Nile Basin Decision Support System

The NB-DSS can be installed on Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. Other operating systems are not currently supported. In addition to the Operating System requirements specified above, the DSS requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 to be installed. To install Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0, you should locate it from the prerequisites folder on the MIKE By DHI DVD or download a copy from the Internet. It is recommended that you have a computer with a minimum processor speed of 2.0 GHz or higher, 2 GB (or higher) of memory, 40 GB (or higher) of HDD, 64 MB RAM of graphics, one USB port for the DSS hardware key among others.

Installation of the DSS on Windows requires you to install three software components. These include;

1. Mike Zero (Modeling tool)

2. PostgreSQL + PostGIS (Database Management System)

3. NB-DSS application

Figure1: DSS software layout and components

The DSS can be installed on Windows in two ways. You can install the 'Professional' or the 'Corporate' edition. In the professional edition, the database server is installed on the same machine. In the corporate, there is a centralized database server (running Windows or Linux) where PostgreSQL and PostGIS reside. A professional edition can be turned into corporate by allowing others to connect to the database server. The installation of both editions requires administrative privileges.

Mike Zero is a licensed software group that contains MIKE family modeling tools such as Mike Hydro, Mike 11, Mike 21, Mike 3, Mike She and Mike Flood and comes in two versions; 32-bit and 64 bit versions. It is recommended that you install the 32-bit version of Mike Zero to ensure compatibility with the NB-DSS application. Mike Hydro is installed and used for water resources modeling. You will need to install a software license and you must obtained a USB dongles from the Nile Basin Secretariat in order to use Mike Hydro.

PostgreSQL is used for database management by the NB-DSS. The NB-DSS currently supports PostgreSQL version 9.0, 9.1.5 and 9.3. You are at liberty to choose which one of the three to install. However PostgreSQL does not have raster support. You need to install the correct version of PostGIS in order to enable raster support for the selected version of PostgreSQL.

Installation of the DSS application is the simplest of the three components. You need to run the executable file and complete the installation. The DSS application installation files install a Database Manager Utility (DMU) that is used to manage the DSS databases.

Installation on Linux 

Installation of the DSS on Linux means installing the database management system (PostgreSQL and PostGIS) on a centralized database server running Centos Linux. As with Windows, the Modeling tool (Mike Hydro) and the DSS application are installed on computers running Windows in a networked environment. The DSS application is then configured to access the database server through the network. This setup defines the corporate edition of the DSS. This edition is recommended where concurrent use is a major requirement.

You can download an installation manual from here