[daip] setting up remote tape drive

[Eric Greisen]

Emily Xanthopoulos writes:

 > I have a linux machine with RedHat9 and I very smoothly installed the 
 > newest version 31dec04 of aips. However, I need to use a remote tape drive 
 > to read my data for DDS-1 DAT tapes from inside aips.
 > 
 > I followed the steps that you give in the AIPS Managers' Questions section 
 > but still can not make a connection. I will describe exactly what I did 
 > following your instructions and maybe you can tell me where I go wrong.

Unfortunately, that section left out one fundamental point (so well
understood by its author that he forgot and I will fix it) - there has
to be an aips installation for the computer architecture that is to
run the remote tape daemons (called TPMON).  I will add comments below

 > 
 > 
 > My machine is "floria" and I have aips root as: /home/exanthop/aips
 > The remore machince is a SPARC5 with Solaris 2.6 and its name "blackfoot".
 > 
 > I follow the numbering in your steps in the webpage:
 > 
 > 1. I logon (ssh) to Blackfoot so I have the root area /home/exanthop/aips
 > 2. I make an entry from floria to the HOSTS.LIST file for Blackfoot puting
 > "+ Blackfoot SUN' as a new line

        You would want to call it SUL for Solaris Ultra - SUN means
the old pre-solaris Suns.  The SITE name column MUST be different than
the one used for Linux - the two architectures are incompatible.  We
use NRAOAOC for Suns and COAOARN for Linux since bytes are backwards
(in binary numbers on Intel).

 > 3. I create in floria in /home/exanthop/aips/DA00 a directory called 
 > BLACKFOOT. Then I copy in it all the files from my 
 > /home/exanthop/aips/DA00/FLORIA (Question: can that be a mistake since 
 > FLORIA is LINUX or am I OK?)

       This is NOT okay - they are binary files - see below

 > 4. Now this step I am not sure:

       What you now need to do is install aips for Solaris.  Note that
it is not necessary to install it all if you don't want to but you
have to go far enough that it may be easier to do it all.  Do the
following.

cd
mv .AIPSRC .AIPSRC.Linux
ssh blackfoot                 - you must be on the Solaris box
cd $AIPS_ROOT
perl install.pl               - you are architecture SUL and the tar
                                ball has already been unpacked.
                                Note that SUL and LINUX can share all
the source code areas and have separate binary areas in the same
directory tree, so long as they both mount that tree of ccourse.
The important parts of INSTEP2 are APLSUB and APLGEN and of INSTEP4
are AIPNOT.

 > 
 > It says create 31Dec04/SOL/LOAD (I am not sure about the SOL) and put in 
 > the appropriate version of TPMON.EXE (I could not find that from the aips 
 > ftp site and it has to be the appropriate for SPARC5 and for the 31dec04 
 > version -> so I copied the one that I had from Linux from 
 > /aips/31DEC04/LINUX/LOAD (my directory). And where do I actually create 
 > this directory (I did it in floria in the aips/31DEC04 directory that I 
 > had).

     Again the Linux one is a LInux one - it is of no use on Solaris

 > 
 > Where do I create then:

    The cd puts you in the right directory (should be
31DEC04/SUL/LOAD) for the link file creation and TPMON.EXE should be
there too.  install.pl will do some of this and I do not think you
have to create the link files by hand either.

 > 
 > cd 31DEC04/SOL/LOAD 
 > ln TPMON.EXE TPMON1
 > ln TPMON.EXE TPMON2
 > 
 > 
 > links? (I mean in which file?)  - (I actually put them in the LOGIN.CSH 
 > file but I am not sure that that is correct and I keep getting that the 
 > two links are already there).
 > 
 > Then in Blackfoot I run: source LOGIN.CSH
 > and in floria: source LOGIN.SH
 > 
 > and when I run: START_TPSERVERS -d in floria it says:
 > 
 > STARTPMON: [FLORIA] verbose comments enabled
 > STARTPMON: [FLORIA] need 1 daemons...
 > STARTPMON: [FLORIA] 1 daemons alive
 > STARTPMON: [FLORIA] LINUX/TPMON1 is a valid link to TPMON.EXE
 > STARTPMON: [FLORIA] TPMON1 is already running

   The essential point here is that TPMON must be running on
blackfoot, not floria.  The aips command will start TPMON on floria
just for general principles.  To start it also on blackfoot for
debugging log in to blackfoot and do the source or dot LOGIN business
and the START_TPSERVERS -d.  Normally, one hopes that

         aips tp=blackfoot

on floria will start the TPMON servers on blackfoot but that depends
on ssh communications working and may or may not be reliable.

 > 
 > But still when I go  into aips and try to mount the tape that I have in 
 > the remote tape drive it gives me the error message:
 > 
 > ZVTPO2 connect (INET): Connection refused

I assume you have REMHOST set to blackfoot - this then means that
TPMON was not running on blackfoot (not suprising given what you have
said above).

 > AIPS 1: ZMOUNR: UNABLE TO OPEN SOCKET TO REMOTE MACHINE, ERROR    1
 > AIPS 1: ZMOUNT: ERROR     1 RETURNED BY ZMOUN2/ZMOUNR
 > AIPS 1: TAPE PROBLEM
 > 
 > (and the tape is definitely OK).
 > 
 > 
 > Note: also when I tried to run START_TPSERVERS in Blackfoot it gives a 
 > fatal error and kills everything.

as it should.

Now to go edit web pages....

Cheers,

Eric Greisen