20021023: McIDAS-X installation at CTA/IAE

>From:  Daniel Vila <address@hidden>
>Organization:  ACA-IAE-CTA
>Keywords:  200210231833.g9NIX3p29884 McIDAS-X install configure

Daniel,

>Everything was OK during the testing and building phase and the ADDE server 
>instalation,  but (always I've a BUT) when I follow to the next step 
>(Configuring the mcidas Account) some problems/questions occurs:
>
>1) I don't change anything in LOCAL.NAM and LSSERVE.BAT. I copy them from the 
>file provided by UNIDATA

It seems to me that you _do_ need to change things in these files.  The
entries in EXAMPLE.NAM (the template for LOCAL.NAM) and DSSERVE.BAT
(the template for LSSERVE.BAT) are intended for the "standard" US
Unidata site.  These sites typically get all of the images from the
UNIWISC stream of the IDD, and decode all of the data from NOAAPORT.
Since you are not getting any IDD feeds, you will not have the same
datasets as the "standard" US user.  Given this, you _should_ modify
both of these files to match the data you will have locally.

LOCAL.NAM

This file contains McIDAS file REDIRECTions.  A REDIRECTion is a construct
that tells McIDAS that when accessing for a file that matches a certain
regular expression, look for/create the file in a particular directory.
For instance, the pair:

AREA01*  /var/data/ldm/mcidas

tells McIDAS then when any McIDAS application looks for any file
whose name matches the regular expression AREA*, it should look in
/var/data/ldm/mcidas.  The various regular expressions in EXAMPLE.NAM
match files that the average US users is likely to have.  Since
you probably won't have any of these files, you may choose to ignore
the settings in EXAMPLE.NAM altogether

LSSERVE.BAT

LSSERVE.BAT is used to setup ADDE datasets for the files that the
"standard" US users is likely to have.  Since you are not likely to
have the same sets of data, you may choose to ignore all of the
settings in LSSERVE.BAT.  The only two datasets that I recommend
that you do setup are MYDATA and TOPO.  You can setup each of these
using a BATCH file contained in the distribution.  Here is how:

BATCH MYDATA.BAT
BATCH TOPOADDE.BAT

>2) In LOCDATA.BAT, I put  uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu in place of 
>fully_qualified_host_identifier because we haven't any data here. Is it 
>correct? or I need to put my own IP?

What you replace 'fully_qualified_host_identifier' with in LOCDATA.BAT
depends on what ADDE server you will access for that data.  US sites
that are ingesting data may well be able to point at their own machine
for the various datasets.  Sites that are not ingesting data at all
(like you) need to point at data servers that have the dataset specified
by LOCDATA.BAT (which, of course is a copy of DATALOC.BAT).

If you want to access the datasets listed in LOCDATA.BAT even though
you don't have the data locally, I recommend that you replace
'fully_qualified_host_identifier' as follows:

DATALOC ADD CIMSS     papagayo.unl.edu
DATALOC ADD GINICOMP  pscwx.plymouth.edu
DATALOC ADD GINIEAST  cacimbo.ggy.uga.edu
DATALOC ADD GINIWEST  stratus.al.noaa.gov
DATALOC ADD NEXRCOMP  papagayo.unl.edu
DATALOC ADD RTGRIDS   papagayo.unl.edu
DATALOC ADD RTIMAGES  papagayo.unl.edu
DATALOC ADD RTNEXRAD  adde.ucar.edu
DATALOC ADD RTPTSRC   papagayo.unl.edu
DATALOC ADD RTWXTEXT  weather2.admin.niu.edu
DATALOC ADD TOPO      your_local_machine_hostname_or_IP

DATALOC ADD AMRC      uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu
DATALOC ADD ME7       io.sca.uqam.ca

DATALOC ADD BLIZZARD  adde.ucar.edu


Note that I left the DATALOC for TOPO for you to fill in.  What you
need to do is specify your full hostname or its IP address.  In order
for this to work, your ADDE remote server must be installed and
configured correctly.

>3) When I type REDIRECT REST LOCAL.NAM in McIDAS, the program shows the 
>following message:
>
>REDIRECT: File does not exist=LOCAL.NAM

This tells me that you did not setup the MCPATH environment variable
in your ~mcidas/.cshrc file correctly (or .profile if you are using
the Bourne shell, etc.).  If you had, then your McIDAS session would
be able to find LOCAL.NAM by virtue of that definition.

To review the environment variables you need to define for the user
'mcidas', please go to:

Prepare the mcidas and mcadde Accounts
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/2002/mcx/mcxacct.html

>4) When you say a  <fully_qualified_directory_name>, is it possible to use 
>/home/mcidas/workdata? When I try to BATCH "LSSERVE.BAT, an error was 
>detected in the file.

Again, the entries in LSSERVE.BAT are used to setup ADDE datasets for
files that you probably will not have locally.  Given this, I recommend
that you skip the 'BATCH "LSSERVE.BAT' step altogether.

>The same message was displayed when I try BATCH "LOCDATA.BAT

I am assuming that the error messages you are referring to are the
same as you saw for the 'REDIRECT REST LOCAL.NAM'.  The reason would
be the same: you did not setup the environment variables in your 
shell specific definition file (e.g., .chsrc, .profile, .bashrc, etc.).

To verify if you did setup MCPATH, etc. correctly, please send me
the output of:

env

run from the Linux command prompt.

>I believe that everything has some relationship...

Yes, all of the problems are most likely caused by the McIDAS enviornment
variables not being setup correctly.

One last thing.  It is much better to send your inquiries to 
address@hidden.

Tom
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