Server Process Management

The installer registers OIE as a native service and sets it to start on boot. After a fresh install, check whether it is running and start it by hand if it is not.

The service runs as a privileged account

No dedicated service account is created. The service runs as root on Linux and macOS, and as the local system account on Windows.

Channel scripts execute arbitrary code inside the server JVM and inherit whatever privileges the service holds. That is fine for evaluation and development. A production host should run the engine under an unprivileged account with only the access it needs.

See Security posture and hardening for the service account and file permissions.

On Windows the service appears in the Services manager (services.msc) as Open Integration Engine Service. Start it, stop it, or switch it between automatic and manual startup there, like any other Windows service. On Linux and macOS it is managed from a terminal.

From a command line:

Windows

Get-Service 'Open Integration Engine Service'      # is it running?
Start-Service 'Open Integration Engine Service'    # start it
Stop-Service 'Open Integration Engine Service'     # stop it

Linux

sudo systemctl status oieservice   # is it running?
sudo systemctl start oieservice    # start it
sudo systemctl stop oieservice     # stop it

macOS

sudo launchctl list | grep com.oie.oieservice     # is it loaded, and running?
sudo launchctl kickstart system/com.oie.oieservice      # start it
sudo launchctl kickstart -k system/com.oie.oieservice   # restart it
sudo launchctl bootout system/com.oie.oieservice        # stop it and unload it
sudo launchctl bootstrap system /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oie.oieservice.plist   # load and start it again after bootout

Starting and stopping the service needs elevation everywhere: an administrator PowerShell on Windows, sudo on Linux and macOS. On macOS, launchctl list prints the PID in its first column, and - there means the daemon is loaded but not running. Plain kickstart starts a loaded daemon that is not running, and kickstart -k restarts one that is. bootout stops the daemon and unloads it, so it stays stopped until the next reboot or until bootstrap reloads it. kickstart cannot start a daemon that has been booted out. The installer writes the daemon definition to /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oie.oieservice.plist with RunAtLoad set, so loading it also starts it.

Starting it in the foreground

oieserver runs the server in the foreground, streaming the log to your terminal. It also keeps writing logs/mirth.log. Use it for a first look, for development, and for debugging a server that will not start. In production the service does this job. Windows ships two foreground launchers that start the same server. Open a command prompt for oieserver.exe, or a PowerShell prompt for oieserver.ps1. A command prompt cannot run the PowerShell script.

Linux/macOS

cd <installation directory>
sudo ./oieserver

Windows command prompt

cd <installation directory>
oieserver.exe

Windows PowerShell

cd <installation directory>
.\oieserver.ps1

Stop the service first. Otherwise both processes compete for ports 8080 and 8443.

On first launch the server initializes the database. When it starts correctly you will see output similar to this. Version numbers, build dates and addresses will differ:

INFO  2026-09-04 09:39:11.168 [Main Server Thread] com.mirth.connect.server.Mirth: Open Integration Engine 4.6.0 (Built on July 9, 2026) server successfully started.
INFO  2026-09-04 09:39:11.169 [Main Server Thread] com.mirth.connect.server.Mirth: This product was developed by NextGen Healthcare (https://www.nextgen.com) and its contributors (c)2005-2024.
INFO  2026-09-04 09:39:11.169 [Main Server Thread] com.mirth.connect.server.Mirth: Open Integration Engine contributors (c)2025.
INFO  2026-09-04 09:39:11.169 [Main Server Thread] com.mirth.connect.server.Mirth: Running OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 17.0.17 on Mac OS X (26.6.2, aarch64), derby, with charset UTF-8.
INFO  2026-09-04 09:39:11.174 [Main Server Thread] com.mirth.connect.server.Mirth: Web server running at http://192.168.1.20:8080/ and https://192.168.1.20:8443/

TIP

Note these URLs, as you will need them later.

When the server is up, see Accessing the Administrator.

The launcher finds a Java runtime by checking, in order, the OIE_JAVA_PATH environment variable, a -java-cmd line in oieserver.vmoptions or a file it includes, JAVA_HOME, and finally java on the PATH. It takes the first entry that resolves to Java 17 or higher, except that a bad OIE_JAVA_PATH stops the launcher rather than falling through.