The MedAustron Ion therapy center will be constructed in Wiener Neustadt (Austria) in the vicinity of Vienna. Its accelerator complex consists of four ion sources, a linear accelerator, a synchrotron, and a beam delivery system to the three medical treatment rooms and to the research irradiation room. The ion sources shall deliver beams of H(3)(1+), C(4+), and light ions with utmost reliability and stability. This paper describes the features of the ion sources presently planned for the MedAustron facility, such as ion source main parameters, gas injection, temperature control, and cooling systems. A dedicated beam diagnostics technique is proposed in order to characterize electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion beams; in the first drift region after the ion source, a fraction of the mixed beam is selected via moveable aperture. With standard beam diagnostics, we then aim to produce position-dependant observables such as ion-current density, beam energy distribution, and emittance for each charge states to be compared to simulations of ECR e-heating, plasma simulation, beam formation, and transport.