20050709: Requirements for LDM and software

>From: "address@hidden" <address@hidden>
>Organization: UCAR/Unidata
>Keywords: 200507091826.j69IQojo026346

>To whom it may concern;
>i am trying to establish an LDM service at Southern Illinois 
>University in Carbondale. I need to write a proposal for SIU to set 
>up an LDM that uses GEMPAK and McIDAS and netCDF Java. 
>What are the system requirments to run those programs? 
>thank you for much. 
>
>

Below is an excerpt regarding GEMPAK use which I provided recently.
The general suggestions should be the same for either GEMPAK or McIDAS
as an LDM server is concerned.

Steve Chiswell
Unidata User Support

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We generally recommend that you probably want to consider 64 bit
processors for the future, such as the Xeon or Opteron64 if
you are planning to run Linux or a PC type of operating system. 
Dual processor systems are quite affordable, and in the case of
an LDM server that is also doing decoding/filing, and product
generation, you will get the use out of a dual CPU machine.
User desktop systems can go either way. For running models,
the dual CPU systems are definitely going to be the way to go-
and memory should be as much as possible in your budget.
We are running Fedora Core 3 as well as Freebsd here, both support
64 bit processors in the newer releases. 

For an LDM server, it is a good idea to have as much RAM as the size of
your product queue, and your queue should be able to hold an hours
worth of data. If you were getting all IDD feeds, that would be
up to 3GB an hour at present rates. 

For a robust LDM server, just surfing the web, a Dell dual Xeon 2.8GHz
Power Edge SC1425 with 2GB of RAM is running $1377
(my link was following the small business rack server links
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=sc1425&s=bsd#bottom_anchor
That link may not get you the same page if it was using cookies etc, but
it gets you in the ballpark.

From starting around $1377, you can ad a couple of 250GB disks for about
$400. For desktop systems where you'd need a graphics card and display,
you'll probably add $750 for a 19" flat panel and graphics card, but be
looking at tower cases, and smaller hard disks, maybe 36 or 72GB if the
data is primarily on the server. You could probably get a couple
of desktop systems with nice monitors etc for $1500.

GEMPAK will run on 128MB, but You'd probably never want to
get a new workstation with less than 512MB. You'd be happiest
planning for the future with 1GB for a desktop system. If you
plan on using the Java based IDV, I'd suggest 1GB.

If you have a specific plan for number of seats in a lab, let us know
and we may be able to get more specific, or if you are generally looking
at remote access to the server that is doing LDM and modelling, then
rack machines are a good use of space.

Steve Chiswell
Unidata User Support


>From address@hidden  Tue Jul 12 07:39:21 2005

Thank you very much. 
That is all the information I need. 
Again, thanks,
Jack