[daip] migrating old aips data

[Eric Greisen]

joe cammisa writes:

 > hello.  our astronomy department is in the process of upgrading their
 > computer equipment; during the course of which, we saw an opportunity to
 > install a more current version of aips (31DEC00) than the one they'd
 > previously been using (OCT98).  this task has fallen to me; so far, so
 > good, i suppose (you're new install.pl script is a real godsend, btw!!)
 > the problem i now face is that i need to move pretty much all of their
 > old aips data to the new machine.  my question to you is this:  what's
 > the easiest way to do this?  i've tried moving some of it in a
 > unix-style manner (ie, tar it up, ftp it over , unpack it in the new
 > data area and then RUN RECAT); alas i can't see it from within aips
 > afterwards (is it pertinent that on the old system there were some 10
 > data areas and on the new one there is just one so far?).  i'd rather
 > not have to write it all the data to tapes from OCT98 and then read it
 > into 31DEC00 as this would appear to take a frighteningly long time
 > (we're talking years worth of data here... ) any suggestions from you
 > folks will be most heartily appreciated.  thanks in advance...
 > 

Before I can answer your question I need to know one pertinant fact.
What are the architectures of your old and new systems?  If they are
compatible (e.g. Vax and Linux) then file copying can be made to work.
If they are incompatible (e.g. Solaris and Linux), then FITS is your
only answer although disk rather than tape may be used.
 
BTW  these data should be backed up on tape regularly anyway.  Disks
do crash!

Eric Greisen