20020211: realtime FTPs to motherlode.ucar.edu (cont.)

>From: "Kevin Polston" <address@hidden>
>Organization: NOAA
>Keywords: 200202012111.g11LBCx14907 LDM installation

Kevin,

>I was just doing some checking and it seems I am not able to get hooked
>up to the papagayo.unl.edu server.  We had a power hit and when I
>restarted things I found I could not reach the server. I am thinking I
>did things right but when I ran the notifyme -vl - -h "papagayo.unl.edu"
>command I did not see the data stream. So I was wanting to check with
>you to see if thee is a problem on my end or is there something wrong
>with papagayo. 

A quick check to see if papagayo is there using 'ping' shows that it
is missing in action today:

% ping papagayo.unl.edu
no answer from papagayo.unl.edu

Something must be amiss at UNL.  I will have to check with Clint
by email to see what is up.

>One other thing I want to ask...I've hesitated with this because I
>didn't want to bug you too much but after I got things started (I ran
>the ldmadmin start) I was not able to get data.

After starting the LDM, you should check a couple of things to see
if you have been OKed to get data and, if so, if you are, in fact,
receiving it:

ldmadmin start
ldmadmin tail

If this shows that the connection has not been refused, then you next run:

ldmadmin watch

This monitors your queue to see if products are getting put into it.

>I figured it was because
>I needed to edit the pqact file.

Getting and decoding data is a two step process in the LDM:

o ldmd.conf setups your LDM to request data from upstream host(s) (it
  can also enable your LDM to send data to one or more downstream hosts)

o pqact.conf configures pqact to do something with the products you receive

You do not have to have any pqact.conf entries in order to receive
data.  You do, of course, have to have pqact.conf entries to proces the
data that you recieve.

>Well I wanted to start off slow and
>easy so I added one or two items to the pqact file.

I agree with this strategy.

>However....it
>doesn't seem to me that the pqact file is being read. What exactly do I
>need to do to get the pqact file read?

The beginning of ~ldm/etc/ldmd.conf should start pqact as follows:

exec    "pqact"

This starts pqact in a default mode.  Its default is to read the queue
ldm.pq in the ~ldm/data directory and use the actions in
~ldm/etc/pqact.conf to process data that it receives.

If you don't have a line that starts pqact in ldmd.conf, it will never
run and nothing will be decoded.  The LDM can, however, be humming
along ingesting (and forwarding) data.

>I am sorry to bug you with this
>but I have been stumped as to how to get this started.

No worries.  This is the natural "teething" pains run into when using
any new package.

As to how to get started, the A, B, C, ... of things is:

A) grab the LDM and install it: either build from source or grab a binary
   if one exists for your particular platform

B) edit ~ldm/etc/ldmd.conf to setup who to request data from and what data
   to request

C) edit ~ldm/etc/pqact.conf to setup what to do with the data you receive

D) edit scour.conf to setup data scouring.  You may have to setup additional
   scouring activities depending on what data you will be getting.

Now, if papagayo was accessible today, your notifyme attempt was the
correct one to see if you are allowed to get data.  'notifyme' tells
you what products the LDM it is talking to is receiving.  You can use
notifyme on your own system, or, like you attempted to do above, on a
remote one.  In order for the remote one to let you to see it getting
data, it would have had to have been setup to allow you to ask for
data.  papagayo is setup for your machine, it is just not there today.

>I have been
>reading through the startup instructions but perhaps there is something
>I have been missing. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

It doesn't sound like there are any big gaps in your understanding of
things at this point.  I will try to find you a backup feed site (termed
failover site) tomorrow when I get into work.  Until then, let's hope that
whatever is going on with papagayo is found and fixed.

By the way, you can leave your LDM running.  If/when the upstream feed
host comes back alive, the LDM will connect and products will start
being transferred.

In the interim, please send along copies of your ldmd.conf and pqact.conf
files for me to glance at.  Please never include binary attachements
(like MS Word docs).  We shun such things since they are hiding places
for viruses.

Tom