20020416: LDM/McIDAS system server specs

>From: Kwan-yin Kong <address@hidden>
>Organization: CCNY
>Keywords: 200204161529.g3GFTBa10234 platform

Kwan-yin,

>     My name is Kwan-yin Kong from the City College of New York.

Pleased to meet you!

>Recently, our old server halo which handles LDM, McIDAS, and
>GEMPAK subroutines has experienced a disk failure.  As such,
>we are in the process of planning on purchasing a replacement
>UNIX machine.  I have checked the UNIDATA web page at
>http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/platforms.html on platform
>requirements.  But how about the minimum memory requirements
>you would suggest?

I maintain a page of platform requirements with an eye towards McIDAS
use in:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/780/mcx/specs.html

In that page, I recommend the following as far as RAM, etc. for a system
on which McIDAS will be run:

Workstation Requirements

The following are requirements for a workstation running Unidata McIDAS
by itself. The recommended minimum configuration will grow the more
Unidata packages you run on your workstation.

     128 MB RAM minimum; >256 MB strongly recommended 
     256 MB swap minimum; >256 MB recommended 
     128 MB shared memory minimum; > 256 MB recommended 
     1 GB disk (operating system and McIDAS-X distribution only; data
       storage requirements can vary up to several GB) 
     X Window System (X11R5/X11R6 compliant) 
     8/16/24/32-bit color displays 
     Keyboard and three-button mouse 
     TCP/IP Ethernet 

These are the absolute minimums necessary for running McIDAS by itself.
Also, the disk storage requirements do not take into account storage of
decoded data, something that can easily take up to several GB.

>Any other suggestions on system purchase
>and setup procedures are greatly appreciated.

What you purchase ultimately depends on how much money you have for the
purchase (no suprise here!).

For several years, our experience with Intel-based PCs (or AMD) was
very positive: you can typicially buy two or three well configured PCs
that are as fast or faster than main line Unix boxes (e.g., machines
from Sun, IBM, SGI, Compaq/DEC, HP).  Up till about a month and a half
ago, I would, therefore, have recommended wth no reservations that you
purchase one or more well configured PCs as a replacement for halo.

Our experience in trying to run a primary IDD relay through a well
equipped PC (a dual 1 Ghz P4 machine with 4 GB of RAM and 2 10,000 RPM
SCSI 160 hard disks) has somewhat tempered my enthusiasm for
recommending such a machine.  It may be the case that the PC we were
trying to use (which had persistent, repeatable failures) is simply
suffering from a bad motherboard, but we have not had the chance to
verify this yet.

Even with our recent failures with heavily loaded PCs, I still like
these platforms, especially since they are easy and cheap to get
replacement parts for, and they continue to be a LOT cheaper than other
machines.  Given that you want to run both the LDM and McIDAS (and most
likely GEMPAK) on the same machine, I would recommend that you buy a
dual processor, Intel P4 machine that can hold at least 1 GB of RAM.  I
would try to get a system that has at least 1 Ghz processors (the
faster the better), and 10,000 RPM SCSI hard disks - 2 36 GB disks is a
common configuration (our experience is that IDE disks can't take as
much punishment as SCSI disks under Unix).  The other thing I would be
sure to buy if you don't have one already is some sort of a power
conditioning unit (UPS).  Conditioned power will help your system live
longer, and so make your money go further.

Also, I would strongly recommend that you run Solaris x86 on this
machine.  Our experience is that Solaris x86 is much more robust than
Linux when running the LDM and either of McIDAS or GEMPAK.  Solaris
x86, like Linux, can be gotten free of charge, so there is no downside
as far as price is concerned.  Also, since Solaris x86 is Solaris, the
system administration expertise will be the same on the new machine as
it has been on halo.

Finally, if you have the money, I would recommend that you buy more
than one machine.  This will help distribute the load if you try to run
multiple, concurrent application sessions (either/both McIDAS and
GEMPAK).

>     You may cc reply cc emails to
>Prof. Edward Hindman: address@hidden, and
>Prof. Stan Gedzelman: address@hidden

Done.

>     Thank you.

I hope that this helps...

>Kwan-yin Kong
>4/16/2002

Tom Yoksas