openIMIS has been developed and tested using SQL Server 2017. Newer or old versions might require adaptations to both these installation guide and openIMIS code.
Download the desired version of SQL Server (for example, if you want to test openIMIS, you can download and install SQL Server 2017 Developer version - not for production).
When the installation wizard opens, select the manual configuration option in order to fine-tune the installation process.
On the Features selection:
In Shared Feature section, select SQL Client Connectivity SDK
For installations with Data Warehouse, select Analysis Services, Reporting Services and Integration Services (not available for the Express edition)
On the Instance configuration, the default name SQLEXPRESS can be used, unless it is already used by another instance.
On Database engine configuration, select Mixed Mode (SQL Server authentication and Windows authentication) in Authentication Mode.
Continue the setup process until the installation is complete.
Open the SQL Server Configuration Manager.
On the left panel, select SQL Server Network Configuration → Protocols for SQLEXPRESS (or the name of your SQL Server instance) → Enable Named Pipes and TCP/IP.
Select SQL Server Services → right-click on SQL Server instance name and select Restart.
To facilitate the setting up of the openIMIS database, we suggest installing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). The following procedure is based on SSMS, but you can use the standard SQL Server prompt to proceed with the setup.
First, download the openIMIS database SQL files and migration scripts from Github repository (the source code ZIP file).
If you wish to initialize the database using SSMS, follow the steps:
Create a new database for the openIMIS instance (e.g. openIMIS.1.4.0, where 1.4.0 is the openIMIS database version).
Open the openIMIS_ONLINE.sql file (from the Empty databases folder) and execute the script (make sure the selected database is the one created in previous step)
If you prefer to initialize the database using the shell, run the following command:
Be careful to adapt the queries to your setup, in the command lines example those assumptions were made: the database is called IMIS_DATABASENAME. The SQL server is called SQL_Server_Name.
Create a dedicated user with full privilege on the openIMIS database only:
In the Security → Logins → right-click and select “New Login…”
In General page:
Give a login name (e.g. ImisUser)
Select SQL Server authentication and provide a password
Unselect Enforce password expiration
Change the default database to openIMIS
In User Mapping page:
Map openIMIS database to ImisUser user
Give the role of db_owner
There are three specific openIMIS databases to chose from:
Offline (openIMIS_OFFLINE.sql): this mode is used for remote insurance offices without Internet connectivity. Note: the synchronization of data with the central server is manual.
Offline HF (openIMIS_OFFLINE_HF.sql): this mode can be used in remote health facilities without Internet connectivity. Note: the synchronization of data with the central server is manual.
Demo (openIMIS_demo_ONLINE.sql): this script initialize the empty database with the demo dataset.
To initialize one of the specific openIMIS databases, follow the steps:
Initialize the openIMIS database by following the previous section steps
Run the specific database script on the already initialized openIMIS database
The upgrading process should always be performed first on a copy of the database to ensure the proper execution of the migration script. In case of any issue arriving from the upgrading process, you can get back to the previous version of the database. Please report using openIMIS Service Desk any issue you may face in the upgrading process.
The upgrade can be done with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or from the shell (be careful to adapt the queries to your setup).
During the upgrade make sure the is not reachable from the applications (you should stop the openIMIS website in Web Application IIS).
Duplicate the openIMIS database using SSMS (create a full backup of the database and restore it with another database name, e.g. openIMIS.1.4.0) or shell (see following command).
The openIMIS Windows Services are helping with the periodic activities which are required by the implementations.
This Windows service periodically marks the policies that will expire in the near future to be renewed and updates the status of the already expired policies.
Download .
This Windows Service periodically creates a backup of the database.
Download .
To install the Windows Service, proceed as follows for each Service:
Download and unzip the installation setup from he links mentioned in the available Services
Double click on the setup file
Select the installation path (for example C:\Program Files\openIMIS\Windows Services), and click Next
Close after the installation completes
The installed Service should start automatically as indicated in the system tray. If not, browse to Programs menu and search for the Service name (the controller of the service) and execute it.
Run IMIS Policy Renewal (if an error window appears, click Continue)
Right-click the Policy Renewal icon in the system tray (lower-right corner of Windows) and click Settings
Fill the newly-created window Imis Renewal Policy as follows (please adapt to your situation):
Server: .\SERVERNAME
Database: openIMIS.1.3.0
User Name: ImisUser
Password: Pa$$w0rd
Time: 00:00
Interval: 24
Untick all Send SMS to... options
Click Apply
Make a copy of the file ImisPolicyRenewal.exe.config inside C:\Program Files\openIMIS\Windows Services within the same folder
Rename the copy into ImisBackup.exe.config
Run Services
Locate ImisBackup and ImisPolicyRenewal, and do the following for each:
Double-click the said entry
Click the Log On tab
Select the Local System account option
Tick the Allow service to interact with desktop checkbox
Click OK
Right-click the said entry
Click either Restart or Start (whichever is possible)
Locate its icon in the system tray (lower-right corner of Windows)
Right-click the said icon and click Settings
Fix field values, if needed
This service is used to update insurance policies and runs every day at the specified time. It will do the following actions:
If it finds a policy which is about to expire within a specified period of time, it flags it as to be renewed. The list of policies to be renewed can be used by the Enrolment Officers to contact the concerned families. The default policy expiring period of time is 14 days.
Sets the policy status to expired to all policies that have expired in between this Service runs.
