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Jeffrey Drumm · Oct 11, 2023

If the content of the field that contains the base64-encoded PDF is greater than the maximum string size in IRIS, it will be stored as a stream.

I've written a custom function that will extract the full content of a message containing such a value; it was originally created to support fetching large HL7 messages in HL7 Spy. You can download it here: http://www.hl7spy.com/downloads/HICG_HL7.xml. I've been asked to add it to the OEX repository, but I just haven't gotten around to that yet ...

I'm not sure how the SQL Editor in the management console will handle a query that uses that function, though. It will likely cause some interesting behavior 😉

The specific SQL function in that class is HICG.GetBigMsg(<messagebodyid>).

Jeffrey Drumm · Oct 11, 2023

Can you share the error message generated by the BPL when it terminates?

You should be able to assign the return value of $EXTRACT(request.{OBX:5},1,510)}* to a context variable and use it in place of the original OBX:5 path in the lookup function. However, if the OBX:5 is longer than the maximum string size in IRIS (i.e. it's a stream), you may  need to include logic to check for that, then read just the first 510 bytes.

* The path to the OBX segment is likely different than what's in my example ... you'll need to supply the correct path.

Jeffrey Drumm · Sep 15, 2023

I"m assuming you're talking about HL7 here ...

InterSystems does a bit of magic in the background to display the Message Body fields in the message viewer, and it's not immediately available to you. However, I've written a custom SQL function that fetches the field at the supplied path (you'll need supply the path as its defined by the Schema/DocType of the message).

Example:

SELECT TOP 100 head.ID As ID,
        {fn RIGHT(%EXTERNAL(head.TimeCreated),999 )} As TimeCreated,
        head.SessionId As Session,
        head.Status As Status,
        head.SourceConfigName As Source,
        head.TargetConfigName As Target,
        HICG.GetMsg(head.MessageBodyId,'MSH:9') As MessageType
    FROM
        %IGNOREINDEX Ens.MessageHeader.SessionId Ens.MessageHeader head
    WHERE
        head.SessionId = head.%ID
        AND head.MessageBodyClassname = 'EnsLib.HL7.Message'
        AND head.SourceConfigName = 'SourceBusinessHostName'
    ORDER BY
        head.ID Desc

You can download the class here: http://www.hl7spy.com/downloads/HICG_HL7.xml

Jeffrey Drumm · Sep 8, 2023

I don't know of any other attributes, and increasing logging may turn up something but hasn't proved useful in my experience.

If your servers are reporting occasional disconnect errors, that's not necessarily a network issue, or even something to worry about. The mirror members may report disconnections due to things like snapshots/backups where one or more hosts are momentarily suspended by the hypervisor in a virtualized environment, or updates to the OS that might stop/start services as part of the update process. It's important to remember, though, that the arbiter is designed to operate optimally in a low-latency, same network, same data center scenario. If your mirrored hosts are spread across a WAN, you're asking for errors.

Jeffrey Drumm · Sep 7, 2023

That setting allows you to specify an adapter address over which arbitration traffic will flow. It's a local address for situations where the arbiter server may have multiple adapters on different networks.

The IRIS servers establish the arbiter connection rather than the other way around, and you can have multiple mirror pairs us a single arbiter instance.

The ISCAgent is normally installed by default with IRIS, but may not be activated. On my mirrored servers, it's active, but I don't remember whether that happened automatically as part of the setup process, or I did it manually.

No allow list that I'm aware of, but if you want to restrict access to ISCAgent ports, add an adapter to each host, connected to a VLAN that is not routeable from outside that network. Configure application_server.interface_address to use it. You could also use the same network for mirror journal transmission/communication, and leverage QoS to allocate a fixed minimum amount of bandwidth that would be unavailable to other network traffic.

Jeffrey Drumm · Aug 25, 2023

Are you attempting to do this in a routing rule foreach or a DTL?

You're much better off working with a Business Process/BPL for this sort of thing. You would:

  • Create a context variable for the FT1 segment counter (ex. FT1counter)
  • use that as the key in a Foreach action, with request.{FT1()} as the property.
  • In the loop:
    • Add a Transform action to use a DTL to map the required PID/PV1/etc. fields to the record map, specifying the current FT1 segment values using source.{FT1(context.FT1counter):Fieldname} to select the current segment's fields.
    • Add a Call action for invoking the operation in the same loop, and you're done.
  • Save, add it to your production, and point the service at it.
Jeffrey Drumm · Aug 21, 2023

As part of the encryption negotiation process, there's an exchange of supported cypher suites between the client and server. If there's no match, no connection can be established. No need to force a specific cypher site; all available should be presented by the client during connection negotiation.

If upgrading to a current version of HealthShare/Health Connect is not an option, you could script the transfers outside of the production (batch/powershell/Python/Perl script running under Windows' Scheduler or called from ObjectScript in a Scheduled Task via $ZF(-100) ) and then use a File service/operation to pick them up for processing or drop them off for delivery.

Jeffrey Drumm · Aug 20, 2023

There have been updates to openssh within the last few years that retired older, less secure cypher suites. It's possible that 2017.2 may be old enough to be incompatible with newer versions of the ssh (which sftp relies upon) libraries.

Check with the vendor/customer at the other end of the connection to see if they've made recent changes to their version of ssh.

Jeffrey Drumm · Aug 18, 2023

export flags the variable to be available in child processes, but only affects the current account in an interactive shell.

jeff@ourawai03:~/tmp$ a="hey"
jeff@ourawai03:~/tmp$ echo $a
hey
jeff@ourawai03:~/tmp$ bash
jeff@ourawai03:~/tmp$ echo $a

jeff@ourawai03:~/tmp$ exit
exit
jeff@ourawai03:~/tmp$ export a="hey"
jeff@ourawai03:~/tmp$ bash
jeff@ourawai03:~/tmp$ echo $a
hey
Jeffrey Drumm · Aug 2, 2023

As others have mentioned, Size can be something of a "squishy" terrm depending on a variety of factors.

There's no single property that will work for all message classes; you do need to know the class and make sure it has a "Size" (or in the case of  EnsLib.HL7.Message) "FullSize" property. And you can certainly add it as a search criteria in the Message Viewer: