Windows 2022 Server

[Vincent Lee]

Hi,

Has anyone stood up an i2b2 instance using Windows Server 20222?  The installation pages reference here only listed only shows 2019

https://community.i2b2.org/wiki/display/getstarted/2.3.1+Operating+System+Requirements

Does anyone know if this is backward compatible?  

Thanks

-Vincent Lee

[mabaj...@mac.com]

Hello, Vincent,

I am not an expert on Windows deployments. Take this as a suggestion, not gospel truth.

Let's take a look at the three components of the i2b2 software that you will need to deploy...

1) core server (recommended to deploy the binary distribution, not build from scratch; if you build from scratch, you will need Apache Axis)

2) database build scripts

3) webclient

The Core Server

Assuming you are deploying the latest i2b2 core software (version 1.8.1a), then we need to be careful, since the "requirements" page that you referenced has not been updated since the release of version 1.7.13 (page was last updated July 2023, but 1.8.1a was released less than a year ago).

I kind of believe that the following are true. Hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong...

a) It may depend on which version of i2b2 you are deploying, 

b) i2b2 should work, if the required Wildfly and Java versions are supported on the OS, and

c) that's because it's Wildfly and Java that are running the software, not the OS per se.

Assuming a), b), and c) are true, then we can verify the requirements for Wildfly and Java versus the OS.

Investigating the wiki-recommended Oracle JDK 11, the latest version is 11.0.27, and it has supported Windows 2022 since version 11.0.13. (https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/products-doc-jdk11certconfig.html)

Investigating the wiki-recommended Wildfly 17, the latest version is 17.0.1, and its only requirement appears to be Java SE 8 or later. (https://docs.wildfly.org/17/Getting_Started_Guide.html)

Based on these investigations, it appears that the i2b2 core software version 1.8.1a should work on Windows 2022, as long as you have the required Java and Wildfly.

Database Build Scripts

The build scripts rely on Apache Ant 1.9.6. That tool requires that Java 1.5+ be installed. So if you have Java JDK 11 installed on Windows 2022, you should be fine running Ant 1.9.6.

Webclient

When it comes to the webclient software, as long as the required version of PHP will work on Windows 2022 and its version of IIS, then I expect you should be okay. But I'm not sure about what the minimum versions of PHP and IIS are, if any, for the webclient. Not every link on i2b2's "PHP for Windows" page is working: https://community.i2b2.org/wiki/display/getstarted/2.5.3.2+PHP+for+Windows

You may wish to visit this page as well: https://techijack.com/php-installation-on-windows-iis-server/

... or do a web search for installing PHP for IIS on Windows Server 2022. You'll want the non-thread-safe version of the binary. And you'll want to make sure that you read these caveats about timeouts in IIS: https://community.i2b2.org/wiki/display/docs2/i2b2+Usage+Community+FAQ

If anyone has genuine experience with deploying on Windows Server 2022, then please chime in!

Again, this is my best guess, not from genuine experience with Windows 2022 deployments. I hope this information proves useful. Wishing you the best of luck, Vincent.

Kind regards,

Mark Abajian

Abajian Consulting, LLC
P.O. Box 8017, Glendale, CA  91224
Email  maba...@mac.com   |   Mobile  +1 (818) 726–0372