Connecting XNAT to Other XNATs

There are three primary ways to connect your XNAT to other XNAT instances. To establish a persistent data sync of all data (or selected data) for a specific project in your XNAT, we recommend the Project Sync plugin. For a one-time transfer of image data with custom anonymization rules in place, we recommend using the JAAT tool. 

Using the XNAT Project Sync (XSYNC) Plugin

Download the XNAT Project Sync Plugin:

XSYNC Documentation: XNAT Project Sync (Xsync)

Overview

The XNAT Project Sync plugin was developed in part to facilitate a massive transfer and synchronization of data between sites supporting the many studies under the umbrella of the Connectome Coordinating Facility.

XSYNC Setup and Usage Documentation

XSYNC requires that both source and destination XNATs are running the same version of XNAT.

XSYNC should be installed as a plugin on both your source and your destination XNAT. A sync is set up between a specified project on your source XNAT and a second specified project on your destination XNAT. Once set up, data will be synchronized on a regular schedule (with a configurable interval) or on demand. Data can also be anonymized between the source and the destination.

For further configuration options, see the XSYNC Documentation.

Using the Joint Anonymization and Archive Transmission (JAAT) Tool

Download the JAAT tool here: https://bitbucket.org/nrg/jaat/

JAAT Documentation: https://wiki.xnat.org/xnat-tools/jaat

Overview

The JAAT Tool was developed to aid in the migration of large amounts of DICOM data for use in clinical translation projects. In these types of projects, you are assured of getting personally identifying information in your imported DICOM, unless you take steps to explicitly filter them out. JAAT provides a mechanism for the researcher to create a customized anonymization script, and have that script applied in transit on any data that is requested from the source XNAT and transferred to a destination XNAT.  

JAAT Setup and Usage Documentation

The JAAT Documentation provides an overview of how to set up JAAT, including its prerequisites: XNAT Gateway, CTP, and DCMTK. It also provides a simple use case for using JAAT to set up a data transfer. 

JAAT can also be used to migrate data from a PACS or other DICOM Application Entity to an XNAT, or it can be used to migrate and anonymize data from one project to another inside a single XNAT.