This archive contains answers to questions sent to Unidata support through mid-2025. Note that the archive is no longer being updated. We provide the archive for reference; many of the answers presented here remain technically correct, even if somewhat outdated. For the most up-to-date information on the use of NSF Unidata software and data services, please consult the Software Documentation first.
>From: Richard Massa <address@hidden> >Organization: UC Davis >Keywords: 200210150109.g9F19F112387 McIDAS-XCD LDM Richard, >Lo and behold, I left last night and everything was fine. However, something >again appears to have broken in the night... > >So the symptom is nearly the same as before, however this time nothing appears >under the Data Plot Day in the observations window at all, and when I got to >click on it, I another error message. I see from your PTLIST output that there are no surface (SAO/METAR) data files on atm20. This indicates a problem either in your XCD decoding or LDM reception of the data. >A note, if I choose synoptic as output as opposed to SAO/METAR, it works fine. This says that the synoptic XCD decoder, DMSYN, is running. >So I figured I would do those same tests as you did and include them here... >All complete fine (output identical to what you emailed yesterday) except the >last one... > >PTLIST RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY FORM=FILE ALL >PTLIST: No MD files found >PTLIST: Done > >in /a/data/xcd, which is where I'm keeping the files, I see this: > >root@atm20:/a/data/xcd# ls -la MD* >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 5545608 Oct 16 03:38 MDXX0018 >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 5781328 Oct 16 13:47 MDXX0019 >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 682960 Oct 15 21:58 MDXX0020 Three days worth of mandatory level upper air data, but today's data is much less than yesterday's and the day before's. >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 784960 Oct 16 03:24 MDXX0028 >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 1275344 Oct 16 13:47 MDXX0029 >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 16640 Oct 15 21:57 MDXX0030 Three days worth of significant level upper air data, but today's (the data in MDXX0030) data is next to nothing. >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 4987588 Oct 16 13:31 MDXX0038 >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 4984780 Oct 16 13:48 MDXX0039 >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 2215544 Oct 16 08:26 MDXX0049 Three days worth of ship/buoy data, but none for today. >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 4909200 Oct 16 05:08 MDXX0057 >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 8858712 Oct 16 11:22 MDXX0058 >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 7778136 Oct 16 13:48 MDXX0059 Three days worth of synoptic data, but none for today. >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 3112844 Oct 16 04:04 MDXX0068 >-rw-r--r-- 1 ldm ldm 5436048 Oct 16 13:47 MDXX0069 Two days worth of piret/airep data, but none for today. >Don't know if that helps at all... No, this tells us that certain things are not working. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell us _why_ they are working. >Could you perhaps shed any light on why this might be occuring? Not really. I would need to see LDM log files to see if data is being received; see if the XCD decoders are running (processes like dmsfc.k dmsyn.k, dmraob.k, dmmisc.k, dmgrid.k); if errors are occurring during the decodes; etc. A login both as 'ldm' and 'mcidas' would help. >I'm wanting to say that it could be caused by a professor who is running >mcidas after I've left. The user shouldn't be deleting data, so this _should not_ be the problem (but you never know). >I'm creating him a seperate account today, but is there anything else I >should/can look for when things go wrong? There are a lot of things to check: o from the 'ldm' account, I would run 'ldmadmin watch' to see if your machine is receiving IDS|DDPLUS datastream products o from the 'ldm' account verify that the McIDAS-XCD decoders are running (in addition to the decoders I listed above, look for the routines startxcd.k, ingebin.k, and ingetext.k). If these are not running, try stopping and restarting the LDM: ldmadmin stop <wait for all LDM processes to exit> ldmadmin start o if the LDM _is_ running and you _are_ receiving data products, then the problem must be some where in the McIDAS setup. Since this was working, the only thing I can think of is that the file SCHEMA has somehow been deleted from the directory in which you are decoding XCD products. Tom