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 System will VistA 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 Probably the current (Dec 2009) favorite Linux for production use with VistA.

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

• Why Consider Ubuntu A favorite Linux desktop, it may not make the best server.

• 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

Setup VistA

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

• Intracare Implementation Log

Maintaining VistA

• Drug File~

Restoring VistA

Your system either has already crashed or it will eventually.

• Restoring a VistA installation