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20031114: Unidata McIDAS-X Version 2003 at NIU

>From: Gilbert Sebenste <address@hidden>
>Organization: NIU
>Keywords: 200311142040.hAEKe1Ob024779 McIDAS ADDE

Gilbert,

>Quick question for you as I try to sort this all out. Was trying McIDAS on 
>weather3, and I couldn't pull up anything from any ADDE site 
>(adde.ucar.edu et al).

After I loaded McIDAS on weather3, I tested out access to remote 
ADDE servers and it worked with no problems.

>I did the option where it said to refresh the site 
>list, exited McIDAS, and restarted it.

What interface are you using (e.g., MCGUI, SSEC GUI, command mode)?

>It's as if it can't connect to the 
>Internet, yet I know it very well is. Running a batch file to grab a 
>satellite pic off adde.ucar.edu says that it can't because it can't 
>resolve the dataset.

>That goes for no matter what machine I try. Any ideas?

I just logged onto weather3 as 'mcidas' and have no trouble accessing
datasets on adde.ucar.edu.  Here are the steps I went through to test
the ability of mcidas@weather3 to access remote datasets on adde.ucar.edu:

1) login (ssh mcidas@weather3...)

2) cd workdata

3) dataloc.k LIST         <- to see if DATALOCs were still setup

4) dsinfo.k IMAGE CIMSS   <- the first dataset with image data in the DATALOC
                             list

5) imglist.k CIMSS/LI.ALL

All steps worked as they should so my conclusion is that things are
setup correctly.

From our online chat, I know that you are trying to use the SSEC GUI.
I looked for the files that should be created in support of the GUI:

CONTEXT.DAT
SERVERTABLE.TDAT

and I don't find them in the ~mcidas/workdata directory.  This is
where they should be if you are attempting to run McIDAS from the
'mcidas' account.  They will be found in the ~/mcidas/data directory
for users other than 'mcidas'.

Since weather3 has been setup to ingest data and decode various types
using McIDAS-XCD and ldm-mcidas, you should setup your McIDAS client
routing table to point at your own machine, not at adde.ucar.edu.  The
datasets that you should make available on weather3 -- required setup
-- are:

CIMSS
NEXRCOMP
RTGRIDS
RTIMAGES
RTNEXRAD
RTWXTEXT
TOPO

The first step in this process is defining the datasets on weather3:

<as mcidas>
cd ~mcidas/data
cp DSSERVE.BAT LSSERVE.BAT
<edit LSSERVE.BAT to setup things to match your setup>
cd ~mcidas/workdata
batch.k LSSERVE.BAT

I did this step for you.  What I see lacking right off are actions in
~ldm/etc/pqact.conf for processing the FNEXRAD (NEXRAD composites)
datastream.  This will mean that the NEXRCOMP and RTNEXRAD datasets
won't have anything in them until the LDM pqact.conf setup is
complete.  I setup the FNEXRAD processing in your ~ldm/etc/pqact.conf
file.

After the dataset setup is finished, the easiest way to change the
pointing (DATALOC) to specific machines is to setup a McIDAS BATCH file
to run all of the DATALOC commands in succession.  This is the concept
behind the following steps that are outlined in the McIDAS installation
web pages:

<as mcidas>

- make sure that all McIDAS environment variables are correctly defined
- create a McIDAS BATCH file to setup the client routing table entries:

cd ~mcidas/data
cp DATALOC.BAT LOCDATA.BAT
<edit LOCDATA.BAT to setup machine names for where to get data>
cd ~/workdata
batch.k LOCDATA.BAT

I just performed these steps for you, and then tried to test
access.  This failed since the remote ADDE interface on weather3 has
not been done.  The setup of the remote ADDE interface requires the
following steps:

1) create the McIDAS environment definition file for the user mcadde:

cd /home/mcidas
cp admin/mcadde_env.ksh .mcenv

   check entries in .mcenv to make sure that they are OK

2) as 'root', run the remote ADDE server setup routine:

cd ~mcidas
sh ./mcinet2003.sh install mcadde

Since you gave me 'root' permission on weather3, I performed the
above two steps.

The list of things I did today are:

1) setup the ADDE remote server interface

2) define ADDE datasets (see above)

3) added processing of FNEXRAD data to ~ldm/etc/pqact.conf

4) exercised McIDAS from the command line

5) tried, but was unable to find configuration files needed/used
   by the SSEC GUI.  I can not explain why the files are not being
   created _if_ you are doing this as the user 'mcidas'.

I have to run.  Please let me know if you are still unable to use
the SSEC GUI.  If it still does not work for you, please try running
the Unidata MCGUI interface:

mcidas -config
<select MCGUI as the interface to use and save the results into the
 configuration file (radiobutton at the bottome of the gui you will
 be interacting with)>

Try loading images, plotting point data, etc.

Later...

Tom