Version requirements

Summary of changes for OMERO 5.4 and provisional changes for 5.5

Criteria for what is considered to be supportable includes whether support by both upstream developers and operating system distributions will be available for the lifetime of the 5.4 release (including security support), and also upon our resources allocated to CI and testing. If we are not actively testing it, we cannot claim it is supported or functional. Software components must be provided and supported either by an operating system distribution or their original developers.

This section contains a summary of the changes made to the minimum version requirements for the 5.4 release and also possible changes for the following 5.5 release, albeit tentatively at this point. The intent is to provide a roadmap in order that sysadmins may plan ahead and ensure that prerequisites are in place ahead of time to ease future upgrades. The following sections provide more detailed information and the rationale for the changes.

Please check the meaning of the various symbols used on this page. Any system/component with a green tick symbol is supported.

Operating systems

  • Microsoft Windows

  • MacOS X

    • MacOS X is typically suited only to client use, not serious server deployment, although the server can be expected to build on versions with current security support for development purposes.

  • Linux distribution CentOS/RHEL

    Distribution version OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
    6.x Deprecated Deprecated Dropped
    7.x Recommended Recommended Recommended

  • Linux distribution Ubuntu LTS

    Distribution version OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
    14.04 Supported Supported Supported
    16.04 Recommended Recommended Recommended
    • Only LTS versions are supported and tested. Non-LTS versions following a supported LTS release are likely to work but are not officially supported or tested.
    • Rationale: No change in this timeframe.

Bitness

Currently both client and server will work on 32- and 64-bit systems on all platforms with the exception of MacOS X (64-bit only).

Bitness OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
32-bit Deprecated for Ice and native code [client] Deprecated for Ice and native code [client] Dropped for Ice and native code [client]
64-bit Recommended Recommended Recommended

Components

  • PostgreSQL

    PostgreSQL OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
    9.3 Deprecated Deprecated Dropped
    9.4 Supported Supported Deprecated
    9.5 Supported Supported Supported
    9.6 Recommended Recommended Recommended
    • Rationale: Current releases available for all supported systems from upstream and for CentOS/RHEL 6.x officially via SCL (software collections).

  • Python

    Python OMERO.web 5.3 OMERO.server 5.3 OMERO.web 5.4 OMERO.server 5.4 OMERO 5.5
    2.6 Broken Supported Broken Supported Dropped
    2.7 Recommended Recommended Recommended Recommended Recommended
    3.x Broken Broken Broken Broken Broken
    • Rationale: 2.7 is provided by all systems except for CentOS/RHEL 6.x, however it is available officially via SCL. Note that 3.3 is also available via SCL, so there is potential for a 3.x migration in the 5.4 timeframe. OMERO.web no longer works with Python 2.6, the OMERO.server can still be used with Python 2.6.

  • Ice

    Ice OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
    3.5 Deprecated Deprecated Dropped
    3.6 Recommended Recommended Supported
    3.7 Upcoming Upcoming Recommended

  • Java

    Java OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
    7 Deprecated Deprecated Deprecated
    8 Recommended Recommended Supported
    9 Upcoming Upcoming Recommended
    • Rationale: For 5.3 and 5.4 deprecate 7; this is because security support ended in April 2015. Currently, Matlab is shipped with Java 7 so it cannot be marked as dropped yet.

  • nginx

    nginx OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
    1.6 Deprecated Dropped Dropped
    1.8 Supported Deprecated Dropped
    1.10 Recommended Recommended Supported
    1.12 Upcoming Upcoming Recommended

Support levels

The following table defines the symbols used throughout this page to describe the support status of a given component, as it progresses from being new and not supported, to supported and tested on a routine basis, and to finally being old and no longer supported nor tested.

Level Meaning Description
Upcoming unsupported/new New version not yet regularly tested and not officially supported; may or may not work (use at own risk)
Supported supported/suboptimal Version which is tested, confirmed to work correctly, but may not offer optimal performance/experience
Recommended supported/optimal Version which is regularly tested, confirmed to work correctly, recommended for optimal performance/experience
Deprecated supported/deprecated Version which is less tested, expected to work correctly, but may not offer optimal performance/experience; official support may be dropped in the next major OMERO release
Dropped unsupported/old Old version no longer tested and no longer officially supported; may or may not work (use at own risk)
Broken unsupported/broken Known to not work
Unsupported unsupported/misc Not supported for some reason other than the above

Operating system support

The following subsections detail the versions of each operating system which are supported by both its upstream developers (for security and general updates) and by OME for OMERO building and server deployment.

UNIX (FreeBSD)

It only really makes sense to support the base toolchain for major releases and the Ports tree (which is continually updated); these will be covered in the dependencies, below.

Linux (CentOS and RHEL)

General overview for RHEL and CentOS

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 Details
6 from Nov 2010 to Nov 2020 Deprecated Deprecated Dropped Reference
7 from June 2014 to June 2024 Recommended Recommended Recommended Reference

RHEL, CentOS 6 and 7 are supported at present. Given the long life of enterprise releases, we intend to support only the latest release at any given time or else it ties us into very old dependencies; 6.x is already quite long in the tooth, however is in wide use and so will require supporting at least 5.4.0.

Linux (Ubuntu)

General overview

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
14.04 LTS from Apr 2014 to Apr 2019 Supported Supported Supported
16.04 LTS from Apr 2016 to Apr 2021 Recommended Recommended Recommended

Only the LTS releases are supported due to resource limitations upon CI and testing. Only the last two LTS releases are supported (being a bit more frequent than CentOS/RHEL). There is currently no CI testing for any version, but some developer use of 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS and more recent non-LTS releases.

