As applications grow, every database eventually hits scaling limits. Whether it's storage capacity, concurrent users, query throughput, or I/O bandwidth, single-server architectures have inherent constraints. This guide explains fundamental approaches to database scalability and shows how InterSystems IRIS implements these patterns to support enterprise-scale workloads.

We'll explore two complementary scaling strategies: horizontal scaling for user volume (distributing computational load) and sharding for data volume (partitioning datasets). Understanding the general principles behind these approaches will help you make informed decisions about when and how to scale your IRIS applications.

The examples in this guide use InterSystems IRIS in Docker containers.

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InterSystems Developer Community is a community of 25,889 amazing developers
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The third developer previews of InterSystems IRIS® data platform, InterSystems IRIS® for Health, and HealthShare® Health Connect 2026.1 have been posted to the WRC developer preview site. Containers can be found on our

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Hello everyone,

My team lead mentioned that users can sometimes create globals directly without associating them with tables or classes. In this case, these globals would not be accessible via SQL.

Is this correct? Can a global exist independently in this way, and if so, is there a specific approach to access or manage them without SQL?

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Hi Community! 👋

As 2026 gets underway, we’d love to hear what you’re focusing on this year.

This discussion is a space to share your resolutions, goals, and focus areas for 2026 - technical, professional or community-related.

These don’t have to be traditional New Year’s resolutions. Think of them as intentions or priorities you’d like to work on this year.

💬 What you can share

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Here are the technology bonuses for the InterSystems Full Stack Contest 2026, which will give you extra points in the voting:

  • IRIS Vector Search usage -3
  • InterSystems Native SDK for Python or Embedded Python usage -3
  • Developer Community Idea implemented - 2
  • Docker container usage -2
  • IPM Package Deployment - 2
  • Online Demo -2
  • Find and report a bug - 2
  • Article on Developer Community - 2
  • The second article on Developer Community - 1
  • Video on YouTube - 3
  • YouTube Short - 1
  • First Time Contribution - 3

See the details below.<--break->

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I've modified the class file, but messages still arrive as a single line (e.g., "H|.../rQ|.../rL") instead of separate lines in the ASTM service. The <ENQ>..<EOT> header looks correct, logs show no errors, and the service receives messages fine. Is there an Ensemble 2018.1 engine setting (like line terminator handling or TCP framing) to fix the line splitting? ​

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When using InterSystems IRIS as an interoperability engine, we all know and love how easy it is to use the Message Viewer to review message traces and see exactly what's going on in your production. When a system is handling millions of messages per day, you may not know exactly where to begin your investigation though.

Over my years supporting IRIS productions, I often find myself investigating things like...

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Hi everyone,

Does anyone know how to export projects via VSC?

I opened the project through the "InterSystems Tools" plugin (command is "Edit Code in Project") and I can correctly work on it.

However, when I try using the "ObjectScript" plugin to export the project (right click on the project -> "Export Project Contents")

This message appears and it is not possible to export the project:

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Article
· May 12, 2025 7m read
An Overview of Database Degrade

Introduction

Hello! In this article, I will be discussing database degrade, a type of data integrity issue one can face when using IRIS. First, I will be going over a review of the structure of IRIS databases. I'll then discuss how database degrade can manifest and common causes of degrade issues. I'll then conclude with general tips we give our customers about how to prevent or prepare for database degrade issues.

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Hello everybody,

I would like to export project contents using Visual Studio Code, as well as I do with InterSystems Studio.

However, while attempting the export through the InterSystems extension I get the following error:

- There are no folders in the current workspace that code can be exported to.

These are the step to reproduce my error:

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Hi Community,

We’re excited to invite you to take part in shaping the next generation of ObjectScript development tools. We’re working on an AI-powered ObjectScript coding assistant designed specifically for IRIS developers. Not a generic AI adapted for ObjectScript, but a solution built from the ground up to understand ObjectScript idioms, IRIS APIs, interoperability productions, and real-world developer workflows.

To make sure we build something truly useful, we need your input.

👉 ObjectScript Coder Agent Developer Survey 👈

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Hey Community!

We're happy to share a new video from our InterSystems Developers YouTube:

⏯ Multi-threading an HL7 Interface and scaling beyond FIFO constraints @ Ready 2025

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8QpqZCZsiN4
[This is an embedded link, but you cannot view embedded content directly on the site because you have declined the cookies necessary to access it. To view embedded content, you would need to accept all cookies in your Cookies Settings]

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Hi Gang!

Did you know you can deploy InterSystems IRIS Community Edition on the cloud without paying for a license? You can try for free, and it could even come in handy if you want to show off that shiny new app you've created (maybe for the full stack competition..?)

In this article I will provide a complete walkthrough on how to deploy IRIS on Amazon Web Services (AWS), and will also add a follow up for deploying on Azure.

Now before I begin the walkthrough, I want to admit that I was terrified of using AWS the first time because I'd seen memes about how easy it is to rack up costs on AWS. So if you're thinking the same, I suggest you start by signing up to a Free Tier Account, which gives you $100 free credit to evaluate, and automatically shuts off to prevent charges. InterSystems IRIS Community Edition has a free license so if you pair the two, you can deploy without risk and completely for free. (Disclaimer: although I'm sure this is true, please do read the free account terms and make your own decisions 😅 )

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Here at InterSystems, we often deal with massive datasets of structured data. It’s not uncommon to see customers with tables spanning >100 fields and >1 billion rows, each table totaling hundred of GB of data. Now imagine joining two or three of these tables together, with a schema that wasn’t optimized for this specific use case. Just for fun, let’s say you have 10 years worth of EMR data from 20 different hospitals across your state, and you’ve been tasked with finding….

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A .iostream file got stored in /intersystems/HCENG01B12/mgr/Temp for a BatchFileOperation class while HC was on the secondary node. HealthConnect is now on the primay node and cannot find that .iostream file path. The operation starts throwing errors when the RolloverSchedule is reached

OnKeepalive() returned ERROR #5012: File '/intersystems/HCENG01B12/mgr/Temp/QWhoZAwFF3f9jQ.iostream'
does not exist

How can I resolve this issue?

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