[McIDAS #GPS-629579]: McIDAS installation at CIMH in Barbados

Hi David, Lloyd and Ashford,

Thank you for bringing cimh_ucar.cimh.edu.bb back up yesterday after I 
inadvertently shut it
down instead of rebooting!

Here is what I have done on the machine so far:

<as 'root'>

- create a group named 'Unidata' ('vigr')

- create user accounts ('vipw' and 'vipw -s'):

  User     User's HOME      What this is used for
  ------   ------------     -----------------------------------------------
  ldm      /home/ldm        Unidata LDM-6
  mcidas   /home/mcidas     Unidata McIDAS-X
  mcadde   /home/mcidas     McIDAS ADDE Remote server (not a login account)
  idv      /home/idv        Unidata Integrated Data Viewer (IDV)
  gempak   /home/gempak     Unidata GEMPAK/NAWIPS

  All of these users are in the 'Unidata' group

  - mount the 250 GB data RAID:

    -- edit /etc/fstab and add an entry that will mount /dev/md0 on /data

    mkdir /data
    mount /data

  - configure the machine to use 'syslogd' instead of 'syslog-ng' for system
    logging

    NB: this required that I turn off apparmor:

    /etc/init.d/syslog stop
    /etc/init.d/boot.apparmor stop

    chkconfig boot.apparmor off

    -- edit /etc/sysconfig/syslog to set 'syslogd' as the log facility to use

    /etc/init.d/syslog start

  - configure system files for LDM use:

    -- edit /etc/syslog.conf    <- syslogd configuration
    -- edit /etc/rpc

  - rename the machine from 'cimh-ucar.cimh.edu.bb' to 'cimh_ucar.cimh.edu.bb'

    As part of this, I commented out or modified several definitions in 
/etc/hosts:

    - commented out the IPv6 definitions
    - commented out the define for 127.0.0.2
    - commented out the define for the local network, 192.168.0.189
    - modified the definition for the host, 63.175.159.28

    Question:

    - we are not familar with the use of 127.0.0.2.  Do you know why this was 
defined?

  - turn on time synchronization:

    -- edit /etc/ntp.conf to setup use of the Unidata time servers (this can be 
changed
       if you have a better/more local time server you can use)

    /etc/init.d/ntpd start
    chkconfig ntp on

  - configure the LDM to start at boot-up:

    -- create /etc/init.d/ldmd
    chkconfig ldmd on

  - there are LOTS of 'martian source' messages being written to 
/var/log/messages

    I started to setup the system to not log these messages, but stopped in case
    someone there knows how to act on the situation.  Here is the URL for an
    exchange that relates to this type of log message:

http://forums.opensuse.org/archives/sf-archives/archives-network-internet/327784-martian-source.html
    
    So far, I have added an entry to /etc/sysctl.conf.  I did not complete the 
steps
    that one user suggested in the above URL since another user noted:

    "Usually, these "martian sources" go away if your network is properly 
configured and
     the kernel knows how to reach the right networks."

    Comment:

    - if the comment about 'martian sources' going away if the network is 
properly configured,
      then the fix should be pretty easy from YaST run through the GUI.

- as 'ldm':

  - download, build, and install the current LDM release, v6.7.0

  - configure the LDM to request the following datastreams:

    IDS|DDPLUS - global observational data
    HRS        - just the GFS global grids from this datastream
    NEXRAD3    - the San Juan, Puerto Rico, Key West, Florida, and Miami
                 Florida Nexrad Level III radar data (just for interest)
    UNIWISC    - GOES-East/West satellite image sectors

  - configure the LDM to decode the data in the above streams for McIDAS use

    Note:

    - /data is the RAID

    - /data/ldm is the ~ldm/data directory (soft link in 'ldm's HOME)

    - /data/ldm/logs is the ~ldm/logs directory (soft link in 'ldm's HOME)

    - /data/ldm/mcidas is the top level directory for files decoded or filed
      for McIDAS use

  - configure the LDM to scour the data ingested and decoded into files from
    the above streams ('ldm's crontab entries).  I setup the scouring to
    keep the last 64 of each kind of satellite image ingested and 48 of each
    product for the three NEXRAD radars that are being ingested.  Since there
    is LOTS of room under /data, these numbers can be upped considerably.

- as 'mcidas':

  - download, build, install, and configure Unidata McIDAS-X v2008

    This includes setting up the actions needed for LDM processing of
    ingested data.

Things left to be done:

- the first McIDAS-X session run from the 'mcidas' account from the console
  should be made with 'mcidas -config'.  From the GUI that pops up, you should
  configure the size of the McIDAS frames to be as large as your display allows
  while the session window completely fits.  Remember to save the values
  (radiobutton near the bottom of the configuration GUI) so that you can start
  a McIDAS-X session with the same settings using the simple startup invocation
  of 'mcidas'.

- open up the firewall for port 112 (McIDAS ADDE remote server access)

  Request:

  - Can someone at CIMH configure the firewall to allow port 112 traffic?

  This will allow remote access to the ADDE Remote server on 
cimh_ucar.cimh.edu.bb.
  This is useful for other machines in the CIMH that want to use ADDE-enable
  applications like McIDAS-X, IDV, or McIDAS-V and get the data from the server.
  It will also allow me to look at the data that has been processed for McIDAS 
use
  remotely (makes my monitoring of your setup _much_ easier).

- configure a 'user' (non-'mcidas') account to be able use McIDAS

  Please let me know if you want me to do this.  It takes all of about 2 
minutes.


Things I did not do that could be done:

- install the dataset used in the McIDAS Learning Guide and Training Workshop

  Please let me know if you would like this setup.  It is not imperative, but it
  could be useful for those who want to learn McIDAS.  (Note that the McIDAS
  installation is currently configured to access this dataset remotely from
  adde.ucar.edu.)

- setup McIDAS model data processing using MySQL database for model fields 
metadata.
  Even though this is the preferred way of handling model data in McIDAS now, I
  chose to use the old 'decoding into GRID files' approach since it was 
immediately
  doable.  The MySQL approach requires that MySQL be installed and configured.  
This
  is not too hard, but I have never done it on openSUSE.  (I have setup MySQL 
processing
  under Fedora 8/9, RedHat Enterprise, and Solaris.)

I may have left out one or more steps that I made in the configuring of 
cimh_ucar.cimh.edu.bb.
I will include those steps in a follow-up email if/when I think of them.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: GPS-629579
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed