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#Databases

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InterSystems Caché database is a file where all the data, application scripts, and users, roles and security configurations are stored. Typically the name of the file is cache.dat.

Documentation.

Contestant

This is the second part of an article pair where I walk you through:

  • Part I - Intro and Quick Tour (the previous article)
    • What is it?
    • Spinning up an InterSystems IRIS Cloud Document deployment
    • Taking a quick tour of the service via the service UI
  • Part II - Sample (Dockerized) Java App (this article)
    • Grabbing the connection details and TLS certificate
    • Reviewing a simple Java sample that creates a collection, inserts documents, and queries them
    • Setting up and running the Java (Dockerized) end‑to‑end sample

As mentioned the goal is to give you a smooth “first run” experience.

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Contestant

If you already know Java (or .Net) and perhaps also have used other document databases (or looking for one), but you are new to the InterSystems world, this post should help you.

InterSystems IRIS Cloud Document is a fully managed document database that lets you store JSON documents and query them with familiar SQL syntax, delivered as a cloud service managed by InterSystems.

In this article pair I’ll walk you through:

  • Part I - Intro and Quick Tour (this article)
    • What is it?
    • Spinning up an InterSystems IRIS Cloud Document deployment
    • Taking a quick tour of the service via the service UI
  • Part II - Sample (Dockerized) Java App (the next article)
    • Grabbing the connection details and TLS certificate
    • Reviewing a simple Java sample that creates a collection, inserts documents, and queries them
    • Setting up and running the Java (Dockerized) end‑to‑end sample

The goal is to give you a smooth “first run” experience.

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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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The Power of Indexing in Database Tables

When working with databases, most developers understand the concept of an index and why it's used: to speed up data retrieval. But the real impact of indexing often becomes clear only when you compare scenarios with and without it.

Do you Know what Happens Without an Index?
Imagine a table with three columns: Name, Age, and MobileNumber.

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Article
· Dec 11, 2025 8m read
Supply Chain Orchestration for dummies

Supply Chain refers to a set of processes and activities performed by the company's business areas and its suppliers and partners (stakeholders), from the acquisition of raw materials, through production, to delivery to the end consumer. It can be better managed using SCM solutions with the orchestration of the InterSystems IRIS:

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Article
· Nov 20, 2025 5m read
OMOP Odyssey - Vibing Synthea Modules for OMOP

Vibe the Module, Not the Data


While working with the FHIR to OMOP Service, I've seen good FHIR synthetic data being created using commercial LLM's etc, custom tailored for ConditionOnset with the typical amazement on return, but witnessed some questionable trust first hand on a call. This approach also falls short generating gigantic payloads so I can go back to my interests on the backend and ensure smooth data transition.

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Hi Community,

In this article, we will explore the concepts of Dynamic SQL and Embedded SQL within the context of InterSystems IRIS, provide practical examples, and examine their differences to help you understand how to leverage them in your applications.

InterSystems SQL provides a full set of standard relational features, including the ability to define table schema, execute queries, and define and execute stored procedures. You can execute InterSystems SQL interactively from the Management Portal or programmatically using a SQL shell interface. Embedded SQL enables you to embed SQL statements in your ObjectScript code, while Dynamic SQL enables you to execute dynamic SQL statements from ObjectScript at runtime. While static SQL queries offer predictable performance, dynamic and embedded SQL offer flexibility and integration, respectively.

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Mirror Your Database Across the Galaxy with Seeding

Hello cpf fans! This distraction I used the "seed" capability in IRIS to provision an entire IrisCluster mirror, 4 maps wide with compute starting from an IRIS.DAT in a galaxy far far away. This is pretty powerful if you have had a great deal of success with a solution running on a monolithic implementation and want it to scale to the outer rim with Kubernetes and the InterSystems Kubernetes Operator. Even though my midichlorian count is admittely low, I have seen some hardcore CACHE hackers shovel around DATS, compact and shrink and update their ZROUTINES, so this same approach could also be helpful shrinking and securing your containerized workload too. If you squint and feel all living things around you, you can see a glimpse of in place (logical) mirroring in the future as a function of the operator and a migration path to a fully operational mirrored Death Star as the workload matures.


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Hi Team,

Can I please check if anyone has built a simple web interface for maintaining custom SQL lookup class.

We have a simple persistent class in HealthShare which is used for storing Pathology test codes. Test codes in this lookup class is used for message filtering and applying additional logic when processing pathology results/orders.

