Transana-MU Setup Instructions

Upgrading from an earlier version of the Message Server?

See the Transana Message Server 2.20 upgrade guide instead. This guide is aimed at first time installation.

Overview - Version 2.20

Real-time collaboration and data sharing is a complex task. Therefore, Transana-MU setup can be rather complex. The person setting up the system for a project needs to understand the installation, setup, and maintenance of a SQL database in a client-server environment. The description of setting up the servers is not intended for all users, but each project will need one person, (a system administrator, database administrator, or other technical consultant) to do the initial setup and instruct other project members on how to connect to the project data the first time.

Overview

Here's an illustration of the components of a typical Transana-MU setup, and how they relate to one another: (Click the image for a larger version.)

To share Transana data, the first thing a project needs to do is to set up one or more centralized servers that are accessible to everyone in the project via your network or the Internet. These centralized servers must run MySQL and the Transana Message Server. In addition, you can use the Storage Resource Broker to manage video and audio data sharing, but this is optional.

• MySQL is a database program. This is where all the Transana data (also referred to as analytic data or metadata) is stored.
  
• The Transana Message Server facilitates communication among all running copies of Transana-MU that are connected to the same database. This allows each user to see what other users are doing.
  
• The Storage Resource Broker (SRB) is a program that facilitates the secure online distribution of confidential or human-subjects-restricted video data via the Internet. This piece of server software is optional, because there are many other ways of distributing video (secure FTP, insecure FTP, Fed-Ex), but the SRB is integrated into Transana's File Management Tool. For more information about the SRB, please see the SDSC SRB web site. Transana currently works with SRB version 3.3.1.

Video is too large to stream effectively for Transana's purposes, particularly because of all the seeking and positioning within video files that Transana does. But because video files are large, we don't want each individual user to have to have a copy of all of the video files.

Therefore, sites with multiple researchers on the same network will want to set up network video storage that can be shared by the research team. Each separate network needs one copy of all of the videos, even when they are sharing analytic data.

Finally, each computer that will access the project data must have a copy of Transana-MU, referred to as a "client". The computer must be configured to connect to the centralized MySQL database, the centralized Transana Message Server, and the local video storage system. Researchers can transfer video data from the central Storage Resource Broker to the local video storage system as needed using Transana's File Management tool.

NOTE: Many Internet Service Providers do not allow customers to run servers from private residences. While university and business users of Transana are unlikely to run into difficulty, private users who wish to be able to access data on their home computer from outside the home should check with their ISP to see if this is permitted before taking the time to set up a Transana-MU server.

For the next step, please select one of the following:

I need to set up a server running Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

I need to set up a server running Mac OS X 10.3 or later.

I need to set up a server running Linux.

My server is already set up, I know the setting information, and I need to configure a client computer.