Supported Environments for BIRT iServer 11 SP4 Fix 5

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

BIRT iServer Deployment

Notes:

1. Service Packs from Microsoft are supported
2. Minor version updates of Major versions for Linux, Sun or AIX operating systems are supported
3. On Linux, the libstdc++ library is required and must be installed before installing BIRT iServer. This library is present by default on most systems. Additionally, the Openmotif (32-bit) bundle is required and must be installed before installing the BIRT iServer. BIRT iServer needs libXm.so.3 which is part of Openmotif 2.2 or libXm.so.4 which is part of Openmotif 2.3
4. Oracle Linux 5.5 is certified only for the iServer encyclopedia database to use the Oracle Database Server version 11G R2
5. On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, the following patches are required - glibc-locale-2.5-34.7 and glibc-2.5-34.7
6. On AIX, IBM XL C/C++ V9.0 for AIX Runtime Environment Component or the IBM VisualAge C++ Professional V9.0 for AIX Runtime Environment component is required
7. On AIX v7.1 APAR IV09585 is required to work with JDK 1.7

System Requirements

Notes:

• Machine configurations are minimum recommended guidelines. Actual hardware configurations required will vary depending on users, load, and data and other factors.
• BIRT iServer products are 32-bit applications but can work natively in a 64-bit environment.

Database Software for BIRT iServer Encyclopedia

Starting with Actuate 11, customers can use their existing database servers to store the BIRT iServer encyclopedia.

Web Browsers and Adobe Reader

Application Servers for Information Console, Management Console Proxy 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 iServer release of the same version. Different versions of BIRT iServer and the Information Console cannot be used together.

Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE)

Notes:

• Customers must check directly with the JRE and OS vendors and install all the necessary OS patches for their JRE-OS configuration.
• Actuate 11 releases do not support Sun JRE 5.0 for BIRT iServer.

1. Oracle JRE 8.0_x cannot be supported for 11SP4F5 on Solaris systems, as it is not available in a 32 bit version
2. IBM JRE 8 requires AIX 6.1 to be oslevel 6100-07 or higher and AIX 7.1 to be oslevel 7100-03 or higher

Actuate BIRT iServer APIs and Extensions

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 UNIX and Microsoft Exchange 2007 on Windows.

X Server

Actuate BIRT iServer on UNIX 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 UNIX machine does not have graphics hardware installed, Actuate also supplies and supports an X Server software emulator, Xvfb (X Server virtual frame buffer).

Content Export

Notes:

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

Printers

Notes:

• Actuate uses best efforts to achieve WYSIWYG but this is not guaranteed. Reports may print identically across platforms.
• On Windows, Actuate supports any Windows supported printer. On Linux, color printing of text, images and graphs is only supported for Postscript printers.

Designers

BIRT Designer Professional and Open Source BIRT Designer

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.

System Requirements

Notes:

• Machine configurations are minimum recommended guidelines. Actual hardware configurations required will vary depending on users, load, and data and other factors.
• Actuate products are 32-bit applications but can work natively in a 64-bit environment.

Databases Sources

Open Source BIRT Designer JDBC Drivers

Commercial 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

e.Report Designer

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.

System Requirements

Notes:

• Machine configurations are minimum recommended guidelines. Actual hardware configurations required will vary depending on users, load, and data and other factors.
• Actuate products are 32-bit applications but can work natively in a 64-bit environment.

Databases

Database Servers - Accessible via Bundled DataDirect Connect for ODBC Drivers (7.1.2 to 7.1.4 bundled with Actuate for connectivity to mainstream DBMS)

BIRT Information Designer

The BIRT Information Designer is available within the BIRT Designer Professional and e.Report Designer Professional products.

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
• Any custom data source can be accessed using open-source Eclipse based DTP compliant plugin

BIRT Spreadsheet Designer

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.

System Requirements

Notes:

• Machine configurations are minimum recommended guidelines. Actual hardware configurations required will vary depending on users, load, and data and other factors.
• Actuate products are 32-bit applications but can work natively in a 64-bit environment.

Databases Sources

Notes:

• JDBC 2.0 Type 2, 3 and 4 compliant database drivers are supported
• Use of JDBC - ODBC bridge drivers is not supported
• The BIRT Spreadsheet technology supports a number of non-JDBC data sources. These include Actuate BIRT Report Documents, BIRT Information Objects, POJO (Plain Old Java Objects), Web Services, XML and Flat Files

BIRT Spreadsheet Engine and API

The BIRT Spreadsheet Engine is a JAR that provides API to build XLS and XLSX documents. The JAR requires Java 1.6 or later and can run on any platform that supports java 1.6 – including web app servlets, app servers, and custom command line applications, etc.

Export to Excel

The Spreadsheet viewers Microsoft Excel 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2010 are supported by the BIRT Spreadsheet technology.

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.
• Service Pack: Names for a Service Pack use whole numbers followed by the Service Pack number. This is a full release upgrade with additional new features, supported product updates and maintenance fixes. Migration to a Service Pack within the same Major Release will not require code changes.
• Fix Build: Fix builds are based on the latest 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 iServer Enterprise Deployments

• Current status and forecast for Actuate product family obsolescence based on the product support lifecycle guidelines.
• The Actuate BIRT iServer product line exists in parallel to the Actuate BIRT iHub product line.
• All Releases 10.0 and older are "Retired".

Notes:

1. 11SP1 includes the BIRT 2.6.2 Designers
2. 10SP1 includes the BIRT 2.3.2 Designers

BIRT Metrics Management

This section describes the supported environments for BIRT Metrics Management 10SP4 F3 as part of an 11SP4F5 iServer deployment.

BIRT Metrics Management Server

Operating Systems

Notes:

• BIRT Metrics Management only supports Intel based servers on Windows platforms
• Both processor architectures, 32 bit and 64 bit, are supported by all Metrics Management components
• Service Packs from Microsoft are supported
• Other software required should be installed before installing Metrics Management includes:
• .NET framework 4.5 (and 3.5 if using SQL Server 2012 Express)
• IIS 7.0 or higher
• Adobe Flash Player 10 or 11
• Adobe Acrobat 9 or higher
• Windows Powershell 1.0 or higher
• Windows Installer 4.5 or higher

System Requirements

Notes:

• Machine configurations are minimum recommended guidelines. Actual hardware configurations required will vary depending on users, load, data and other factors
• All Metrics management releases support both 32 bit and 64 bit operating systems

Database Software for BIRT Metrics Management

Notes:

1. Oracle 10g support is dropped
2. SQL Server 2012 Express requires Microsoft.NET framework 3.5

Web Browsers and Adobe Reader

Supported versions for integrating Metrics Management 10 SP4 F3 into an Actuate 11SP4F5 iServer

Notes:

• See Systems Specialist Documentation for definitions of integration types

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