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MDR client performance

1. Load the MDR Client on a computer with a 64 bit version of Windows
2. Download and install the 64 bit Java runtime.
3. Configure the MDR client to use the 64 bit Java runtime
4. Increase MDR client runtime memory
5. (optional, but encouraged) Allocate MDR client memory based on your typical Mail.Dat

This information is provided in the current USPS PostalOne! Mail.dat Technical Specifications Guide (pdf). We've reformatted and edited it for clarity to make it faster and easier to get this tuneup completed. 

Step 1: Load the MDR Client on a 64 bit computer

Reference: Tech Guide (pdf)

Download the MDR client and unzip it into a folder on your 64 bit computer. Once unzipped, you'll see something like this. I unzipped the TEM client into C:\MDRClientTEM. You can name the folder whatever you like.




Step 2: Download and install the 64 bit Java runtime

You must install the 64 bit Java runtime on your computer. As of this writing, you can download it from http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp, but be sure to choose the "Windows Offline (64 bit)" download as shown in the image below:




Install the 64 bit runtime. Be sure to use the "Change destination folder" option on the first screen (see the circled checkbox below).




On the next screen, click the Change button to create your own Java runtime folder. We're doing this so you know exactly where the 64 bit Java runtime is installed - something you'll need to know in the next step of this process.

Once you click the Change button (you can see the edge of it on the right of the screen image below), use the "Make New Folder" button to create a folder for the Java runtime.

I created a folder on the C: drive called Javav7x64 as you can see below, but you can call it what makes the most sense to you. I suggest that you avoid using spaces in your folder name.




As you can see below, my folder name is in the installer screen and now you can click next to continue with the Java runtime install process.





Step 3: Configure the MDR client to use the 64 bit Java runtime

The MDR client software can be configured to run in 64 bit mode on a 64 bit version of Windows (such as Windows 7 Professional 64 bit) by following the instructions below.

I'll show the steps to do this for my TEM client on Windows 7 64-bit, but the steps will be the same for your other client versions.

On most systems, you can right click the files in the MDR client folder and click "Edit" to open them in Notepad. If that doesn't work for you, open Windows Notepad by going to Start, Accessories and clicking "Notepad", then click File, Open, and select the "run-mdclient" file in your MDR client folder.






Now you will have the run-mdclient.bat file open in Notepad.

Change the SET JAVA_HOME line from this:



to this:



Important: I used C:\Javav7x64 as the install location for my 64-bit Java runtime. If you used a different folder name when installing the 64 bit Java runtime, THAT is the folder name you must use above.

In notepad, click File, Save to save your changes.

Now the next time you run the MDR client, it will use the 64 bit Java runtime. Be sure to make these changes to your TEM, CAT and Production MDR clients so they behave the same way.


Step 4: Increase MDR client runtime memory

Normally, we would start by increasing memory allocation settings by approximately 50%. If you prefer to tune your MDR client based on the size of your typical Mail.Dat, skip to Step 5.

For instance, if you normally run the Mail.dat client app on a 32-bit machine with a minimum heap size of 1G and a maximum of 1.5G, you'll want to run it on 64-bit hardware with a minimum heap size of 1.5G and a maximum of 3G.

First, we'll disable the default memory settings.

As we did earlier, open run-mdclient.bat in Notepad and find the line that starts with SET MEMALLOC= -Xms64m -Xmx512m

Change that line to read REM SET MEMALLOC= -Xms64m -Xmx512m

When you're done, it should look like this:




Next, we'll enable a somewhat larger memory configuration.

Find the line that reads REM SET MEMALLOC= -Xms512m -Xmx1024m



Delete the 'REM ' pn that line so that the line now reads: SET MEMALLOC= -Xms512m -Xmx1024m

When you are done, it should look like this: