The Menu "System Setup => Hive Tasks" contains various functions that are called automatically by i2b2 Wizard. If something goes wrong, you may want to call them on your own. E.g. the functions to remove and reload I2B2PM and I2B2HIVE come in handy if you encounter database issues and need to reinstall both schemas.

Updating the server IP address

In order to allow the i2b2 Workbenches to communicate with the i2b2 Web Services, the IP address must be written to the table PM_CELL_DATA in I2B2PM. This can be done automatically by selecting "System Setup => Hive Tasks => Update Hive-IP" from the main menu. The figure below shows the screen with the network interface selection.

The next figure below explains the background of the networking configuration. In a default VirtualBox Linux installation, there are two network interfaces: the loop-only interface that is used internally by the Linux system and the NAT interface that connects to the internet. However, in order to allow the i2b2 Workbench and Web Client (which is, in fact, running on the physical host computer, not on the server) to connect to the i2b2 server, a host-only network interface has to be created.

Therefore, if you are using VirtualBox, select the interface with the 192.168.56.***-IP by pressing the space bar. This is the "Host-Only-Adapter". An alternative is to select the loop-only interface (127.0.0.1). In this case, however, the server can only be accessed from within the server itself. This means that you have to run the Workbench inside the VM or open the Web Client with a browser running inside the VM.

Updating the Hive ID

The Hive ID can be understood as the i2b2 server's name. It can be changed in the "Configure Default Parameters" screen as described above. Executing the "System Setup => Hive Tasks => Update Hive-ID" function then registers this value inside the server.

Loading and dropping I2B2PM and I2B2HIVE

In the Menu "System Setup => Hive Tasks" two menu items can be found for loading or dropping the schemata I2B2PM and I2B2HIVE. They contain basic administrative data and are required for an i2b2 installation.

Note that depending on your default settings, these schemas may have a different name.

Also note that you should never remove I2B2PM and I2B2HIVE once i2b2 projects and/or users have been created. If you remove I2B2PM and I2B2HIVE, all project and user settings inside the database are lost and cannot be rebuilt automatically, even from the project and users configuration from i2b2 Wizard, which is in fact kept. The removal of the two schemata is only applicable if you want to fix a new i2b2 hive that is not properly working, which should never happen...