System Requirements

The McIDAS-XCD 2011.1 software package was tested and is supported on Enterprise Linux 5.2 Intel and 6.1 Intel.

McIDAS-X 2011.1 (released in pair with McIDAS-XCD 2011.1 in November 2011) must be installed in the mcidas account according to the specifications in Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring McIDAS-X, in the McIDAS User's Guide. Be sure to include the directory ~mcidas/bin in the environment variable PATH.

The Unix workstation running the McIDAS-XCD software must have the user account oper. This account must be configured with the appropriate directories, links, and paths to run McIDAS-X. For more information, see the section titled Configuring a New User Account in Chapter 1 of the McIDAS User's Guide. If you already have an oper account on your workstation and do not want to run the -XCD package under this account, contact the McIDAS Help Desk at (608) 262-2455 or by e-mail.

The Unix workstation running the McIDAS-XCD software must have the group name mcdata which contains the user oper.

McIDAS-XCD is designed to process data from the NOAAPORT data stream that is broadcast by the National Weather Service. The standard method for receiving this data stream is through the use of a NOAAPORT Receive System.

In addition, the workstation must have enough disk space to run the McIDAS-XCD software package and store its data files. The table below lists the approximate disk space requirements per day for each data type decoded with the -XCD package. The space requirements were derived from the NOAAPORT broadcast in November 2011.

Data type	Daily space requirements
* ASCII text stream	1,800 MB
* MD files (all types/schemas)	100 MB
All GRIB1 and GRIB2 data	18,000 MB
All radar (WSR-88D and TDWR) products and stations	12,500 MB
All BUFR data	1,700 MB
* These data are generated by default for first-time installations. The GRIB, GRID and NEXRAD decoders are inactive by default.
NOAAPORT approximate total	34,100 MB

In addition, there is a static requirement of 500 to 1,000 MB for other -XCD files. If enabled, the MySQL database (60 MB) and LDM product queue (default=400 MB) also consume significant disk space. Note: The LDM product queue can be set as large as 4 GB on a 32 bit Enterprise Linux workstation.

Remember that the space requirements above are approximates and are per day. If you save multiple days of data you must multiply the figures by the number of days for your disk space requirements.

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