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McIDAS-XCD Fastrack Version 2014.1
Software and Instructions

This page contains the software and instructions for installing McIDAS-XCD version 2014.1, a fully supported Fastrack release. Modifications made since the previous release (version 2012.1) include:

  • Added new batch files and updated existing ones to restructure the RTGRIDS datasets so that both GRIB1 and GRIB2 data are stored in the RTGRIDS/* datasets. Also reviewed all datasets that were in previous versions of McIDAS-XCD and removed the obsolete datasets. See steps 8 and 9 below for the instructions to complete this procedure, and see the xcd_README_2014.1 file for the complete list of datasets added to RTGRIDS/* via files XCDNOAAPORTGRID.BAT and XCDCONDUITGRID.BAT, and obsolete datasets removed via RMXCDGRB1.BAT and RMXCDGRB2.BAT.
  • Updated the station database (file STNDB.CORE) in McIDAS-X 2014.1 to include hundreds of small airports and other navigation points referenced in PIREP reports. The addition of those new stations results in the PIREP decoder filing many more reports in the RTPTSRC/AIRCRAFT MD files. Other changes in STNDB.CORE include the addition of five new TAF stations (CNY, DRO, KAEG, MTW, TEX) and five new GFSMOS/NAMMOS stations (KLNL, KLUM, KPCZ, KRCX, KTKV); also changed FAJS to FAOR for Johannesburg SA, TAF ID K22 to SJS for Big Sandy Regional Airport KY and corrected lat/lon/ele/type for stations AIY and EEN.
  • Added many fixes and enhancements to the PIREP decoder. The updates include adding LT, LGHT, LIGHT, EXTREME, MODERATE, and SEVERE as valid turbulence and icing values; adding SFC as a valid vertical level for turbulence and icing; adding ability to decode Canadian PIREPs, such as YZ (Toronto) and WG (Winnipeg); adding improved decoding of sky cover and cloud levels; allowing IDA and /OV fields to have four-character stations and wind speed to be reported in the format XXXXXKT; and fixing a problem where the /OV field has values in nautical miles but the decoder previously interpreted them as kilometers.
  • Modified how Metar reports with NIL values are stored in the rapid access text files so that the SFCRPT command locates and lists the correct data.
  • Updated the TAF decoder to work properly with station IDs that include a number (e.g., K36U).

McIDAS-XCD 2014.1 is a fully supported Fastrack release. This means that the software is fully supported by SSEC, and that each change to the software has been tested on all of the supported system configurations. If you elect to install 2014.1, we ask that you notify the McIDAS Help Desk if you encounter any bugs. Please be sure to mention that you are running version 2014.1.

Also note that if you plan to upgrade to 2014.1 from a version earlier than 2012.1, you must first read and perform any required actions in the release documents for each of the versions you skipped so you know about their major changes and any required actions in the interim. For example, if you are upgrading from version 2010.1 to 2014.1, you must first read and perform the required actions in the release documents for versions 2011.1 and 2012.1. See the past versions page for links to those and other materials from past versions.


Obtaining McIDAS-XCD 2014.1

To obtain McIDAS-XCD 2014.1, download the following files to the ~oper/mcidas directory on your McIDAS-XCD workstation.

File name Size Description
xcd2014.1.sh 14 KB shell script that installs the McIDAS-XCD software (right click to download)
xcd2014.1.tar.Z 969 KB compressed tar file that contains all source and data files
xcd_README_2014.1 10 KB information to review before installation


Installing McIDAS-XCD 2014.1

Note: You must install McIDAS-X 2014.1 on the workstation before you install McIDAS-XCD 2014.1. Then continue with the appropriate set of instructions, as described below.

If you are installing McIDAS-XCD for the first time on the workstation, go to the McIDAS-XCD Administrator's Guide's Installing McIDAS-XCD 2014.1 for the First Time and complete its instructions. (Use those instructions rather than those below.)

If you are installing McIDAS-XCD Fastrack version 2014.1 on a workstation that already has a previous version of McIDAS-XCD installed, complete the steps below.