Dependencies

The following subsections detail the versions of each dependency needed by OMERO which are supported by both its upstream developers (for security and general updates) and by OME for OMERO building and server and client deployment.

Note

Versions in brackets are in development distributions and may change without notice.

Package lists

Operating system Details
CentOS 6 / RHEL 6 Reference
CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 Reference
Ubuntu Reference
Homebrew Reference
FreeBSD Ports Reference

PostgreSQL

General overview

OMERO support policies

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
9.3 from Sep 2013 to Sep 2018 Deprecated Deprecated Dropped
9.4 from Dec 2014 to Dec 2019 Supported Supported Deprecated
9.5 from Jan 2016 to Jan 2021 Supported Supported Supported
9.6 from Sep 2016 to Sep 2021 Recommended Recommended Recommended
Details   Reference      

Version provided by distribution

If no version is provided, a suitable repository is indicated.

Version CentOS/RHEL Ubuntu Homebrew FreeBSD Ports
9.3 N/A 14.04 N/A Yes
9.4 6 (postgresql), 7 (postgresql) 14.04, 16.04 (postgresql) Yes Yes
9.5 6 (postgresql), 7 (postgresql) 14.04 (postgresql), 16.04 Yes Yes
9.6 6 (postgresql), 7 (postgresql) 14.04, 16.04 (postgresql) Yes Yes
Details   Reference    

The PostgreSQL project provides packages for supported platforms. Therefore distribution support is not critical since 9.4, 9.5 and 9.6 are available for all platforms.

Python

OMERO support policies

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 Details
2.6 from Oct 2008 to Oct 2013 Dropped [1] Supported [2] Dropped [1] Supported [2] Dropped PEP 361
2.7 from Jul 2010 to 2020 Recommended Recommended Recommended PEP 373
3.2 from Feb 2011 to Feb 2016 Broken Broken Broken PEP 392
3.3 from Sep 2012 to Sep 2017 Broken Broken Broken PEP 398
3.4 from Mar 2014 TBA Broken Broken Broken PEP 429
3.5 from Sept 2015 TBA Broken Broken Broken PEP 478
3.6 from Dec 2016 TBA Broken Broken Broken PEP 494
[1](1, 2) For OMERO.web, Python 2.7 is the minimum supported version.
[2](1, 2) For OMERO.py and OMERO.server, Python 2.6 is the minimum supported version.

Version provided by distribution

Version CentOS/RHEL Ubuntu Homebrew FreeBSD Ports
2.6 6 10.04 N/A Yes
2.7 7 14.04, 16.04 Yes Yes
3.2 N/A N/A N/A Yes
3.3 N/A N/A N/A Yes
3.4 N/A 14.04 N/A Yes
3.5 N/A 16.04 N/A Yes
3.6 N/A N/A Yes Yes
Details   Python 2 Python 3    

At the moment 2.7 support is present upstream for the foreseeable future; 3.x versions continue to be released and retired regularly in parallel. The limiting factor will be distribution support for 2.7 as major packages are slowly switching to 3.x, and this might cause problems if our python module dependencies are no longer available without major effort.

The supported version of the Django module used by OMERO.web (1.8) requires Python 2.7. The older version (1.6) will work with Python 2.6 but lacks security support, and is consequently not recommended for production use.

Ice

General overview

OMERO support policies

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 Details
3.5 from Mar 2013 to Oct 2013 Deprecated Deprecated Dropped 3.5.0, 3.5.1
3.6 from June 2015 to TBA Recommended Recommended Supported 3.6.0 (3.6.1 Broken), 3.6.2, 3.6.3, 3.6.4
3.7 from July 2017 to TBA Unsupported Unsupported Recommended 3.7.0

Version provided by distribution

If no version is provided, a suitable repository is indicated.

Version CentOS/RHEL Ubuntu Homebrew FreeBSD Ports
3.5 6, 7 (zeroc) 14.04, 16.04 N/A N/A
3.6 6, 7 (zeroc) 14.04, 16.04 (zeroc) Yes Yes
3.7 7 (zeroc) 16.04 (zeroc) Yes Yes
Details   Reference    

Java

General overview

OMERO support policies

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 Details
7 from Jul 2011 to Apr 2015 Deprecated Deprecated Dropped Reference
8 from Mar 2014 to Mar 2017 Recommended Recommended Supported Reference
9 TBA TBA Unsupported Unsupported Recommended  

Version provided by distribution

Version CentOS/RHEL Ubuntu Homebrew FreeBSD Ports
7 6, 7 14.04 N/A Yes
8 6, 7 16.04 N/A Yes
9 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Details   Reference    

Note that all distributions provide OpenJDK 7 and/or 8 due to distribution restrictions by Oracle. Oracle Java may be used if downloaded separately.

nginx

General overview and roadmap

OMERO support policies

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.3 OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5
1.6 from Apr 2014 to Apr 2015 Deprecated Dropped Dropped
1.8 from Apr 2015 to Jan 2016 Supported Deprecated Dropped
1.10 from April 2016 TBA Recommended Recommended Supported
1.12 from April 2016 TBA Supported Supported Recommended

Version provided by distribution

If no version is provided, a suitable repository is indicated.

Version CentOS/RHEL Ubuntu Homebrew FreeBSD Ports
1.6 N/A N/A N/A N/A
1.8 N/A N/A N/A N/A
1.10 6 (EPEL), 7 (EPEL) 14.04 (nginx), 16.04 Yes Yes
1.12 6 (EPEL), 7 (EPEL) 14.04 (nginx), 16.04 Yes Yes
Details     Reference