Version requirements

Summary of changes for OMERO 5.6 and provisional changes for 6.0

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 5.6 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 current (5.6) release and also possible changes for the next 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.

Level Meaning
Upcoming unsupported/new
Supported supported/suboptimal
Recommended supported/optimal
Deprecated supported/deprecated
Dropped unsupported/old
Broken unsupported/broken
Unsupported unsupported/misc

Please check the full support levels table for more info on each support level.

Bitness

Rationale: OMERO is tested on 64-bit systems only.

Bitness OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 OMERO 5.6 OMERO 6.0
32-bit Deprecated for Ice and native code [client] Dropped Dropped Dropped
64-bit Recommended Recommended Recommended Recommended

NGINX

nginx OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 OMERO 5.6
1.8 Deprecated Dropped Dropped
1.10 Recommended Supported Deprecated
1.12 Supported Recommended Supported
1.14 Upcoming Supported Recommended
1.16 Upcoming Upcoming Upcoming

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 5.4 OMERO 5.5 OMERO 5.6 OMERO 6.0 Details
6 from Nov 2010 to Nov 2020 Deprecated Dropped Dropped Dropped Reference
7 from June 2014 to June 2024 Recommended Recommended Recommended Deprecated Reference
8 from May 2019 to May 2029 Upcoming Upcoming Upcoming Recommended Reference

RHEL/CentOS 7 is 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.

Linux (Ubuntu)

General overview

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 OMERO 5.6 OMERO 6.0
14.04 LTS from Apr 2014 to Apr 2019 Supported Dropped Dropped Dropped
16.04 LTS from Apr 2016 to Apr 2021 Recommended Recommended Supported Dropped
18.04 LTS from Apr 2018 to Apr 2028 Upcoming Supported Recommended Supported
20.04 LTS from Apr 2020 to Apr 2030 Upcoming Upcoming Upcoming 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.

Microsoft Windows

Client support only. See blog post explanation

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.

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 5.4 OMERO 5.5 OMERO 5.6 OMERO 6.0
9.3 from Sep 2013 to Sep 2018 Deprecated Dropped Dropped Dropped
9.4 from Dec 2014 to Dec 2019 Supported Deprecated Dropped Dropped
9.5 from Jan 2016 to Jan 2021 Supported Supported Deprecated Dropped
9.6 from Sep 2016 to Sep 2021 Recommended Supported Deprecated Dropped
10 from Oct 2017 to Nov 2022 Upcoming Recommended Supported Supported
11 from Oct 2018 to Nov 2023 Upcoming Upcoming Recommended Recommended
12 from Oct 2019 to Nov 2024 Upcoming Upcoming Supported Supported
Details   Reference        

Version provided by distribution

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

Version CentOS/RHEL Ubuntu Homebrew FreeBSD Ports
9.4 6 (postgresql), 7 (postgresql) 14.04, 16.04, 18.04 (postgresql) Yes Yes
9.5 6 (postgresql), 7 (postgresql) 14.04, 16.04, 18.04 (postgresql) Yes Yes
9.6 6 (postgresql), 7 (postgresql), 8 (postgresql) 14.04, 16.04, 18.04 (postgresql) Yes Yes
10 6 (postgresql), 7 (postgresql), 8 (postgresql) 14.04, 16.04, 18.04 (postgresql) Yes Yes
Details   Reference    

The PostgreSQL project provides packages for supported platforms therefore distribution support is not necessary.

Python

OMERO support policies

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 OMERO 5.6 OMERO 6.0 Details
2.6 from Oct 2008 to Oct 2013 Dropped [1] Supported [2] Dropped Dropped Dropped PEP 361
2.7 from Jul 2010 to Jan 2020 Recommended Recommended Dropped Dropped PEP 373
3.2 from Feb 2011 to Feb 2016 Broken Broken Broken Unsupported PEP 392
3.3 from Sep 2012 to Sep 2017 Broken Broken Broken Unsupported PEP 398
3.4 from Mar 2014 to Mar 2019 Broken Broken Broken Unsupported PEP 429
3.5 from Sep 2015 to Sep 2020 Broken Broken Upcoming Unsupported PEP 478
3.6 from Dec 2016 to Dec 2021 Broken Broken Recommended Supported PEP 494
3.7 from Jun 2018 to Jun 2023 Broken Broken Supported Recommended PEP 537
[1]For OMERO.web, Python 2.7 is the minimum supported version.
[2]For OMERO.py and OMERO.server 5.4, 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, 18.04 Yes Yes
3.2 N/A N/A N/A Yes
3.3 N/A N/A N/A Yes
3.4 7 (EPEL) 14.04 N/A Yes
3.5 N/A 16.04 N/A Yes
3.6 7 (EPEL) 18.04 Yes Yes
Details   Python 2 Python 3    

At the moment 2.7 support is present upstream until 2020; 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 so should not be used.

Ice

General overview

OMERO support policies

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 OMERO 5.6 OMERO 6.0 Details
3.5 from Mar 2013 to Oct 2013 Deprecated Dropped Dropped Dropped 3.5.0, 3.5.1
3.6 from June 2015 to TBA Recommended Recommended Recommended Recommended 3.6.0 (3.6.1 Broken), 3.6.2, 3.6.3, 3.6.4, 3.6.5.
3.7 from July 2017 to TBA Unsupported Unsupported Unsupported Unsupported 3.7.0, 3.7.1, 3.7.2, 3.7.3.

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, 18.04 (zeroc) Yes Yes
Details   Reference    

Java

General overview

OMERO support policies

Version Release date Upstream support OMERO 5.4 OMERO 5.5 OMERO 5.6 OMERO 6.0 Details
7 from Jul 2011 to Apr 2015 Deprecated Dropped Dropped Dropped Reference
8 from Mar 2014 to Jun 2023 Recommended Recommended Supported Deprecated Reference
11 from Sep 2018 to Oct 2024 Unsupported Supported Recommended Recommended Reference
12 from Sep 2018 to Oct 2024 Unsupported Unsupported Supported Recommended  
13 from Sep 2018 to Oct 2024 Unsupported Unsupported Supported Supported  

Version provided by distribution

Version CentOS/RHEL Ubuntu Homebrew FreeBSD Ports
7 6, 7 14.04 N/A Yes
8 6, 7 16.04, 18.04 N/A N/A
11 7 18.04 N/A Yes
Details   Reference    

Note that all distributions provide OpenJDK 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 5.4 OMERO 5.5 OMERO 5.6 OMERO 6.0
1.6 from Apr 2014 to Apr 2015 Deprecated Dropped Dropped Dropped
1.8 from Apr 2015 to Jan 2016 Supported Deprecated Dropped Dropped
1.10 from Apr 2016 to Apr 2017 Recommended Supported Deprecated Dropped
1.12 from Apr 2017 to Apr 2018 Supported Recommended Supported Deprecated
1.14 from Apr 2018 to Apr 2019 Upcoming Supported Recommended Supported
1.16 from Apr 2019 TBA Upcoming Upcoming Supported Recommended

Version provided by distribution

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

Version CentOS/RHEL Ubuntu Homebrew FreeBSD Ports
1.12 7 (EPEL) 14.04 (nginx) N/A Yes
1.14 N/A 16.04, 18.04 (nginx) Yes Yes
Details     Reference  

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