Re: Problems at UPRM (fwd)

Unidata Mcidas Account wrote:
> 
> Hi,
>    Yes, I think you understood perfectly.  The pqcat command gives me a
> HUGE list of products.  After everything's set up, I have to check which
> products I really need and what's not really needed.  After a couple of
> minutes I stopped it and I had 12,000+ products.  Definitely not good.  I
> also got the "age" field from the pqmon command, it's 5972.  I tried
> several different pqact.conf files, one was the original one that came
> with the distribution, and the other one was the one that I got off the
> Unidata webpage for ldm-mcidas.  I guess that's what's giving me so much
> trouble then, I need a custom pqact.conf file that will decode just the
> products I need and store them somewhere.  I'm aware this is a very
> site-dependent configuration, where can I read on how to write one?  While
> I'm asking about reference pages, where can I read on what specific
> products I can download and their contents?
>    Both my scour.conf and my pqact.conf files are just as they came with
> the distribution.  I did understand about the scour.conf, but I thought I
> had to change that when I was successfully decoding.  Now I understand
> that I can't use a generic pcact.conf file, which is probably the root of
> the whole problem.   The last thing I think can help you is my request
> line:
> request UNIDATA ".*" pluto.met.fsu.edu
>    Is it too much?  Or is it too much because I'm not decoding it right?
> Let it also be noted that I'm not 100% sure everything's installed right,
> although it seems to be.  Sorry if I'm making you go through a lot of
> trouble for simple solutions, but it's a lot of information to take at
> once(ldm, mcidas, products, decoders, scour, etc).  Thank you for your
> time.  I appreciate your help, that last email was very helpful.
> 
> Luis Munoz
> System Administrator
> Caribbean Climate Center @ UPRM
> 
> On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, Anne Wilson wrote:
> 

Hi Luis,

First, here's a page that tells you a few things about the different
types of data as they relate to the feedtypes used by the LDM:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/ldm/feedtypes/index.html.  From
this, you can get an idea of what you're requesting.  If you look at the
bottom of the page you'll see that the UNIDATA feedtype is a combination
of PPS, DDS, HDS, IDs, and MCIDAS.  In general, that's not a
particularly huge amount of data, but it can be when you're first
getting going with the LDM.

I highly recommend that you build your own pqact.conf file.  Add entries
one at time and don't add another until you're sure that the previous
one is working as you expect.  This will help you understand how pqact
works.  FYI, you can get pqact to reread the configuration file by doing
'ldmadmin pqactHUP' while the LDM is running.

You say that the age of the oldest product in your queue is 5972 -
you're currently keeping well over an hour's worth of data in your
queue.  That's fine, especially if you can afford the space. We
recommend keeping a minimum of an hour's worth.  Some sites keep 10
hours worth in a 2Gbyte queue.  (I don't recommend that if you're
starting out!)

Regarding where to read about how to write a pqact.conf entry, I first
recommend the Site Manager's Guide.  It gives a good overview of the
LDM. To see it, pick your favorite format from the list after "LDM5 Site
Manager's Guide" on the page 
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/ldm/workshop2000/LDM_Config.html#s5. 
You can also take a look at the "slides" from the last LDM workshop
(being taught this August, FYI.  Why don't you come to Boulder and learn
about the LDM?):
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/ldm/workshop2000/.  In particular
see:http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/ldm/workshop2000/LDM_Config.html#s5. 
The only other thing we offer is examples, which you've already found.

Learning about specific products is a tough question that we get from
our users all the time.  There is no single repository.  There is a vast
amount of data available from lots of sources and something's changing
all the time, so keeping a repository is a Sisyphean task.  I come from
a computer science background and have been actively trying to learn
this stuff myself.  Tom, however, is much more familiar with what's
available and how to use it.  I'll cc him on the message - perhaps he
can add more.

Let me know how it goes.

Anne
-- 
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Anne Wilson                     UCAR Unidata Program            
address@hidden                  P.O. Box 3000
                                  Boulder, CO  80307
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Unidata WWW server       http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
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