20010731: setting up McIDAS user accounts

>From: Wayne Bresky <address@hidden>
>Organization: Cornell
>Keywords: 200107312125.f6VLPs113024 McIDAS DATALOC DSSERVE

Wayne,

>I'm setting up McIDAS user accounts at this point.  And I followed
>the steps in the installation manual.  But when I do a SFCLIST
>I get the error
>
>sfclist.k: Point data server unable to resolve this dataset: RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY

The question is whether or not you intend to setup each user account to
have definitions for datasets, or if you are going to have the user account
go through the ADDE remote server on one machine.  As you recall, this was
the topic of discussion in a couple of the emails we have had over the past
couple of weeks.

IF you setup one machine to run the ADDE remote server, and IF the setup
for the remote server in the 'mcidas' account is correct, and IF you
created the copy of ~mcidas/data/DATALOC.BAT in ~mcidas/data/LOCDATA.BAT,
and IF you edited LOCDATA.BAT to set 'fully_qualified_host_identifier'
for Cornell datasets to the machine that you setup (the local datasets
would be CIMSS, RTGRIDS, RTIMAGES, RTNEXRAD, RTPTSRC, and RTWXTEXT), then
the user should be able to do a:

BATCH LOCDATA.BAT

and setup access to those datasets on that server.  All that LOCDATA.BAT
will do is run a series of DATALOC commands like:

DATALOC ADD RTPTSRC <whatever machine you setup>

After doing this, the user account should be able to run:

DSINFO P RTPTSRC

and get a listing that looks like:

Name         NumPos   Content
------------ ------   --------------------------------------
AIRCRAFT        10    Real-Time Aircraft data
FOUS14          10    Real-Time FOUS14 data
LIGHTNING       10    Real-Time Lightning data
PROF6MIN        10    Real-Time 6-Minute Profiler data
PROFHOURLY      10    Real-Time Hourly Profiler data
PTSRCS         100    All point data in MDXX files
SFCHOURLY       10    Real-Time SFC Hourly
SHIPBUOY        10    Real-Time Ship and Buoy data
SYNOPTIC        10    Real-Time SYNOPTIC data
UPPERMAND       10    Real-Time Upper Air (Mandatory)
UPPERSIG        10    Real-Time Upper Air (Significant)

DSINFO -- done

If s/he does not get this, it usually means that the setup of the remote
server is bad.  If s/he does get this, the next step is to see if s/he
can list any of the data:

PTLIST RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY

This should list back the first record of today's surface data file.
If this doesn't work (and the DSINFO did) it typically means that 
the 'mcidas' account on the ADDE remote server machine is not setup
to find the data files that comprise the RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY dataset.
Since you can do a SFCLIST from the 'mcidas' account, this should not
be the problem.

My guess is that one of the following three things have not been setup
or are not working:

o setup of LOCDATA.BAT in the ~mcidas/data directory>
o the user running BATCH LOCDATA.BAT
o the ADDE remote server is not setup

Now, if you are not going to use the ADDE remote server approach, each
user must do the following to define the datasets in his/her account:

o define the McIDAS string XCDDATA to point at the directory where XCD is
  decoding data files.  For example, if XCD is decoding files into
  /data/mcidas, then this would look like:

  TE XCDDATA "/data/mcidas

o define the datasets by using the LSSERVE.BAT copy of DSSERVE.BAT file
  that you should have created during the setup of the 'mcidas' account:

  BATCH LSSERVE.BAT

o also, since each user's account will need to be able to find the data
  files that comprise the datasets that were just defined by the LSSERVE.BAT
  step, s/he will need to have defined the set of REDIRECTions that would
  have been setup when you made a copy of ~mcidas/data/EXAMPLE.NAM into
  ~mcidas/data/LOCAL.NAM.  You would have had to edit LOCAL.NAM and change
  the directories listed there to match how you setup your XCD data decoding.

Once the user's account can "see" the data files (i.e., a DMAP MDXX shows
the location expected given XCD decoding, etc.), and dataset definitions
have been made, s/he should be able to run any/all McIDAS commands that
access those datasets:

SFCLIST KDEN
  
>Logged in as the user mcidas this command works fine.  What do I have to do
>to get it to work for the user?  Thanks.

Please slog through the steps above and let me know if things work.  If
they don't please include the message you get from the command that fails.
If you find yourself thrashing, I am willing to login and look around if
you give me the login (and machine name) information for the 'mcidas'
user on the ADDE remote server machine.

Tom