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McIDAS-XCD Fastrack Version 2017.2
Software and Instructions

This page contains the software and instructions for installing McIDAS-XCD version 2017.2, a fully supported Fastrack release. Modifications made since the previous release (version 2016.2) include:

  • Updated the McIDAS-XCD text filer so it can now create raw text files larger than 2 GB. The previous file size limit was 2^31 bytes, a number that corresponds to the maximum size of a FORTRAN 4-byte signed integer. The size of the raw text file can now go up to 2^32 bytes (4 GB). This also required a fix to the STATDISP module to properly display the larger file size.
  • Added several fixes and enhancements to the SFCHOURLY decoder. The updates include allowing hourly specials to go up to 40 minutes after the top of the hour, and retaining high accuracy temperature and dewpoint readings if a subsequent report that does not have the high accuracy readings is received. The change to allow hourly specials to go up to 40 minutes after the top of the hour was made because the decoder was missing some station readings for North Carolina at that time.
  • Updated the file XCDNOAAPORTGRID.BAT to add 64 new RTGRIDS datasets. See steps 7, 8 and 9 below for the instructions to complete this procedure, and see the xcd_README_2017.2 file for the complete list of datasets added and removed from the RTGRIDS datasets.
  • Updated the station database (file STNDB.CORE) in McIDAS-X 2017.2 to include 56 new Synoptic stations, 28 in Australia and 28 in Antarctica, as supplied by AMRC. Also added or updated several METAR and TAF stations.

McIDAS-XCD 2017.2 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 the supported system configurations. If you elect to install 2017.2, we ask that you notify the McIDAS Help Desk if you encounter any bugs. Please be sure to mention that you are running version 2017.2.

Also note that if you plan to upgrade to 2017.2 from a version earlier than the previous release (2016.2), 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 2014.1 to 2017.2, you must first read and perform the required actions in the release documents for versions 2015.2 and 2016.2 before proceeding to 2017.2. See the past versions page for links to those and other materials from past versions.


Obtaining McIDAS-XCD 2017.2

As user oper download the following files to the ~oper/mcidas directory on your McIDAS‑XCD workstation.

File name Size Description
xcd2017.2.sh 15 KB shell script that installs the McIDAS-XCD software (right click to download)
xcd2017.2.tar.Z 994 KB compressed tar file that contains all source and data files
xcd_README_2017.2 8 KB information to review before installation

And as user mcidas download the following file to the ~mcidas directory on your McIDAS‑XCD workstation. This tar file contains updates to McIDAS-X 2017.2 that are required for McIDAS-XCD 2017.2. They will be installed during step 2 of the instructions below.

File name Size Description
mcx_xcd_2017.2_Addendum.tar 164 KB tar file containing updated versions of McIDAS-X modules grib2NavLookup.txt, grib2NCEPModels.txt, grib2Parameters.txt and mcwrite.c that are required for McIDAS-X 2017.2


Installing McIDAS-XCD 2017.2

Note: You must install McIDAS-X 2017.2 on the workstation before you install McIDAS-XCD 2017.2. 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 2017.2 for the First Time and complete its instructions. (Use those instructions rather than those below.)

If you are installing McIDAS-XCD Fastrack version 2017.2 on a workstation that already has a previous version of McIDAS-XCD installed, complete the steps below.

  1. At a Unix prompt as user oper, stop McIDAS-XCD and then LDM by running the commands below in order.

    Type: xcdadmin stop
    Type: ldmadmin stop

  2. As user mcidas, uncompress the mcx_xcd_2017.2_Addendum.tar file that was downloaded in the Obtaining McIDAS-XCD 2017.2 section above. As instructed there, the tar file must be in the ~mcidas directory and be owned by user mcidas.

    Type: cd ~mcidas
    Type: tar xvf mcx_xcd_2017.2_Addendum.tar

    The commands above copy the mcwrite.c file to the /home/mcidas/mcidas2017.2/src directory and the three grib2*.txt files to the /home/mcidas/mcidas2017.2/data directory. The previous versions of the files (from McIDAS-X 2017.2) are overwritten by these new/updated versions.

    Next, do the McIDAS-X 2017.2 make procedure to rebuild the mcwrite.c dependencies. Use the same settings for optional flags -noopt and -mysql as were used to build McIDAS-X 2017.2 when you previously installed it.

    Type:sh ./mcidas2017.2.sh  flags  make

    When the rebuild is done ("McIDAS-X make completed normally" is displayed) do the McIDAS-X 2017.2 install procedure to complete the updates to the software packaged in the mcx_xcd_2017.2_Addendum.tar file.

    Type: sh ./mcidas2017.2.sh install

  3. As user oper, run the script below from the ~oper/mcidas directory to build and install McIDAS-XCD 2017.2 using the same settings for optional flags -noopt and -mysql as were used to build McIDAS-X 2017.2. You must use the same compilers and optional flag settings for both the McIDAS-X and McIDAS-XCD builds.

    4. Type: sh ./xcd2017.2.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: -O1 for builds with gcc/gfortran.
    • 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 xcd2017.2.sh is finished, you will see the message below.

    McIDAS-XCD binaries built correctly

  4. 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.

    5. Type: sh ./xcd2017.2.sh cutover

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

    McIDAS-XCD package cutover is now complete

  5. 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 2017.2. 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).

    6. Type: BATCH REGROUP.BAT
    Type: BATCH REBILDRAP.BAT

  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 2017.2.

    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 command below to remove the obsolete and/or redefined RTGRIDS/* datasets.

    9. Type: BATCH RMXCDGRIB2017_2.BAT CONTINUE=YES

  9. In the McIDAS-X session started as user mcadde in step 6 above, run the command below to update the RTGRIDS/* datasets so they contain the data currently available over the NOAAPORT WMO and NGRID feeds.

    10. Type: BATCH XCDNOAAPORTGRID.BAT

    Notes:

    • The XCDADDE.BAT file, which is optionally run to create the default ADDE datasets, includes XCDNOAAPORTGRID.BAT among the batch files it runs. 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 XCDNOAAPORTGRID.BAT and XCDCONDUITGRID.BAT files were first implemented in McIDAS-XCD 2014.1; see the 2014.1 software and instructions page for more information.

  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 ./xcd2017.2.sh install addeservers

  11. Restart LDM and then McIDAS-XCD by running the commands below in order at a Unix prompt as user oper.

    Type: ldmadmin start
    Type: xcdadmin start

This concludes the McIDAS-XCD Fastrack version 2017.2 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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