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Deploying InterSystems IRIS

Deploying InterSystems IRIS

This section covers both licensed instances and free evaluation instances.

Deploying Licensed Instances

If you have purchased one or more licenses from InterSystems, you can deploy a licensed InterSystems IRIS instance using one of these methods:

When deploying from either a container image or an installation kit, you can use the configuration merge feature to support automated deployment.

InterSystems Kubernetes Operator

KubernetesOpens in a new tab is an open-source orchestration engine for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized workloads and services. You define the containerized services you want to deploy and the policies you want them to be governed by; Kubernetes transparently provides the needed resources in the most efficient way possible, repairs or restores the deployment when it deviates from spec, and scales automatically or on demand. The InterSystems Kubernetes Operator (IKO) extends the Kubernetes API with the IrisCluster custom resource, which can be deployed as an InterSystems IRIS sharded cluster, distributed cache cluster, or standalone instance (all optionally mirrored) on any Kubernetes platform. The IKO also adds InterSystems IRIS-specific cluster management capabilities to Kubernetes, enabling automation of tasks like adding nodes to a cluster, which you would otherwise have to do manually by interacting directly with the instances. For information about using the IKO, see Using the InterSystems Kubernetes OperatorOpens in a new tab.

InterSystems IRIS Container Image

Container images from InterSystems let you use your own tools and methods to deploy InterSystems IRIS in containers on Linux hosts — cloud, virtual, or physical. Persistent storage of instance-specific data makes containerized InterSystems IRIS easy to upgrade, so you can always move your existing configurations to the latest version of InterSystems IRIS with little trouble and minimal downtime.

Note:

Container images from InterSystems comply with the Open Container Initiative (OCIOpens in a new tab) specification and are therefore supported on any OCI-compliant runtime engine on Linux-based operating systems. The remainder of this document assume the use of the Docker runtime engine.

For a detailed guide to using InterSystems IRIS images, see Running InterSystems Products in Containers. For information on how to obtain an InterSystems IRIS image, see Downloading the InterSystems IRIS Image in Running InterSystems Products in Containers.

You can provision a BYOL (bring your own license) cloud node with an InterSystems IRIS container image and Docker installed on the Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, or Amazon Web Services public cloud platforms, then add your license and run an InterSystems IRIS container from the image as described in Running InterSystems Products in Containers. For more information, see Deploy InterSystems IRIS BYOL on a Cloud Node in Deploy and Explore InterSystems IRIS. (You can also use these documents with a free InterSystems IRIS Community Edition image.)

InterSystems IRIS Installation Kit

You can install and license a development instance of InterSystems IRIS on your local machine or on another on your network by obtaining the latest installation kit for your platform from the InterSystems Worldwide Response Center (WRC)Opens in a new tab download area. For installation instructions, see the Installation Guide.

Deployment Using Configuration Merge

The configuration merge feature lets you vary the configurations of InterSystems IRIS containers deployed from the same image, or local instances installed from the same kit. You can use it in the following ways:

  • Deploy with configuration merge

    On Linux and UNIX® systems, you can use configuration merge in deploymentOpens in a new tab to update an instance’s configuration parameter file (CPF), which contains its configuration settings; these settings are read from the CPF at every startup, including the first one after an instance is deployed. When you apply configuration merge during deployment, you in effect replace the default CPF provided with the instance with your own updated version. You can also use the feature when restarting an existing instance.

  • Use configuration merge on a running instance

    On both Linux/UNIX® and Windows systems, you can reconfigure a running instance by using the iris merge commandOpens in a new tab to update its CPF with the contents of a merge file.

The InterSystems Kubernetes Operator incorporates the configuration merge feature.

For complete information about using configuration merge, see Automating Configuration of InterSystems IRIS with Configuration MergeOpens in a new tab.

Deploying Free Evaluation Instances

If you are not yet an InterSystems IRIS user, you can explore its many features and try it out with your preferred languages and tools and your own code by deploying a free evaluation instance. There are several options for doing this:

InterSystems IRIS Community Edition

InterSystems IRIS Community Edition comes with a free built-in 13-month license (and some functionality restrictions). You can deploy Community Edition in two ways:

For instructions for deploying and using InterSystems IRIS Community Edition in the cloud or on your own system, see Deploy and Explore InterSystems IRISOpens in a new tab.

InterSystems Learning Labs

The InterSystems Learning LabsOpens in a new tab web page lets you quickly and easily launch a lab instance of InterSystems IRIS for training, development, and testing, with a free 30-day license. Your InterSystems Learning Labs instance includes an integrated IDE and plenty of samples to work with, and you can connect your own IDE.

To launch an InterSystems Learning Labs instance, you must be logged in to learning.intersystems.comOpens in a new tab; you can easily create an account if you do not have one. (Like Community Edition, the Learning Labs instance has some functionality restrictions.)

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