64 will pull the Intel/AMD container and 2022.3.0.606.0-linux-arm64v8 will pull the ARM container.
• Upcoming Changes
  • We will phase out the arm-specific image names, such as iris-arm64 in favor of the multi-architecture manifests in the second-half of the year.
  • We will also start to tag the preview containers with “-preview” so that it’s clear which container is the most recent GA release.

IRIS Development Operating Systems and CPU Architectures

MacOS

• Recent Changes
  • We haven’t made any changes to the list of supported MacOS versions since we moved to MacOS 11 in IRIS 2022.1
• Upcoming Changes
  • We’re planning to add support for MacOS 13 in 2023, perhaps as early as IRIS 2023.1.

CentOS

• We are considering removing support for CentOS/CentOS Stream.  See reasoning below.
• Red Hat has been running a developer program for a few years now, which gives developers access to free licenses for non-production environments.  Developers currently using CentOS are encouraged to switch to RHEL via this program.
• CentOS Stream is now “upstream” of RHEL, meaning that it has bugs & features not yet included in RHEL.  It also updates daily, which can cause problems for developers building on the platform (to say nothing of our own testing staff).
• We haven’t made any changes to the list of supported CentOS versions since we added support for CentOS 8-Stream and removed support for CentOS 7.9 in IRIS 2022.1

Caché & Ensemble Production Operating Systems and CPU Architectures

• Recent Changes
  • Cache 2018.1.7 adds support for Windows 11

InterSystems Supported Platforms Documentation

The InterSystems Supported Platforms documentation is source for definitive list of supported technologies.

• IRIS 2020.1 Supported Server Platforms
• IRIS 2021.1 Supported Server Platforms
• IRIS 2022.1 Supported Server Platforms
• IRIS 2022.3 Supported Server Platforms
• Caché & Ensemble 2018.1.7 Supported Server Platforms

… and that’s all folks.  Again, if there’s something more that you’d like to know about, please let us know.