[IDD #YPR-198833]: Educational entity needing meteorological data and software.

Hi Michael,

re:
> See my responses in RED below.

Just so you know, our inquiry tracking system is setup to strip out all markup
so that the messages we respond to are pure text...

re:
> I need input from Steve McCauley so that I am assured we are going down the 
> right road.

Certainly.

re:
> If for some reason we cannot stream the data that Mr. McCauley needs directly 
> from
> UNIDATA, we will need to backup and re-visit our strategy for delivery the 
> needed
> services.

My view of the options for getting data are:

- get fed the data via the Unidata IDD

  This requires that you run a *nix system and setup our LDM software on that
  system.

- use the IDV to access data off of remote data servers

- run a NOAAPort ingest instance

  - Planetary Data is one option for NOAAPort ingest capability

  - Unidata is another option for NOAAPort ingest capability

    The Unidata NOAAPort ingest option is bundled with our LDM software,
    and, as such, requires a *nix system on which to run.

Which option you decide to pursue will, of course, be governed by your
data needs and computing/network constraints.  We will be happy to help
you get setup with the (free) software we make available.

re: are you adverse to setting up and running a Linux system

> (No, we are not adverse to setting up and running a Linux system but we are 
> not skilled in
> Linux. Essentially, we can install it, but can't particularly support it 
> beyond some basic
> commands)

OK.  We can help you get things setup on a Linux system, but someone at El 
Centro College
will need to be responsible for the day-to-day support/operation of the 
machine(s).

re: how many students are typically in your classes

> (Steve Mccauley would need to answer) this but there are no more than 30 PCs 
> in the lab at
> the facility we are planning on running this program in. I do not know if 30 
> PCs equates to
> 30 students however.

OK.  Thirty simultaneous users all hitting remote data servers for "large"
datasets would require good network infrastructure.

re: what kind of network bandwidth does your department in El Centro have?
> 
> (at our West Campus where we are talking about setting this up, we 20MBs out 
> to the Internet)

20 Mbps may not be much/enough depending on how much of that bandwidth
is already in continuous use by your West Campus users.

re: what flavor(s) of Windows are you running

> (Windows 7 is the Operating System but we are running them in a VMWare 
> enviornment)

Interesting.  I have never run the IDV in a VMware virtual machine.  I do, 
however,
run the IDV in a CentOS 6.5 Linux VMware virtual machine, and I can say that it
works OK.  It runs much better, however, in an OS that is installed directly
on the hardware.  The reason for this is that the interactive 3D displays in
the IDV need to communicate directly with the machine's video card via OpenGL.

re: how much memory do your Windows machines have

> (2 gigs)

OK.  The IDV will certainly run on machines that have 2 GB of memory, but
large/complex displays (e.g., loops of parameter isosurfaces with interactive
2D cross sections) will either run slowly or not at all if the data domain
is large (meaning that it has lots of data points).

Just so you know, the IDV runs great on commodity PCs that are sold today.

re: register with the Unidata website

> (Johnny Wallace of my staff will be responsible for this)

OK.

re: I suggest installing the IDV on a Windows 7 64-bit instance with at least 4 
GB of RAM

> (Johnny Wallace of my staff will build a new machine to these specifications 
> this week).

OK.  We will be very interested to learn how well the IDV performs in a
VMware virtual machine.

Question: does the virtual machine exist on a campus server?  I would like to 
better
understand the lab setup so I can better answer questions that will undoubtedly
arise.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: YPR-198833
Department: Support IDD
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed