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Inside DNAnexus

Product updates, industry insights, opinions and references. From the team powering the Genomics Revolution.

Update to Ubuntu 14.04

Ubuntu 12.04 has reached end-of-life, and the DNAnexus team is taking  steps to ensure that customer applications and DNAnexus backend systems migrate away from this version of the software. We recommend any customers who develop and maintain DNAnexus applications update your applications and applets to Ubuntu 14.04 as soon as possible to identify any issues that may arise. We are currently using Canonical’s Extended Security Maintenance feature to help ensure the ongoing security and integrity of Ubuntu 12.04 systems, however, support for 12.04 DNAnexus applications and applets on all instance types will officially end on April 28th, 2018.

Tips for Updating to Ubuntu 14.04: 

  • If your application uses assets, ‘execDepends’, or installs from ‘apt’ directly within the application, it is recommended that you ensure any version changes in these packages when using Ubuntu 14.04 are compatible with your application. It may be helpful to use a Cloud Workstation to test out these differences.
  • Instead of using ‘execDepends’ for installing packages, consider using DNAnexus assets or Docker images. Your application will incur less runtime dependency on the network availability of Canonical packages, and by using Docker, you can choose different runtime environments, including Ubuntu 16.04, to encapsulate the core functionality of the application.

Beginning October 15th, 2017, the DNAnexus Platform will also require the ‘distribution’ and ‘release’ fields to be specified within the application’s ‘runSpec’ when building an applet. Please ensure that any applications you build from source contain those fields. Note that if you use ‘dx-app-wizard’ to generate an application template, these fields are populated for you. Please ensure you are using a recent version of the dx-toolkit when using ‘dx-app-wizard’ or performing a build. You can obtain the latest version of the toolkit from our wiki or by using the ‘dx upgrade‘ command.

Please do not hesitate to contact support@dnanexus.com with any questions or concerns regarding this software update.

About DNAnexus

DNAnexus the leader in biomedical informatics and data management, has created the global network for genomics and other biomedical data, operating in 33 countries including North America, Europe, China, Australia, South America, and Africa. The secure, scalable, and collaborative DNAnexus Platform helps thousands of researchers across a spectrum of industries — biopharmaceutical, bioagricultural, sequencing services, clinical diagnostics, government, and research consortia — accelerate their genomics programs.

The DNAnexus team is made up of experts in computational biology and cloud computing who work with organizations to tackle some of the most exciting opportunities in human health, making it easier—and in many cases feasible—to work with genomic data. With DNAnexus, organizations can stay a step ahead in leveraging genomics to achieve their goals. The future of human health is in genomics. DNAnexus brings it all together.