Users of the THREDDS Data Server (TDS) are strongly encouraged to update the configuration files on their servers as soon as possible, and before they next restart their servers. Changes in the UCAR/Unidata web infrastructure will cause Web Map Service (WMS) features provided by the TDS to behave incorrectly.
This change affects all versions of the TDS.
Background
As part of a UCAR-wide web infrastructure modernization project, Unidata will be transitioning its primary web site in the coming months. As a result of this transition, web-based resources used by the TDS will be relocated to new online locations. While Unidata is working to ensure that requests for the resources are directed to the new location automatically, a third-party package included in the TDS does not handle these redirects gracefully. Updating a single configuration file will ensure proper operation.
The specific resource involved is the wmsConfig.dtd file, which can no
longer be loaded from the previous default location. If the configuration cannot be
loaded, no custom configurations to WMS (such as colormaps or per dataset or variable
max/min values, for example) will work.
This issue will manifest itself by displaying a parsing error in the
$tds.content.root.path/thredds/logs/serverStartup.log
that looks like:
2021-10-15T20:08:43.781-0600 [ 23923][ ] WARN serverStartup: Cannot parse wmsConfig.xml: 2021-10-15T20:08:43.782-0600 [ 23924][ ] WARN serverStartup: Error on line 1 of document http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/schemas/thredds/dtd/ncwms/wmsConfig.dtd: The markup declarations contained or pointed to by the document type declaration must be well-formed.
Note that this configuration is loaded when the TDS starts, so servers that have not been restarted after October 11, 2021 will not yet display the errors.
This issue will be corrected in future TDS installation packages.
What to Do
You will need to do the following:
Step 1: Modify the wmsConfig.xml File
Change the <!DOCTYPE> declaration in the
$tds.content.root.path/thredds/wmsConfig.xml
file of your TDS installation to replace the following string:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/schemas/thredds/dtd/ncwms/wmsConfig.dtd
with:
https://schemas.unidata.ucar.edu/thredds/dtd/ncwms/wmsConfig.dtd
The new DOCTYPE declaration looks like:
<!DOCTYPE wmsConfig SYSTEM "https://schemas.unidata.ucar.edu/thredds/dtd/ncwms/wmsConfig.dtd">
Information about the wmsConfig.xml file can be found in
WMS Configuration.
Step 2: Restart the Servlet Container
After making the above change, you must restart your servlet container as described in Running Tomcat.
If You Have Questions
If you have questions about this configuration change, please contact
support-thredds@unidata.ucar.edu
