Supported Environments for Actuate iHub 3.1 BIRT Server Deployments

This document describes the supported environments and policies for Actuate products used as part of an Actuate iHub 3.1 BIRT Server deployment.

BIRT iHub Server and System Console Deployment

Notes:

• Actuate iHub server products run on 64 bit operating systems only.
• The BIRT iHub Server (as well as all nodes included in a cluster) and the BIRT iHub System Console need to be deployed on machines running under the same operating systems.
• Microsoft is in Extended Support for Windows Server 2003. iHub does not support this platform

Table Footnotes:

1. Service Packs from Microsoft are supported
2. On Linux, the libstdc++ library (32 bit and 64 bit) is required and should be installed before installing BIRT Server. This library is present by default on most systems
3. Oracle Linux 5.5 is certified only for the Server encyclopedia database to use the Oracle Database Server version 11G R2

System Requirements

Notes:

• Machine configurations are minimum recommended guidelines. Actual hardware configurations required will vary depending on users, load, data and other factors.

Database Software for BIRT Server Encyclopedia

Customers can use their existing database servers (from the supported list below) to store the BIRT Server encyclopedia.

Notes:

• Due to defects in Oracle 11g R1, the workarounds described in Oracle bug references 813946.1 and 814423.1 need to be applied.

Database Software for BIRT System Console

Customers may not use their existing database servers to store the metadata for the BIRT System Console.

Notes:

• The BIRT System Console uses only the PostgreSQL Database embedded with the install.

Broswers and Adobe Reader

For Information Console and System Console

Notes:

• Internet Explorer 8 has limited support for HTML5 – some features such as HTML5 charts and visualizations may have performance and rendering issues on this platform that cannot be addressed. Newer versions of Internet Explorer should be used.
• Internet Explorer 8 (Windows) and Safari browser (Mac) are not supported for the System Console.

Content Export into Microsoft Office File Formats

BIRT report content can be exported to Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft PowerPoint documents.

Notes:

• There are known issues with opening old Microsoft Office (2003 or older) documents in Microsoft Office 2010 and 2013. These issues are attributed to stringent default security settings in MS Office 2010 and 2013. If using Microsoft Office 2010 and 2013, Actuate recommends exporting to Microsoft Office formats (xlsx, pptx, docx etc.) or updating default settings for Microsoft Office 2010 and 2013 to allow opening of older file formats.

Mobile Devices

Information Console, System Console and the Embedded Viewer (using JSAPI) are supported on mobile devices as follows:

Notes:

• For Information Console, logging in, navigating content, and performing basic report and dashboard viewing functions is supported
• For System Console, all functionality is supported
• For the Embedded Viewer, performing basic report and dashboard viewing functions is supported
• Not all features are "touch friendly". The user may need to zoom in/out to be able to access the feature, and interactive functionality may not work as expected
• Devices with smaller screens such as smart phones are not supported for BIRT iHub 3.1
• The iOS and Android apps, BIRT iHub Viewer and BIRT iHub Viewer HD are no longer supported

Application Servers for Information Console and Actuate BIRT Java Components WAR and EAR deployments

Notes:

• Applications servers listed should work in any operating system as long as the application server vendor states that it supports the operating system in question.
• Information Console can only be used with BIRT Server release of the same version. Different versions of BIRT Server and the Information Console cannot be used together.

Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE)

Notes:

• JRE 1.8.0.25 is included with iHub 3.1
• Customers must check directly with the JRE and OS vendors and install all the necessary OS patches for their JRE-OS configuration
• Support is dropped for Oracle JDK/JRE 1.6

WSDL Toolkits for Information Delivery API

Email Servers

All SMTP servers are supported that comply with the following IETF standards: RFC 821 and RFC 822. Virtually all commercially available STMP servers comply with the above standards. Examples of emails servers that support this include Sendmail on Linux and Microsoft Exchange 2007 on Windows.

X Server

Actuate BIRT Server on Linux requires an X Server for report rendering and printing. Actuate fully supports and tests X11R5.x and X11R6.x X Server installations using graphics hardware. If the Linux machine does not have graphics hardware installed, Actuate also supplies and supports an X Server software emulator, Xvfb (X Server virtual frame buffer).

