When you install an IRIS or Caché instance on Windows Server, you'll usually need to install it under a specific user account that has network access permissions. This is very handy when you needs to access network resources for creating files or directly accessing printers.

TL;DR: see key takeaways at the bottom!

This post provides useful links and an overview of best practice configuration for low latency storage IO by creating LVM Physical Extent (PE) stripes for database disks on InterSystems Data Platforms; InterSystems IRIS, Caché, and Ensemble.

Hello, developers!

I would like to share the history of the project - the ZAPM shell.

As soon as ZPM was implemented, I immediately began to think about how best to use it.

And immediately faced with the desire to move more quickly between namespaces, especially when there are more than 20 of them.
I had to leave the ZPM, move to the desired namespace and re-enter the shell.
I suggested an improvement - a new "namespace" command for easier navigation.
I didn’t wait - I did it myself. And so it went. If you need it, get ready to do it yourself.

When you first start working with InterSystems IRIS, it’s a common practice to install a system with only a minimum level of security. You have to enter passwords fewer times and this makes it easier to work with development services and web applications when you're first getting acquainted. And, sometimes, minimal security is more convenient for deploying a developed project or solution.
And yet there comes a moment when you need to move your project out of development, into an Internet environment that’s very likely hostile, and it needs to be tested with the maximum security settings (that is, completely locked down) before being deployed to production. And that’s what we’ll discuss in this article.
For more complete coverage of DBMS security issues in InterSystems Caché, Ensemble, and IRIS, you may want to read my other article, Recommendations on installing the InterSystems Caché DBMS for a production environment.
The security system in InterSystems IRIS is based on the concept of applying different security settings for different categories: users, roles, services, resources, privileges, and applications.

Users can be assigned roles. Users and roles can have privileges on resources — databases, services, and applications — with varying read, write, and use rights. Users and roles can also have SQL privileges on the SQL tables located in databases.

When an error occurs in your application, simply logging it might be enough. But for certain errors, you might want to send a notification to people right away. There are three ways to generate custom email notifications from InterSystems IRIS.

This is a follow-up to Murray's article for scripting pButtons data extraction on Unix/MacOS:
Extracting pButtons data to CSV for UNIX/MacOS

Extracting pButtons data to a CSV file on Windows

PowerShell scripting was used in this article because it is available by default on Windows platforms.

Some third party backup products may by default restore CACHE.DAT files as UNIX sparse files when there are trailing zeroes in the backup file.

The support for sparse files vary from UNIX distribution and file system types. Sparse files attempt to use file system space more efficiently when blocks allocated to the file are mostly empty similar to thin-provisioned storage. The file system transparently converts metadata representing empty blocks into "real" blocks filled with zero bytes at runtime. The application is suppose to be unaware of this conversion.

“I have been waiting for thirty seconds for service. This is outrageous!

InterSystems FAQ rubric

To resolve the error <PROTECT>, remove the read-only attribute of the system-wide library database (IRISLIB for InterSystems IRIS, CACHELIB for Caché/Ensemble/HealthShare (Caché-based))

Once you have finished importing the routine, remember to change it back to read-only.

[Version 2013.1 and above]
[Management Portal] > [System Administration] > [Configuration] > [System Configuration] > [Local Database] Uncheck "Mount read-only" from the database name link.

We are back to %SYS once again! Since we covered managing users and resources in the last two articles, we can finally move on to roles. As you may have guessed, there are a lot of methods of managing them that you have already seen in our previous writings.

Have you ever thought of creating your own systems for editing users or, perhaps, even an API that you can call?

InterSystems FAQ rubric

Get certified on InterSystems IRIS System Administration!

Hello Community,

After beta testing the new InterSystems IRIS System Administration Specialist exam, the Certification Team of InterSystems Learning Services has performed the necessary calibration and adjustments to release it to our community. It is now ready for purchase and scheduling in the InterSystems certification exam catalog. Potential candidates can review the exam topics and the practice questions to help orient them to exam question approaches and content. Passing the exam allows you to claim an electronic certification badge that can be embedded in social media accounts such as Linkedin.