Ensuring that Durable %SYS is Specified and Mounted

Ensuring that Durable %SYS is Specified and Mounted

When a container is run with the ISC_DATA_DIRECTORY environment variable, pointers are set to the durable %SYS files only if the specified volume is successfully mounted.

• If ISC_DATA_DIRECTORY is specified but the needed --volume /external_host:/durable_storage option is omitted from the docker run command, the instance fails to start and an error message is generated.

• If the --volume option is included but Docker cannot successfully mount the specified volume, it creates the external storage directory and the volume within the container; in this case, the instance data is copied to the durable %SYS directory, as described under "If the durable %SYS directory specified by ISC_DATA_DIRECTORY does not exist" in Running an InterSystems IRIS Container with Durable %SYS.

If ISC_DATA_DIRECTORY is not specified, the InterSystems IRIS instance uses the instance-specific data within the container, and therefore cannot operate as an upgrade of the previous instance.

To use durable %SYS, you must therefore ensure that all methods by which your InterSystems IRIS containers are run incorporate these two options.