InterSystems Platforms Update Q3-2024

Welcome to the Q3’2024 quarterly platforms update.  We have some news on the AIX front to encourage better security, along with our usual round of OS version updates. 

If you’re new to these updates, welcome!  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. 

With that said, on to the update…

InterSystems IRIS Production Operating Systems and CPU Architectures

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

• Recent Changes
  • We’ve completed minor OS certification for RHEL 9.4 & 8.10 on IRIS 2024.1 without incident.
• Previous Updates
  • Red Hat threw a lifeline to customers struggling to upgrade from RHEL 7 by announcing 4 years of Extended Life Cycle Support starting July 1, 2024.
• Upcoming Changes
  • The next major update for RHEL will be RHEL 10 which is expected in Q2 of 2025.
  • We expect short-term-supported 9.5 & 8.11 to be released near the end of the year.  We’ll start minor OS certification on IRIS 2024.1 when they’re released.
• Further reading: RHEL Release Page

 

Ubuntu

• Recent changes
  • We’ve completed minor OS certification for Ubuntu 22.04.3 on IRIS 2024.1 without incident
• Previous Updates
  • Support for Ubuntu 24.04 was added in IRIS 2024.1.0.267.2 on May 15, less than three weeks after Ubuntu 24.04 was released.
  • Now that Ubuntu 24.04 is available, IRIS 2024.1 will be the last major version that supports Ubuntu 20.04.  IRIS 2024.2 will only be available for Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04.
• Further Reading: Ubuntu Releases Page

 

SUSE Linux

• Recent Changes
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 was released in May.  The release notes can be found here.
• Previous Updates
  • General Support from SUSE for Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 came to an end on 12/31/2022, but extended security support will continue until December, 2025.

Further Reading: SUSE lifecycle

 

Oracle Linux

• Previous Updates
  • Oracle Linux 9.2 has completed Minor OS certification on IRIS 2023.1 without incident.
• Further Reading: Oracle Linux Support Policy

 

Microsoft Windows

• Upcoming Changes
  • Windows Server 2025 is expected to be released in Q4.  We’re keeping an eye on it and formulating plans for support.
  • Windows 12 is expected even earlier with a possible GA date as early as June.  We’ll start the process of supporting the new OS after it’s been released.
• Further Reading: Microsoft Lifecycle

 

AIX

• Upcoming Changes
  • We’re planning to only support OpenSSL 3 kits starting with IRIS 2024.3. NOTE:  This means that 2024.2 is the last version of IRIS that has both OpenSSL 1 and OpenSSL 3 kits.  In IRIS 2023.3, 2024.1, & 2024.2, we provided two separate IRIS kits – one that supports OpenSSL 1 and one that supports OpenSSL 3.  Given the importance of OpenSSL 3 for overall system security, we’ve heard from many of you that you’ve already moved to OpenSSL 3.  If you have concerns about this, please reach out to me directly.  In last quarter’s update, we said that 2025.1 would be the first release to support OpenSSL 3, but given its importance we made the decision to move up the date.
• Further Reading: AIX Lifecycle

 

Containers

• Recent Changes
  • We changed the base container image from Ubuntu 22.04 to Ubuntu 24.04 with IRIS 2024.2
  • We’re considering changes to the default IRIS container to, by default, have internal traffic (ECP, Mirroring, etc) on a different port from potentially externally facing traffic (ODBC, JDBC, etc).  If you have needs in this area, please reach out and let me know.
• Previous Updates
  • We have started regular updates of IRIS containers with patches to the base container image and third-party dependencies.  IRIS containers that follow the new tagging scheme now have at least every-other-week updates.

 

InterSystems IRIS Development Operating Systems and CPU Architectures

MacOS

• Previous Updates
  • Apple has released MacOS 14 with IRIS support in IRIS 2024.1

 

InterSystems Components

• Recent Updates
  • InterSystems API Manager 2.8.4.11 & 3.4.3.11 have been released.  If you’re using IAM, please upgrade soon.
  • InterSystems Reports 24.1 has been released.

Caché & Ensemble Production Operating Systems and CPU Architectures

• Previous Updates
  • A reminder that the final Caché & Ensemble maintenance releases are scheduled for Q1-2027, which is coming up sooner than you think.  See  Jeff’s excellent community article for more info.

InterSystems Supported Platforms Documentation

The InterSystems Supported Platforms documentation is the definitive source information on supported technologies.

• IRIS 2024.1 Supported Server Platforms
• IRIS 2023.1 Supported Server Platforms
• IRIS 2022.1 Supported Server Platforms
• Caché & Ensemble 2018.1 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.