auto forward

    I want to autoforward all incoming studies from one Conquest to another. Where in the dicom.ini do I put the command?


    Here is what I have done:


    Conquest Dicom server "BMGTIA" is the one I want to auto forward from, Conquest Dicom server "TIAPACS1" is the receiving server.


    I list each of the Conquest servers in the respective "known dicom providers" section. I also listed the server itself in the it's "known providers" section.


    For example, in the BMGTIA Conquest, I have listed the "TIAPACS1" server with the AE TITLE, IP, and compression. I also listed the "BMGTIA" server in there with AE TITLE, IP (127.0.0.1) and compression


    I inserted the following in the beginning of the dicom.ini for the "BMGTIA" Conquest (that is the server I want to automatically forward all incoming studies FROM):


    ExportConverters = 1
    ExportConverter0 = forward to TIAPACS1


    I then ended the server and killed all services in task manager and restarted server.


    Is this correct? Does it matter where in the dicom.ini these lines are placed? Will it only do new incoming? Will it automatically forward?


    Thanks.


    Pat Stacey

    Hi, pmstacey
    Forward rules are very well documented in conquest windowsmanual.pdf and many times referenced in this forum.


    You should only add one additional line into your ini:
    ExportConverters = 1
    ExportCallingAE0 = BMGTIA
    ExportConverter0 = forward to TIAPACS1


    Regards,
    urry

    thanks. I was not using the lastest version due to some other issues. I am on 1.4.12c and that manual does not go into it. I will upgrade now and read the other manual.


    Does it matter where in the .ini it is placed? will it only do new studies that come in, or will it do all studies?


    thanks again.

    Typically, you put the rules at the end of the ini file.


    It will only do newly recieved studies. For large volumes, consider "forward series to", which will delay processing a bit.


    Marcel

    attached is my dicom.ini file. the autofowarding is not working. i can go to the conquest diciom (tiasisters) and push to tiapacs1, but it does not automatically send new studies. what do i have wrong? thanks for the help


    Pat Stacey

    Hi,


    Code
    # AUTO FORWARD

    ExportConverters = 1

    ExportCallingAE0 = TIASISTERS

    ExportConverter0 = forward series to TIAPACS1


    The line "ExportCallingAE0 = TIASISTERS" means that only data sent by TIASISTERS is forwarded. If you remove it should forward everything recieved. There is a delay though.


    Marcel

    can understand that!!


    Another question:


    The Conquest Dicom server I am running now is extremely busy. I have about 400 studies a day (7 days) sent to it. I also have 8 rads query and retrieving every day. I am running FIOS broadband (fiber optics) at 20 up and 50 down. As you can imagine, it is VERY busy and was wondering if rather than having one Conquest doing everything, would it be better to setup one copy for receiving only and another for retreiving? I would setup autoforwarding from the receiving to the retreiving one. I have a little over 1.3 tb of space for the images and will be removing most of them on a bi-weekly basis as we are not responsible for the images and do not have to store them other than for reading purposes.


    Will the increase the speed for the retrievals? Most of the rads retreiving are also on FIOS with 20 down or cable with 15 to 20 down, but the transfer is slow due to the tremendous influx of data on a constant basis.

    Hi,


    Wow, that is a busy server! I am not sure if it helps to split the server up. I do not believe that forwarding from one "reciever" to another "sender" is efficient. Eventually, the same traffic will be incoming.


    We, however, use a setup where two machines access the same database (this works for MSSQL) and both servers as as each others mirror. I see some speed advantage there - depending on the network latency, and a safety advantage. But it is not very easy to setup.


    Some other tips to speed it up: use a machine with as many processors as you can get, make sure that the database is fast (which one do you use?), and use of one or more very fast disks. You could set conquest up to spread the incoming data over MAG1 ... MAGN (using the STORAGE importconverter). Running is as a service and closing the GUI will also make it faster.


    Can you have a look with task manager at the CPU load of the different processes when it is so busy? It would probably indicate where the bottleneck is.


    Marcel

    Acutally, it is not bad. My server is a Quad Core Xeon, 8 Gigs ram, Windows Server 2003 x64 (works perfectly!) and 5 disk RAID five with the new segate 750 gig server hard drives. I also have dual 80 gig sata drives for just the OS on (mirrored). The Conquest is on the D drive (1.3 tb) and nothing else on it.


    I just did a test that came out pretty good:


    I remoted into 3 different rad's computers and used iQ-View to query and retrieve the same MRI. It contained 114 images.


    Rad 1 (FIOS, 5 up/20 down) took 1min, 7 secs
    Rad 2 (Cable, 1.5 up/15 down) took 1 min, 43 secs
    Rad 3 (FIOS, 20 up/20 down) took 1 min, 9 secs


    That is all the while that it is receiving studies from 3 other locations (two Conquest that are auto forwarding, one that is a teleradiology group that sends constantly). It is like watching the stock market ticker across the bottom of a TV, it never stops!!!

    Oh, also, I checked the process manager, I am never above 3% and most of the time at 1% of resources. This FIOS line is ours only, no one else on it. When I did the speed test it came out to a little over 48 down and 19 up and it is constant.

    Hi,


    What database do you use, and what filenames (V2 or DCM) do you use?


    In any case, the very low load suggests it is disk speed limited. Were the test images 512 x 512?


    If it is indeed disk speed limited, using NKI compression may make it faster - since you do not keep the data it may be worth a try. Also, if you forward to another conquest you might forward NKI compressed.


    Marcel

    I am using the default Dbase and no compression. However, I have NK2 marked. If i put in compression, do I just change it (and to which one) and stop and restart the server? I believe that iQ-View can handle the compression and also imsiPACS also. I never compressed because I wanted the best imagery, but I can change it.


    These hard drives are newly released by Seagate and are supposdly designed to work with servers and raids better than normal drives that the public uses. They and the Intel RAID card are SATA-II and are 3 mb transfer rates.

    Hi,


    if you use V2, you can just enable NKI compression and see what happens with the speed. It is totally transparant and error free. Data will be compressed on storage, and decompressed on retrieve. No external station will ever see the compressed data.


    Eventually it may also be an idea to replace dbaseIII by Mysql: that is the fastest database I have seen.


    Marcel

    Ok, i turned on compression on both sides, the sending and receving side. it actually slowed down alot. It seems to take a long time to recieve and compress. It is much faster without compression.
    Does that sound right?

    Hi,


    no, I did not expect that. So, your system is probabky not disk speed limited...


    By the way, you only need to set NKI compression it on the config page. You do not want to enable compression on "known dicom providers:.


    Marcel

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