MIRC Installation on Vista
This article describes how to install MIRC on a Vista system. The procedure is a little different from that for XP because Vista requires privileges to be elevated before certain functions can be performed. Two methods of installation are described. The first allows Tomcat to be run as a Windows service. This is the recommended approach. The second requires that Tomcat be started and stopped manually.
In all these instructions, it is assumed that you are logged in as an administrator and that User Account Control (UAC) is turned on. When UAC is turned on, an administrator is prompted whenever a program requires administrative privileges. This is the most restrictive mode, and most systems operate in this way.
1 Installing Tomcat as a Windows Service under Vista
1.1 Install Java
When Tomcat is run as a Windows service, it requires only the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), not the Java Developer's Kit (JDK). Download the latest Java Standard Edition JRE for Windows from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp. At this writing, the latest Java is version 1.6. Be sure to select the correct JRE for your Windows platform (Windows, Windows Intel Itanium, or Windows x64).
Run the file. The installer will provide a page for selecting which components to install. It is safe to accept the defaults, but you can save space by deselecting the documentation and the source code. The other components in the selection list are required.
1.2 Install the JAI ImageIO Tools
Download the latest release of the Java Advanced Imaging (JAI) ImageIO Tools for the JRE from http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jai/downloads/download-iio-1_0_01.html. Select the JRE Install version. It will have a name like jai_imageio-1_1-lib-windows-i586-jre.exe. (There is no special version for 64-bit systems.) Note that the ImageIO Tools are separate from the JAI, so be careful to obtain the ImageIO Tools, not the full JAI. The JAI itself is not required.
Run the file and accept all the defaults.
1.3 Install Tomcat
MIRC now runs on both Tomcat 5.5 and Tomcat 6.0.
Download the latest Tomcat 6 Core Windows Service Installer from http://tomcat.apache.org/download-60.cgi.
IMPORTANT: Please follow these instructions very carefully. (Trust me, you don't want the trouble we went through to discover all this.)
Turn off any antivirus software you may have running on your system, even if you don't think it is necessary.
Right-click the Windows Service Installer and select Run as administrator. The program will start and display a welcome screen. Click Next.
On the license agreement page, accept the terms.
The installer will now display the component selection page shown below. First, click the plus sign beside Tomcat to expand it into its three subcomponents, Core, Service, and Native. Make sure that Tomcat and all three subcomponents are checked. (Core is not selectable, but it should be already checked.) Then, uncheck the remaining components and click Next.
The program will now display the install location page. If you have multiple disk drives on your system, or multiple partitions (C, D, E, ...) on your drive, you should install Tomcat on a partition that has lots of space. All the documents and images that you will store on your MIRC site will be stored within the Tomcat folder, so you should put Tomcat where there is as much room as possible. If you wish to change the location of your Tomcat installation from the one suggested by the installer, click Browse and navigate to a new directory. When you're happy with the installation directory location, click Next.
The installer will now display the page shown below, allowing you to select the port on which the server will listen for connections. The default Tomcat port is 8080. If you don’t have any other web servers running on your computer, you could decide to run on the default port for the world wide web, which is 80, but generally it is fine to stay with 8080. This page also allows you to define the administrator's username and password. You should choose something you can remember. After you make whatever selections you want, click Next.
Next, the installer will find the Java JRE. Click Install and the process will proceed to the end. When the final page is displayed, uncheck the two checkboxes and click the Finish button.
1.4 Ensure that the C Runtime Library is Present
When Tomcat runs as a Windows service, it requires the C Runtime Library to be present. This is a file called msvcr71.dll. It can be placed in several locations. The simplest thing to do is to look in the Java JRE\bin directory and copy it to the Tomcat\bin directory. Do not remove it from the JRE\bin directory.
1.5 Remove the apache Tomcat Monitor Applet from the Startup List
When Tomcat is installed as a Windows service, the Apache Tomcat Monitor applet, called Tomcat6w.exe, is placed in the Tomcat/bin directory and configured to run when Vista starts. This program requires administrative privileges to be able to access the Tomcat service and there is no way to give it administrative privileges automatically on startup, so it will fail when run in this way. To disable it, click the Start button in the task bar, enter msconfig in the text field, and hit the Enter key.
The System Configuration window will appear. Click the Startup tab and uncheck the Startup Item called Apache Tomcat Monitor. Then click OK. The program may ask to restart the machine; it is not necessary to do so.
1.6 Configure the Tomcat Memory Pool
The standard Tomcat memory pool is not large enough for handling large medical images. To configure the memory pool, start the properties applet. You should see a Start menu item called "Monitor Tomcat". If you don't, then look for Tomcat5w.exe in the Tomcat/bin directory. In either case, right-click it and select Run as administrator. This will launch the applet and put an icon called "Apache Tomcat" in the system tray (the collection of icons at the right end of the task bar.
Click the Java tab. You will see a window like this:
The values shown in the picture above, 128 and 256, should be large enough for all applications, but if you plan to handle of mammo images, you might even double them, especially if your computer has three or more gigabytes of memory. After setting the memory allocation parameters, click OK.
To access the applet again, you can double-click the icon in the system tray, or right-click it and select "Configure...".
1.7 Starting and Stopping the Apache Tomcat Service
To start or stop the Apache Tomcat service, you must use the Windows Services applet, which can be found by opening the Control Panel, selecting Classic View, and double-clicking Administrative Tools. To run the applet, right-click the Services line in the right pane and select Run as administrator.
