Configuring Mirroring for Healthcare Products

You may have noticed that to configure a mirror for InterSystems IRIS for Health™ and HealthShare® Health Connect there is a special requirement. I wanted to go through it step by step in this article.

This assumes you have already configured the second failover member and confirmed a successful failover member status in the mirror monitor:

Step 1: Enable HS_Services user (on backup and primary) 

Step 2: Switch to Namespace HSSYS and go to Interoperability > Configure > Credentials. Enter the Password for your predefined HS_Services user (on backup and primary)

Step 3: Schedule the Mirror Monitor Launch Task (on backup and primary). Do so by running the following from IRIS terminal from HSSYS namespace:

HSSYS>do ##class(HS.Util.Mirror.Task).Schedule("HSSYS")

Confirm it was scheduled successfully and is scheduled to run every five minutes:

Step 4: Add HSSYS database to the mirror on the primary server. System Administration > Configuration > System Configuration > Local Databases. Choose "Add To Mirror" and select HSSYS

Step 5: Dismount HSSYS from the primary and backup servers. System Operation > Databases. Choose HSSYS and select "Dismount"

Step 6: Copy the HSSYS IRIS.DAT from the primary to the backup server's appropriate HSSYS directory.

Make sure the permissions are appropriate. You should see something like this:

-rw-rw---- 1 irisowner irisowner 22020096 Jan 12 15:26 IRIS.DAT

If you do not see this, modify it with chown and chmod so that it is so.

Step 7: Mount database on the primary server. System Operation > Databases. Choose HSSYS and select "Mount". Choose "Start Mirror Catchup?" but do not select Read Only.

Step 8: Mount the database on the backup server. System Operation > Databases. Choose HSSYS and select "Mount". Do not select Read Only. There will not be a Start Mirror Catchup option.

Step 9: On your backup server open the Mirror Monitor (System Operation > Mirror Monitor). You should now see HSSYS added to your list of mirrored databases. But you need to click activate it and make it catchup:

After a few seconds your backup should be "Caught Up"

HSSYS is now mirrored.

And we should see the Mirror Monitor Agent running (Health > Mirror Monitor Agent)

Step 10: Configure Network Host Name on Primary server (Home > Health > Installer Wizard)

The Network Host Name should be set to the mirror VIP (or DNS entry for the mirror VIP).

Step 11: Configure Secure Communication

Step 12 (optional): Configure Foundation

Remember to activate your namespace once it is created.

Since we selected Mirror Database you should see it in your Mirrored Databases in the Mirror Monitor:

The extra mirroring requirement for healthcare products is now complete and testing a failover we see that both servers are caught up per the Mirror Monitor Agent:

You can now set up your FHIR Endpoints and see the resource (R) and resource history (V) databases be automatically mirrored: