RAMADDA User Guide

If you are like most people you don't want to have to deal with lengthy install and configuration processes. This document will show you how to have a RAMADDA server running on your machine serving up your data sets in about 5 minutes or less.

Note: If you have the inclination and/or already have a Tomcat server running consult the full length installation documentation.

Downloading and Installing RAMADDA

• Requirements: You need to have Java 1.6 (or higher) installed on your machine. Also, by default RAMADDA runs on port 8080 so this port should be open through your firewall.
• Download the ramadda<version>.zip file from SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ramadda/files/.
• Unzip the file to where you want to install RAMADDA.
• Change directory to the ramadda install directory and (assuming you have java in your path) run ramadda.sh. If you are on a a Windows machine there is a ramadda.bat as well.
  To run RAMADDA run the ramadda.sh in the release directory. This just does:

     java -Xmx512m -jar repository.jar
  

  By default the server is on port 8080. To change the port edit ramadda.sh and change the line to:

      java -Xmx512m -jar repository.jar -port <some port>
  

• Now, in your web browser go to: http://yourserver:8080/repository
• Go through the initial configuration pages, create an administrator account and log in.

Accessing your data

You can create and organize content in RAMADDA in a number of ways but we'll show you how to provide access to data that is already on your server.

• Now, lets assume you have a data directory on your server, e.g., /data/ldm
• First, we need to tell RAMADDA that it is OK to provide access to that area of your file system.
  • Go to the site Administration pages from the "Admin" link:
    
  • Open the "Access " section and enter the data directory, e.g., /data/ldm, in the "File system access" field and press Change Settings:
    
• Now you need to create an entry that provides access to that data.
  • Go to the top-level entry in RAMADDA (the "Top" link in the upper left).
  • Select "New Entry" under the File menu.
  • In the "Or create a" list choose Local File View and press Go:
    
  • This will take you to the Local File View Entry create form. Enter a name, the file path and that patterns that match the files you want to exclude. When done press "Add Local File View"
    
    Note: If you are providing access to your LDM/IDD data feed and you are also getting the NLDN lightning data and/or the ACARS feed make sure you exclude those directories and files.
  • Congratulations you are done! To access your server from Unidata's Integrated Data View (IDV) go to the top level entry, click on the View menu and copy the "Catalog" link into the IDV's catalog data chooser.