2 Installing Tomcat NOT as a Windows Service under Vista
If Tomcat is not to be installed as a Windows service, it must be installed by expanding the Tomcat zip file. This in turn requires that the Java Developer's Kit (JDK) be installed rather than just the JRE.
2.1 Install the Java Developer's Kit
Download the latest standard edition JDK for Windows from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp. It will have a name like jdk-6u1-windows-i586-p.exe.
If you obtained a MIRC Installation CD at the 2008 RSNA annual meeting, the JDK is in the MIRC_Installation/Java/Windows_Vista folder.
Run the file. The installer will provide a page for selecting which components to install. It is safe to accept the defaults, but you can save space by deselecting the documentation and the source code. The other components in the selection list are required.
2.2 Install the JAI ImageIO Tools
Download the latest release of the Java Advanced Imaging ImageIO Tools for the JDK from http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jai/downloads/download-iio-1_0_01.html. Select the JDK Install version. It will have a name like jai_imageio-1_1-lib-windows-i586-jdk.exe. Note that the ImageIO Tools are separate from the JAI, so be careful to obtain the ImageIO Tools. The JAI itself is not required.
If you obtained a MIRC Installation CD at the 2008 RSNA annual meeting, the ImageIO Tools file is in the MIRC_Installation/JAI/Windows_Vista folder.
Run the file and accept all the defaults.
2.3 Define a System Variable for Java
After installing the JDK and the these files, you must define a system variable which points to the JDK. This will allow Tomcat to find Java when it starts. If you install the JDK is the standard place, it will be in a director with a path like: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_01, where the numbers after jdk depend on the release which you installed.
- Click the Start button.
- Right-click the Computer button in the Start menu.
- Select Properties in the pop-up menu.
- In the Tasks pane, click Advanced System Settings.
- If the User Account Control dialog appears, click Continue.
- In the System Properties dialog, click the Advanced tab.
- Click the Environment Variables button.
- In the lower part of the next window, click New....
- In the Variable name field, enter: JAVA_HOME
- In the Variable value field, enter the path to the JDK.
- Finally, click OK on all the dialogs.
2.4 Install Tomcat
Obtain the latest Tomcat 5.5 Core zip file from http://tomcat.apache.org/download-55.cgi. Be careful to obtain 5.5 rather than 5.0, which is also available on the same page. It will have a name like apache-tomcat-5.5.23.zip.
If you obtained a MIRC Installation CD at the 2008 RSNA annual meeting, the Tomcat 5.5 Core zip file is in the MIRC_Installation/Tomcat/Vista_and_Linux folder.
Expand the zip file. A convenient place to put it is in the root of the C drive.
2.5 Install the Apache Portable Runtime
This step is optional, but it is highly recommended. It will give Tomcat the speed of a native implementation using the Apache server code.
Obtain the Apache Portable Runtime from http://mirc.rsna.org/APR/tc-native-1.dll.
If you obtained a MIRC Installation CD at the 2008 RSNA annual meeting, the Apache Portable Runtime file is in the MIRC_Installation/Tomcat/Windows_except_Vista/Portable_Runtime folder. (That is not a typo: Windows_except_Vista.)
Put the file in Tomcat's bin directory.
2.6 Configure the Memory Settings
This step is optional. It is recommended if you plan to support large (CR) images.
After installation, there will be a folder with a name like apache-tomcat-5.5.23 containing numerous subfolders, including one called bin.
Open the bin directory and then open the catalina.bat file with a text editor like NotePad or TextPad. The top part of the file is a set of comments. About 55 lines from the top, the comments section ends. The last few lines of the comments section and the first few lines that follow it look like this:
# # $Id: catalina.sh 498126 2007-01-20 15:38:39Z markt $ # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- rem Guess CATALINA_HOME is not defined set CURRENT_DIR=%cd%
Paste the line below into the file just after the comments section and then save the file.
- set CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms256m -Xmx512m
The result should look like this:
# # $Id: catalina.sh 498126 2007-01-20 15:38:39Z markt $ # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- set CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms256m -Xmx512m rem Guess CATALINA_HOME is not defined set CURRENT_DIR=%cd%
2.7 Define a System Variable for Tomcat
Use the procedure described above for the JAVA_HOME system variable to define another system variable named CATALINA_HOME. If the top-level Tomcat folder is located at C:\apache-tomcat-5.5.23, then set the value of the variable to C:\apache-tomcat-5.5.23.
2.8 Starting and Stopping Tomcat
To start Tomcat, open a command window, and enter: %CATALINA_HOME%\bin\startup.bat. Tomcat will start and open its own command window. You can close the original command window, but do not close Tomcat's window while Tomcat is running.
To stop Tomcat, open a command window, and enter: %CATALINA_HOME%\bin\shutdown.bat.
You may find it convenient to create a shortcut which starts a command window in the %CATALINA_HOME%\bin directory. This would allow you to start and stop Tomcat just by typing startup and shutdown.
3 Install MIRC
To install and configure MIRC, follow the instructions available on the Downloads page of the wiki. The link is also shown in the navigation pane at the top left of this page. The instructions provide a link to the latest version of the MIRC installer.
If you obtained a MIRC Installation CD at the 2008 RSNA annual meeting, the MIRC installer is in the MIRC_Installation/MIRC folder. (There may be a newer version in the official release directory indicated in the instructions.)