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Hi everyone! 👋
I’m excited to share the project I’ve submitted to the current InterSystems .Net, Java, Python, and JavaScript Contest — it’s called IRIStool and Data Manager, and you can find it on the InterSystems Open Exchange and on my GitHub page.

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Question
· Sep 30, 2025
Move to immutable backups

At the moment, we have 10 HealthShare instance servers (5 x mirrored pairs), where we implement an External Backup approach, using the freeze/thaw commands against whichever server of the pair is the backup mirror member, to complete a VM level backup. These backups are stored to a disk within our control, to purge as required. This approach allows us to deliver a zero downtime backup approach.

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Article
· Sep 22, 2025 2m read
Dashboard of database free space

Finishing my previous example for multiple IRIS instances, I tried
to compose a local single instance version. The step from the external
Python app to a version using embedded Python seemed to be obvious.
This was a wrong assumption, as some Python libraries just refused installation
into my local Windows-based environment.

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I am working on a tool that configures an instance to use a common default routine database across all custom Namespaces. For instances that already have distinct default routine databases for their Namespaces, this would involve a step of merging over all code from the current default routine databases to the new "super" routine database. This should be done in such a way that only merges contents in the default routine database (not mapped databases) and is able to detect/exclude contents that already exist in the target database.

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I would like to learn about the binary and document reference FHIR Resources. For the PDF data stored in those resources. But I think Binary Resource for the Document PDF stored in FHIR, so this resource is best for it. So sometimes Large PDF 15-page (~35md) data converts into base64 then data length is ~50 lac charecters length of base64binary data. this data store in Binary Resource on data field https://www.hl7.org/fhir/R4/binary.html follow this url this resource used in my case.

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We currently have Business Operation that we built to use the EnsLib.SQL.OutboundAdapter so we can make Microsoft SQL Server Stored Procedure calls. The BO is attached to a Java Gateway Service.

Some of our MS SQL Databases have moved from being OnPrem to Azure Cloud. We have started seeing where we are receiving errors on the BO saying that we cannot connect to the Azure Database, but we never receive a Disconnect from the Azure Database.

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Are you familiar with SQL databases, but not familiar with IRIS? Then read on...

About a year ago I joined InterSystems, and that is how IRIS got on my radar. I've been using databases for over 40 years—much of that time for database vendors—and assumed IRIS would be largely the same as the other databases I knew. However I was surprised to find that IRIS is in several ways quite unlike other databases, often much better. With this, my first article in the Dev Community, I'll give a high-level overview of IRIS for people that are already familiar with the other databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, Snowflake, PostgeSQL, etc. I hope I can make things clearer and simpler for you and save you some time getting started.

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Hello my friends,

I have a problem with Objectscript, why the value of address become like this ?

everything works fine except the Address,

this is my code, do I need something to make this into real address ? should I put something in my code ?

set paper=obj.PAADMPAPMIDR.PAPMIPAPERDR

if '$isobject(paper) continue

set Address=paper.PAPERStName

thank you for your help

Best Regards,

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I have notified that on several servers the IRISTEMP database is reported as only a few GB in size while on the disk where it's located, the IRIS.DAT file is much bigger (eg: 3GB reported in Portal (including free space) while file on the disk file is 121GB). The last modification date of IRIS.DAT is recent so I'm not looking into a location no more in use.

Is there an explanation for that difference in size ?

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If you're migrating from Oracle to InterSystems IRIS—like many of my customers—you may run into Oracle-specific SQL patterns that need translation.

Take this example:

SELECT (TO_DATE('2023-05-12','YYYY-MM-DD') - LEVEL + 1) AS gap_date
FROM dual
CONNECT BY LEVEL <= (TO_DATE('2023-05-12','YYYY-MM-DD') - TO_DATE('2023-05-02','YYYY-MM-DD') + 1);

In Oracle:

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InterSystems has released new point updates to resolve a defect affecting the most recent prior versions of 2025.1.0, 2024.1.4, 2023.1.6, and 2022.1.7, for the following supported product lines:

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I have created a New Database/Namespace within our TEST environment on both the Primary and Backup of the mirror. When I go to create the database/namespace on the DR node I am getting "Cannot open file '/ensemble/TEST/iris.cpf_...." while the cpf file that it references does not exist. Anyone have any clue to why this might be happening?

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