  1. If -XCD is running in the foreground, turn it off by exiting the McIDAS session and wait until all ingestors and data monitors have exited. From the McIDAS Text and Command window,

    Type: EXIT

    If -XCD is running in the background, stop the session by running the following command as user oper.

    Type: xcdadmin stop

  2. As user oper, run the script below from the ~oper/mcidas directory to build and install McIDAS-XCD 2014.1 using the same settings for optional flags -noopt and -mysql as were used to build McIDAS-X 2014.1. You must use the same compilers and optional flag settings for both the McIDAS-X and McIDAS-XCD builds.

    3. Type: sh ./xcd2014.1.sh  flags  build

    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 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 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 install directory. Remember, the -mysql flag must be specified when building both McIDAS-X and McIDAS-XCD.

    When the script xcd2014.1.sh is finished, you will see the message below.

    McIDAS-XCD binaries built correctly

  3. As user oper, run the script below from the ~oper/mcidas directory to install the new executable code and a subset of the replaceable McIDAS-XCD data files for your workstation.

    4. Type: sh ./xcd2014.1.sh cutover

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

    McIDAS-XCD package cutover is now complete

  4. As user oper, start a McIDAS-X session and run the two commands below. The first command (BATCH REGROUP.BAT) recreates the GROUPS.DAT and COUNTRY.DAT files so they contain the station database changes included in McIDAS-X Fastrack 2014.1. The second command (BATCH REBILDRAP.BAT) rebuilds the Rapid Access Pointer files so they include the same station database changes and rebuilds the Rapid Access Text files. Note that running the second command erases the previous content of the *.RAP and *.RAT files, so they will contain only new data. That means that the user commands MOSRPT, OBSRPT, RAOBRPT, SFCRPT, SYNRPT and TAFRPT will not be able to access any data from prior to McIDAS-XCD being restarted (last step below).

    5. Type: BATCH REGROUP.BAT
    Type: BATCH REBILDRAP.BAT

  5. In the McIDAS-X session started as user oper in step 4 above, run the command below to remove the PIRPDEC.IDT file so that when it is recreated when McIDAS-XCD is restarted (last step below), it contains the PIREP decoder additions.

    6. Type: BATCH UPDATEPIREP.BAT

    When steps 4 and 5 are completed, exit the McIDAS-X session.

  6. As user mcadde, start a McIDAS-X session and run the command below to recreate the GROUPS.DAT and COUNTRY.DAT files in the mcadde account so they contain the station database changes included in McIDAS-X Fastrack 2014.1.

    7. Type: BATCH REGROUP.BAT

  7. As user mcadde, make a backup copy of your RESOLV.SRV file (e.g., cp RESOLV.SRV RESOLV.SRV.BAK) in preparation of adding the restructured RTGRIDS/* datasets in steps 8 and 9 below.

  8. In the McIDAS-X session started as user mcadde in step 6 above, run the commands below to remove the obsolete GRIB1 datasets from the RTGRIDS/* datasets then remove all of the RTGRIB2/* datasets (they will be moved into the RTGRIDS/* datasets in step 9 below).

    9. Type: BATCH RMXCDGRB1.BAT CONTINUE=YES
    Type: BATCH RMXCDGRB2.BAT CONTINUE=YES

  9. In the McIDAS-X session started as user mcadde in step 6 above, run the command below to restructure the RTGRIDS/* datasets so they contain both GRIB1 and GRIB2 datasets that are delivered over the NOAAPORT WMO and NGRID feeds.

