19990421: setting up McIDAS-XCD

>From: Eirh-Yu Hsie <address@hidden>
>Organization: CU/CIRES
>Keywords: 199904211618.KAA11759 McIDAS-XCD

Hsie,

>I am trying to set up a backup machine to ingest IDD surface and upper air
>data (generate MDXX files). But the decoders (DMSFC, DMRAOB,... etc) will
>not start.  
>
>I need some help.

No problem.  You must remember that the data monitor routines (DMSFC, DMRAOB,
etc.) are started (and restarted) by the XCD supervisory routine startxcd.k.
The way we have "bent" XCD to work with the LDM is as follows:

o startxcd.k is run by the Bourne shell script xcd_run

o xcd_run should be copied from the 'mcidas' bin directory to a directory
  in the PATH of the user running the LDM.  The file permissions on xcd_run
  must be set so that the user running the LDM can execute it.

o xcd_run must be edited/modified to match your system setup: the environment
  variables MCDATA, MCPATH, MCGUI, PATH, and possibly LD_LIBRARY_PATH
  must be set to correctly locate the McIDAS ancillary data files, data files,
  and binaries

o for a McIDAS installation that follows the Unidata recommendations,
  the home directory of the user 'mcidas' will be /home/mcidas.  The
  appropriate settings for MCDATA, MCPATH, MCGUI, and PATH will then be

MCDATA=/home/mcidas/workdata
MCPATH=${MCDATA}:/home/mcidas/data:/home/mcidas/help
MCGUI=/home/mcidas/bin
PATH=${MCGUI}:$PATH

o the LDM's startup configuration file, ldmd.conf needs to be edited
  so that xcd_run is run upon LDM startup:

exec    "pqexpire"
exec    "xcd_run MONITOR"
exec    "pqact"
exec    "pqbinstats"
exec    "pqsurf"

o the McIDAS working directory for the user 'mcidas' should contain the
  files necessary to configure the XCD supervisory program and the
  data monitors that it administers.  This includes configuration files
  like HRS.CFG and DDS.CFG and the file CIRCUIT.DAT.

o CIRCUIT.DAT should be configured so that ALL intestors are set to
  be inactive.  The reason for this is that the McIDAS data ingestors
  are run by the LDM, not by startxcd.k.

o the DDS.CFG and HRS.CFG configuration files should be set so that
  the input to the ingestors is through STDIN:

FILE=STDIN             # Standard in; used for feed from Unidata LDM

o you must determine where you want your XCD-produced data files to be
  stored.  This directory must exist and be writable by the user running
  the LDM.

o in a McIDAS session whose working directory is /home/mcidas/workdata, 
  you need to define the McIDAS string XCDDATA to be the directory in
  which you want XCD output to be stored

o you should copy the file SCHEMA from the McIDAS distribution to the
  directory in which the XCD decoders will create their output.  SCHEMA
  must be readable/writable by the user running the LDM.  From a McIDAS
  session, make sure that you have a file REDIRECTion to SCHEMA in the
  directory you just copied it to.

o from a McIDAS session whose working directory is /home/mcidas/workdata
  you need to run the McIDAS BATCH files XCD.BAT and XCDDEC.BAT sequentially:

BATCH XCD.BAT
BATCH XCDDEC.BAT

o at this point, you should be ready to start your LDM and the XCD
  data monitors/decoders should be started by startxcd.k which is
  started by xcd_run which is run upon LDM startup

o after the decoders are working, you should consider setting up the
  McIDAS remote ADDE server so that you can use McIDAS ADDE routines
  to access the data from the files that will be produced on this machine

o lastly, you must setup McIDAS data file scouring.  Do NOT use the LDM
  scour script to do McIDAS data file scouring.  The reason for this is
  that the LDM scour utility scours all files from a directory after they
  get to be 'N' days old.  You have just copied the file SCHEMA to this
  directory, and SCHEMA does not get updated.  If the LDM scour is
  running on this direcotry, SCHEMA will eventually be deleted and the
  DMSFC, DMRAOB, DMSYN, etc. data monitors will stop producing output
  MD files since they will not have the information they need to create
  their "shape" (form)

If you need further help I have to warn you that it will be hard to reach
me by phone.  We have been "kicked out" of our offices while they are being
rewired.  My phone has been redirected straight to voicemail where I
can pickup messages periodically throughout the day.  We expect to be
able to move back into our offices next Wednesday (the 28th) and be back
in full operation on Thursday.

Please let me know if the above was helpful.

Tom

>From address@hidden  Wed Apr 21 14:01:45 1999

Hello, Tom:

exec    "xcd_run MONITOR"

is what I forget to put in ldmd.conf.  Everything is working now.  Thanks.

Hsie