Installing McIDAS-XCD for the First Time

Installing McIDAS-XCD 2023.1 for the First Time

If you are installing McIDAS-XCD on a workstation that already has a previous version of McIDAS-XCD installed, go to the previous section, Upgrading to McIDAS-XCD 2023.1.

Before proceeding with the instructions below, verify that McIDAS-X 2023.1 has been installed on the workstation. If it hasn't you must do so before you install McIDAS-XCD 2023.1.

Adding the mcdata Group and Disabling Binary Logging

The workstation running the McIDAS-XCD software must have the group name mcdata which contains the users oper and mcidas. It also should disable the writing of binary log files associated with the database. This is needed because MySQL/MariaDB 8.0 and later enable binary logging by default, which fills large amounts of disk (possibly an entire file system) due to it logging millions of INSERT into file_list entries per day. Use this procedure to add the mcdata group, if needed, and disable binary logging.

Log on to the root account.

Add the following line to the /etc/group file. Replace groupid with a unique group ID number.

mcdata::groupid:oper,mcidas

For example: mcdata::23000:oper,mcidas

Disable the writing of binary log files associated with the database.

Type: /home/oper/mcidas/bin/gribadmin disablelog

When the command is finished, you should see a message like that below.

/etc/my.cnf.d/disable-log-bin.cnf successfully written!

Log out of the root account.

Assigning Directory Permissions

Use the steps below to assign write privileges to the directory ~mcidas/data.

Log on to the workstation as user mcidas and change the group for the ~mcidas/data directory to the group mcdata.

Type: chgrp mcdata ~mcidas/data

Change the permissions for the directory ~mcidas/data so only the user mcidas and members of the group mcdata have write permission.

Type: chmod 775 ~mcidas/data

Log out of the mcidas account.

Loading the McIDAS-XCD Software

Complete the steps below to load the McIDAS-XCD software.

Logon to the workstation as user oper and change to the ~oper/mcidas directory.

Type: cd ~oper/mcidas

Verify that the PATH environment variable contains the ~mcidas/bin and ~oper/mcidas/bin directories, and the operating system-specific modifications listed for the mcidas account in the McIDAS User's Guide.

Type: echo $PATH

Verify that the ~oper/mcidas/data directory exists (use command mkdir ~oper/mcidas/data to make it if it doesn't) and that the MCPATH environment variable is set and includes the ~oper/mcidas/data, ~oper/mcidas/help, ~mcidas/data, and ~mcidas/help directories.

Type: echo $MCPATH

Build and install McIDAS-XCD 2023.1 using the same settings for optional flags -noopt and -mysql as were used to build McIDAS-X 2023.1. You must use the same compilers and optional flag settings for both the McIDAS-X and McIDAS-XCD builds.

Type: sh ./xcd2023.1.sh flags install all

where flags is zero, one or both of the two optional flags described below.

The -noopt flag is used to build McIDAS-XCD with no optimization. If you don't specify this -noopt flag, McIDAS-XCD is built using the default optimization: -O2 for builds with vendor compilers and -O1 for builds with gcc/g77.
The -mysql flag is used to build McIDAS-XCD using the MySQL/MariaDB database libraries. Use this flag if this workstation will be serving real-time GRIB files from the NOAAPORT data stream and you have installed and want to use a MySQL/MariaDB database to make the GRIB data access faster for your McIDAS-X clients/users. If the database is in a non-standard install location, specify the flag as -mysql=directory, where directory is the root MySQL/MariaDB install directory. Remember, the -mysql flag must be specified when building both McIDAS-X and McIDAS-XCD.

This script performs the following steps:

creates the subdirectories xcd2023.1, xcd2023.1/src, and xcd2023.1/data in the ~oper/mcidas directory
uncompresses the file xcd2023.1.tar.Z
compiles the source code and copies the binaries to the directory ~oper/mcidas/bin; approximately 130 modules are compiled, so this step takes a few minutes to complete; your compiler may generate some warnings while the macro commands are compiling
copies data files to the ~oper/mcidas/data and the~mcidas/data directories
copies the help files to the ~oper/mcidas/help directory

When the script is finished, you will see the message below.

McIDAS-XCD package installation is now complete

Switch to user mcidas so you can install the McIDAS-XCD ADDE servers.

Type: su mcidas

Run the script below to install the new ADDE server executable code in the mcidas account.

Type: sh ./xcd2023.1.sh install addeservers

Exit from user mcidas.

Type: exit

You should now be logged on as user oper.

Start a McIDAS-X session.

Type: mcidas

Determine the full Unix path of the directory in which you want -XCD to write data. The location where you store data is up to you; be sure to take disk space needs into account when making your decision. The data directory needs to exist, and also needs to contain grib and bufr subdirectories. Once you've determined the path of your data directory, create a McIDAS string named MCDATA that contains the full Unix path to the directory. From the McIDAS-X session,

Type: TE MCDATA "/data_directory_path

For example: TE MCDATA "/home/oper/xcd_data
In order for -XCD to correctly file data in this example, the /home/oper/xcd_data, /home/oper/xcd_data/grib, and /home/oper/xcd_data/bufr directories need to exist. Create the #MCDATA, #MCDATA/grib, and #MCDATA/bufr directories, if necessary.

Run the batch file XCD.BAT to redirect to data files in #MCDATA and to initialize the files GROUPS.DAT and COUNTRY.DAT.

Type: BATCH XCD.BAT

Run the batch file XCDDEC.BAT to register MD file schemas, create rapid access pointer files, and initialize several data files.

Type: BATCH XCDDEC.BAT

Proceed to the next section, Configuring McIDAS-XCD, and complete the configuration instructions for each section.