System Requirements

The McIDAS-XCD 2006 software package was tested and is supported on Enterprise Linux 3.0 and 4.0, Solaris 9 OS x86, and Solaris 9 OS SPARC. We recommend that you run it on 32 bit Enterprise Linux 3.0 or 4.0. McIDAS-X 2006 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 May 2006.

Data type	Daily space requirements
* ASCII text stream	730 MB
* MD files (all types/schemas)	100 MB
All GRIB data	3,000 MB
All GRIDs from the GRIB data	13,000 MB
All NEXRAD products and stations	6,200 MB
All BUFR data	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	23,730 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.

Remember that the space requirements above 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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