Printers

• BIRT iHub supports any Windows supported printer.
• PostScript (Level 3) printers are required for display and selection in the Advanced Schedule dialog for scheduling jobs to generate printed output, and for Linux, color printing for text, images and graphs.

Notes:

• Actuate uses best efforts to achieve WYSIWYG but this is not guaranteed. Reports may not print identically across platforms as text (fonts), graphs, and images may exhibit differences. The quality of printed output will vary depending on the capabilities of the printers.
• Printer Security: The Xerox Internal Electronic Auditron feature is explicitly not supported.

Report Designers

BIRT Designer Professional and Open Source BIRT Designer Versions Supported for BIRT iHub.

BIRT Designer Professional

Notes:

• Windows Service Packs from Microsoft are supported as long as Microsoft states that the Service Packs are compatible.
• Both the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7 Professional are supported.
• The 64-bit edition of Mac OS-X is supported.

System Requirements

Notes:

• Machine configurations are minimum recommended guidelines. Actual hardware configurations required will vary depending on users, load, and data and other factors. Total memory and free disk space required should include requirements for operating system and other applications.

Databases Sources

Open Source BIRT Designer JDBC Drivers

Commerical BIRT Designer Professional JDBC Drivers

Non-JDBC Drivers

• Cassandra Scripted Data Sources
• Flat Files
• POJO (Plain Old Java Objects)
• Web Services
• XML Data Source

Notes:

• BIRT is expected to work with any JDBC 2.0 Type 2, 3 and 4 compliant database drivers. Note however that use of JDBC-ODBC bridge drivers is explicitly not recommended or supported

BIRT Information Designer

The BIRT Information Designer is available within the BIRT Designer Professional.

Bundled Drivers

Notes:

• The DataDirect drivers that Actuate supplies can be used only with Actuate products
• BIRT Information Objects is expected to work with any JDBC 3.0 compliant database driver
• Microsoft is in Extended Support for SQL Server 2000 SP4. Actuate will drop support for this data base in an upcoming release
• Any custom data source can be accessed using open-source Eclipse based DTP compliant plugin

Translations Available

Actuate iHub 3.1 UI has translations for the following Language - Locales.

• English (en_US)
• Chinese-Simplified (zh_CN)
• French (fr_FR)
• German (de_DE)
• Japanese (ja_JP)
• Spanish (es_ES)

Actuate Obsolescence Policy

Major Release Family Definitions:

• Major Release: Names for Major Release use only whole numbers. This is a full release and there will be significant new functionality including features, supported product updates and maintenance fixes. Customers may need to make minor code changes, recompile reports, or export/import Report Encyclopedia to upgrade to a Major Release
• Minor Release / Service Pack: Names for a Minor Releases / Service Packs use whole numbers followed by minor release number or Service Pack number. This is a full release upgrade with additional new features, supported product updates and maintenance fixes. Migration to a Minor Release or Service Pack within the same Major Release typically requires minimal to no require code changes.
• Fix Build: Fix builds are based on the latest Minor Release / Service Pack of a major release to provide relief from product defects. A complete release, product, file/set of files are available as a download from the Actuate Support site, and are available to customers on maintenance.

Lifecycle Guidelines Timetable:

• Full Support: Major Release Family is shipped with Full Support.
• Limited Support: When a new Major Release is shipped the prior Major Release moves to Limited Support for 6 Months.
• All Customer Support Programs are available
• No new Service Packs will be released
• Fix builds may be created at Actuate's discretion
• Shipping may be available on request
• End of Life: After the 6 months of Limited Support, the release moves to End of Life for 36 months or 18 months after the initial shipment of the next Major Release, if that occurs later.
• All Customer Support Programs are available
• No new Service Packs will be released
• No new Fix builds will be released
• Shipping may be available on request
• Extended End of Life: Extended Life Support extends “End of Life” for up to an additional 3 years.
• Retired: There will be no further Customer Support, Service Packs, Fix Releases or shipping.

Actuate Obsolescence Roadmap for BIRT Server Enterprise Deployments

Current status and forecast for Actuate product family obsolescence based on the product support lifecycle guidelines.

The Actuate BIRT Server product line exists in parallel to the Actuate BIRT iHub product line.

Note: *This is an exception to the standard Obsolescence Policy

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