VistA Administration

This page is focused on the efforts that must be made to administer a VistA system, not topics related to the Veterans Affairs Department (which used to be called the Veterans Administration).

Planning

What operating systems can a VistA server run on? The VA has historically run it on VMS, Indian Health and others on Microsoft Windows with Caché, and the Open Source community on Linux with GT.M.

• CentOS A popular Linux operating system for production use with VistA.

• OpenSolaris zones OpenSolaris is an open source release of high-end Unix server software from Sun. Solaris zones function as simple but elegant virtual machines.

• Why Consider Ubuntu -- one of the mostly widely used Linux operating systems worldwide.

• Linux Active Directory How-To Information on how to use Microsoft Active Directory for Linux authentication.

Installing VistA

For a discussion of the issues involved, here are some slide shows presented at VistA Community Meetings about the process of installing a VistA system at a particular site:

• Jack Shaffer and Matt King MD at 16th VistA Community Meeting, Jan. 10-13, 2008, Midland, Texas

• File:Revolution.ppt

When you are ready to install VistA, you have a number of choices.

• Software Downloads provides a fairly current (Jan 2010) comparison of options.
• Installation Overview is mostly of historical interest.

Setup VistA

Configuration is probably the most arduous and expensive step. It never ends.

• Intracare Implementation Log follows I. Valdes MD as he installs VistA with the help of Hardhats

Maintaining VistA

• Drug File~ gives some basic links on this essential part of VistA
• Pharmacy Issues provides more technical detail

Restoring VistA

Your system either has already crashed or it will eventually.

• Restoring a VistA installation