    10. Type: BATCH XCDNOAAPORTGRID.BAT

    Notes:

    • This new batch file, XCDNOAAPORTGRID.BAT, replaces the XCDGRIB.BAT and XCDGRB2.BAT batch files that were included in previous versions of McIDAS-XCD. The XCDADDE.BAT file, which is run to create the default ADDE datasets, was updated to run XCDNOAAPORTGRID.BAT rather than XCDGRIB.BAT and XCDGRB2.BAT. See Configuring the Default ADDE Datasets in the McIDAS-XCD Administrator's Guide for more information. As also noted there, you can optionally run the command BATCH XCDCONDUITGRID.BAT to create ADDE datasets for the subset of CONDUIT LDM GRIB2 grids that the SSEC Data Center provides for its users.
    • The main effect of this change is that the GRIB2 grids that were previously stored in the RTGRIB2/* datasets were moved into the RTGRIDS/* datasets (which previously stored only GRIB1 grids) so that all of the real-time grids are now stored in one location. Merging the GRIB1 and GRIB2 datasets into one location (RTGRIDS/*) rather than keeping them separate (in RTGRIDS/* and RTGRIB2/*) was done to make it easier for users to locate and list all of the real-time grids (e.g., using DSINFO G RTGRIDS, rather than DSINFO G RTGRIDS and DSINFO G RTGRIB2).
    • One limitation in merging all of the GRIB1 and GRIB2 data into the RTGRIDS/* datasets is that a given dataset can contain only GRIB1 or GRIB2 data (not both). Therefore, if a given model has data in both GRIB1 and GRIB2 format, the "ALL" dataset for that model (e.g., RTGRIDS/GFS-ALL) can contain only the GRIB1 data *or* GRIB2 data (not both). In order to retain backward compatibility for users who access the "ALL" datasets in their scripts, batch files or McBASI programs, the RTGRIDS/ALL, RTGRIDS/GFS-ALL, RTGRIDS/NAM-ALL and RTGRIDS/RAP-ALL datasets will continue to store only GRIB1 data. Two new datasets will be added for each of those four above so that users can specifically request the GRIB1 or GRIB2 data for the given model. The four sets of "ALL" datasets that have data available in both GRIB1 and GRIB2 are listed below: 
                  
 RTGRIDS/ALL            All GRIB1 grids
 RTGRIDS/ALL-GRIB1      All GRIB1 grids
 RTGRIDS/ALL-GRIB2      All GRIB2 grids
 RTGRIDS/GFS-ALL        All Global Forecast System GRIB1 grids
 RTGRIDS/GFS-ALLGRIB1   All Global Forecast System GRIB1 grids
 RTGRIDS/GFS-ALLGRIB2   All Global Forecast System GRIB2 grids
 RTGRIDS/NAM-ALL        All North American Mesoscale GRIB1 grids
 RTGRIDS/NAM-ALLGRIB1   All North American Mesoscale GRIB1 grids
 RTGRIDS/NAM-ALLGRIB2   All North American Mesoscale GRIB2 grids
 RTGRIDS/RAP-ALL        All Rapid Refresh model GRIB1 grids
 RTGRIDS/RAP-ALLGRIB1   All Rapid Refresh model GRIB1 grids
 RTGRIDS/RAP-ALLGRIB2   All Rapid Refresh model GRIB2 grids
      The RTGRIDS/ALL and RTGRIDS/ALL-GRIB1 datasets are exactly the same, as are RTGRIDS/GFS-ALL and RTGRIDS/GFS-ALLGRIB1,
      RTGRIDS/NAM-ALL and RTGRIDS/NAM-ALLGRIB1,
      RTGRIDS/RAP-ALL and RTGRIDS/RAP-ALLGRIB1.
  10. As user mcidas, run the script below from the ~oper/mcidas directory to install the new ADDE server executable code in the mcidas account.

    11. Type: sh ./xcd2014.1.sh install addeservers

  11. Restart McIDAS-XCD. To do so from the foreground, start a McIDAS-X session from the oper account and run the command below from the McIDAS Text and Command window,

    Type: STARTXCD

    To restart -XCD in the background, run the following command as user oper.

    Type: xcdadmin start

This concludes the McIDAS-XCD Fastrack version 2014.1 installation procedure. If you would like to modify the configuration of your McIDAS-XCD workstation, go to the McIDAS-XCD Administrator's Guide's Configuring McIDAS-XCD.
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