Sends SMS to insuree if their policy is about to expire so that they can renew the policy (optional).
After the service installation, the user has to set the name of the server, the database name, the SQL-server instance credentials, and the service schedule for checking which policy is to be flagged as expired policy.
The days specified before the exact policy expiry date is provided in the table tblIMISDefaults under openIMIS Live database. The figure below shows the interface for Policy Renewal Service.
Under the SMS gateway setting, you need to specify the URL given by SMS Gateway provider. You also need to provide the username and password to allow the service to send SMS to the insuree.
Each SMS Provider has it's own communication protocol. Please make sure that the published version is working with your SMS Provider. Otherwise, the SMS communication protocol needs to be updated in the source code for this integration to work.
This service is used for database backup, after the service installation, the user has to set the name of the server, the database name, the SQL-server instance credentials, and the service schedule for the backups.
The backup location is specified in the table under openIMIS Live database. The figure below shows the interface for the database backup service.
Before installing the Web Application, you need to install Microsoft SQL Server with the openIMIS database instantiated.
In Windows Server, follow these steps to install IIS:
In the Server Manager → Dashboard → Add Roles and Features
Select Role-based or feature-based installation
Select your server from the server pool, and select your server from the list
In Server Roles → select Web Server (IIS) → Add Features
In Features
Select .NET Framework 3.5
Select .NET Framework 4.6 and ASP.NET 4.6 (or later)
In Web Server Role (IIS) → Role Services
In Web Server, ensure that Common HTTP Features → Static Content is ticked
In Application Development, select .NET Extensibility, ASP, ASP.NET, ISAPI Extensions, ISAPI Filters and Websocket Protocol
In Management tools, tick all boxes
Click on Install and wait for the features to be installed
Restart the server if required
Download and unzip the desired release from Github web_app_vb repository into a new folder under the IIS wwwroot (e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\openIMIS.1.4.0).
The configuration of IIS is done through Internet Information Service (IIS) Manager.
In Internet Information Service (IIS) Manager:
Select your server name → Sites
Remove the Default Web Site (if new installation)
Right-click on Sites → Add Website
Enter a site name for your openIMIS instance (e.g. openIMIS.1.4.0)
Enter or select the physical pathname (e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\openIMIS.1.4.0)
If you have an SSL certificate, select binding type to HTTPS (port 443) and select your certificate
If you don't have an SSL certificate, select binding type to HTTP (port 80)
If you have selected the binding type to HTTPS (port 443), then you will have to add also the binding type for HTTP
Right-click on the new added website
Select Edit Bindings
Select binding type HTTP (port 80) and click ok
If you have a DNS address (e.g. demo.openimis.org) that is mapped to your server IP address, you can add it in the site binding configuration as the hostname. This will allow having multiple Sites deserving same ports (80 and 443) and can be used to have, for example, openIMIS development (e.g. dev.openimis.org) and production (e.g. demo.openimis.org) sites on the same server.
Depending on the server’s initial configuration, the date format may differ from the expected DD/mm/YYYY format. To force the date format, go to the openIMIS site, then select Culture → .NET Globalisation, and select English (United Kingdom) (en-GB) as a culture.
The web.config file provides the configuration for openIMIS Web Application, including database connection string and necessary folders.
To configure the database connection string, go in openIMIS root folder (e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\openIMIS.1.4.0), locate the web.config file and edit IMISConnectionString entry so that the connection string points to the database created in openIMIS database section with the right credentials. For example:
Other configuration settings can be found within the <appSettings> tag and should be modified with caution.
openIMIS Web Application needs to have full right in certain folders. For this, IIS_IUSRS Windows user must have full control access to the following folders in openIMIS root folder (e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\openIMIS.1.4.0):
Archive
Extracts
FromPhone
Images
Workspace
Repeat the following steps for each folder listed above:
In Windows Explorer, right-click on the folder and select properties
Ensure that the folder is not read-only
Select the Security tab
Click on Edit
Select IIS_IUSRS and allow full control (in the below section).
Then apply and click OK.
Click on the Windows Start menu of run Regedit via the search box:
In the Registry Editor, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → System → CurrentControlSet → Services → Eventlog.
Right-click on the EventLog node, select Permission. Give full permissions to IIS_IUSRS, as described in the above paragraph (Assign permission to source folders). If the IIS_IUSRS user is not present in the list, then click Add button to add it manually.
Now repeat the same steps for Eventlog → Security and Eventlog → State node, as it can be required depending on the server’s environment.
Additional resources:
Open your Internet browser and type the following URL in the browser address bar: http://localhost/
If you have initiated the openIMIS Blank Database, use the following credentials:
Login name: Admin
Password: Admin
If you have initiated the openIMIS Demo Database, use the following credentials:
Login name: Admin
Password: admin123
The openIMIS Legacy Web Application allows managing your health financing processes through your browser. It is based on Microsoft technologies and can be used as a standalone application or be combined with the Modular Web Application. The following steps are presenting the processes of installation and customization of the Legacy Web Application to satisfy your implementation requirements and needs.
The minimum requirement to install and use openIMIS in a production environment are:
Windows Server 2016
2 core CPU
8 GB RAM
100 GB Hard drive
Administrator privileges
You can acquire a VPS from any hosting provider (e.g. Azure, AWS) or create your own server backbone.
For development and testing purposes, please follow the minimum requirements on the following tools:
Visual Studio 2017 minimal requirements (for other versions please check on Microsoft website)
