Information on BCL Convert software releases

Illumina provides the standalone BCL Convert software for free to use on local Linux systems to convert Illumina NGS run data (BCLs) to FASTQ files. BCL Convert is also available in BaseSpace Sequence Hub, Illumina Connected Analytics, and as part of the software suite of on-premise DRAGEN servers and Illumina instruments with DRAGEN onboard. This article provides information on and addresses common questions about how the standalone BCL Convert software is released.

BCL Convert installer formats

Installers are provided in RPM format only, currently for CentOS 7 and Oracle Linux 8. As CentOS 7 has reached end-of-life, future RPM releases are planned only for Oracle Linux 8. These are the only operating systems that have been validated for commercial use, and installers for other operating systems such as Debian/Ubuntu packages or Oracle Linux 9 are not created, released, or supported by Illumina.

Source code

The source code for BCL Convert is proprietary and not available for download to be compiled on other systems.

Recommendations for running BCL Convert on unsupported OSes

For users running a Linux distribution other than ones supported for BCL Convert, Illumina recommends creating a compatible environment for running BCL Convert, such as a Docker container or virtual machine.

Further information

More details about Illumina software licenses, usage, and agreements can be found on the Terms and Conditions page of the Illumina legal site; see the section on Illumina Software Products.

Users interested in upgrading from bcl2fastq (Illumina’s older FASTQ generation software) to BCL Convert are recommended to read the following knowledge article: Upgrading from bcl2fastq to BCL Convert

For any feedback or questions regarding this article (Illumina Knowledge Article #9158), contact Illumina Technical Support [e-mail].