[McIDAS #ECE-924432]: Creating and populating a local ADDE server

Hi Kevin,

re:
> Good as always to see you last week.

Ditto!

re:
> Sorry I had to leave before you had a chance to
> give me your quick and dirty tutorial on setting up an ADDE server on my 
> local network.

Too bad you had to leave early.  I did just this with Marty on Friday afternoon.

re:
> I've done some reading through the McIDAS installation guide and tutorial, 
> but still am
> not clear on how to serve datasets via ADDE.  I would like to do so, both so 
> I can have
> my IDV point to it, as well as just wanting to figure it out in general.  
> Here are a
> couple questions:
> 
> 
> 1. Does point data (e.g. METARs) that comes in via the LDM need to be decoded 
> into
> a McIDAS point-data format?

Yes.

re:
> If so, would I use the "archaic" lwtmd2 decoder?

No.  'lwtmd2' converted compressed MD files into a format directly usable by
McIDAS.  What one does now is setup the XCD component of Unidata McIDAS to
decode POINT data received in the IDD directly in MD files.

re:
> 2. Say I have the point data, either decoded or not, in a directory called 
> /data1
> /surface/metar in files named YYYYMMDDHH.mtr.  What do I need to type in my 
> McIDAS
> window to have this served via ADDE?

The data has to be decoded first, and the output of the decoding is a McIDAS
MD (Meteorological Database) file.  The McIDAS MD files are very much like the
.gem files the GEMPAK decoders like dcmetr, etc. create.  The reason that the
are so similar is that a LONG time ago, Mary talked to Tom Whittaker about
dealing with POINT data.  The GEMPAK decoded point files reflect those 
conversations
and are structurally very much alike (but, alas, not identical).

re:
> Since I ran the mcinet2009.sh script naming
> "mcadde" as the ADDE user, I should run McIDAS as "mcadde" to accomplish this,
> correct?

There is more to setting up serving than this.  Here is a very high level 
overview
of data serving in McIDAS which is known as the Abstract Data Distribution
Environment (ADDE):

- data files of like things ** that are in formats that McIDAS understands **
  are collected into sets that are defined in ADDE

  One example is that surface metar/sao MD files are one set; surface synoptic
  MD files are another set; mandatory level upper air MD files are a third
  set; significant level upper air MD files are a forth set; etc.

  One "teaches" (defines to) ADDE about these sets using the McIDAS command
  DSSERVE.  Here is an example of a DSSERVE invocation that creates a
  dataset named RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY:

DSSERVE ADD RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY MD 1 10 RT=YES "Real-Time SFC Hourly

  This command says that the set of MD files whose names are MDXX0001 - 
MDXX0010,
  inclusive, will be accessible from the dataset whose group name is RTPTSRC
  (overall set) and whose descriptor name is SFCHOURLY (subset of RTPTSRC).

- in Unidata McIDAS, the user 'mcidas' creates all of the dataset definitions
  that will be used on the local machine

  In Unidata McIDAS, the user 'mcadde' is the user that will serve the data
  in all of the datasets defined by 'mcidas'.  'mcadde' is a special user
  since it 1) shares the same HOME directory as the user 'mcidas',
  2) is not a login account (for security), and is in the same group as
  'mcidas'

- Unidata McIDAS comes with a set of BATCH files (McIDAS scripts) that
  are run to create ADDE dataset definitions

  I also created a script (to be run by 'mcidas') that asks the user
  questions about what data is to be processed by McIDAS-XCD decoders
  and then does the heavy lifting of defining ADDE datasets.

Would you like for me to login to a UAlbany machine and setup XCD decoding
and ADDE serving of data?  I do this routinely for sites, so it is not
an out of the ordinary service...

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: ECE-924432
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed