[daip] Transferring Old Data to New AIPS Installation

[Eric Greisen]

Jonathan Mines writes:

 > I would like to transfer a large quantity of AIPS data (from an old 
 > installation, obviously) to a new computer and a new AIPS installation.  
 > I thought I had done this, however, it seems that I made one or more 
 > mistakes.
 > 
 >   1. Are the below instructions applicable for my situation?

     They are generally applicable but are not really necessary for a
1 or 2 machine installation

 >   2. I don't have a directory called anything like $AIPS_ROOT,
 >      nonetheless, I edited HOSTS.LIST.  It consists of a file within
 >      the main AIPS directory.  Question:  What should I call the new
 >      host?  Does it matter?

     Any string with a $ in front is an environment (or logical)
variable. There is no directory named $AIPS_ROOT but without a value
for $AIPS_ROOT nothing will work.  The files LOGIN.SH and LOGIN.CSH
are normally executed by a user ("source LOGIN.CSH" or ". LOGIN.SH"
for bash) is his/her login script.  This defines $AIPS_ROOT and other
variables.

     The name of the host indeed matters - a lot.  If the LOGIN.SH and
LOGIN.CSH files declare LAPTOP = "YES" then the name of the host is
LOCALHOST and there can be only one host.  Otherwise the host name is
the output of the command "uname -n" converted to uppercase.  Whether
you want both hosts to run from the same installation will determine
whether to leave LAPTOP YES or not.

 >   3. In the $DA00/ directory, there is a folder which has the default
 >      name "LOCALHOST".  Do I need to change this?  Is this the
       "hostname"?

      Our setup allows for literally 100's of computers to run from a
single version of the aips code.  Thus the directory names in
$AIPS_ROOT/DA00 (aka $NET0) are the names of the hosts listed in
HOSTS.LIST. They should be soft links to some directory actually on
that host since NFS file locking has problems otherwise.  If you have
2 hosts of the same architecture, then you could simply copy
   cp $NET0/HOSTA/* $NET0/HOSTB.*

 >   4. Where should I set up a template area
|$AIPS_VERSION/$ARCH/TEMPLATE/|?

       The installation process should have done this and
$AIPS_VERSION/$ARCH/TEMPLATE is exactly where it should be.  Note that
these too are environment variables set by LOGIN.SH and would on a
linux box translate to

        $AIPS_ROOT/31DEC06/LINUX/TEMPLATE

But templates are really only needed if you plan to have several
machines run off the samme installation.

 >   5. I already copied the contents of the old DATA folder to the new
 >      machine.  I get the impression that this is incorrect.  What
 >      should I do now -- delete it?  (This *should* be painless.)

       This may be correct or wrong - it depends on whether the two
machines are of the same architecture.  Note that Linux, VMS, and
Mac (intel cpu - not yet supported) are architectures that can share
data but they cannot share with the opposite byte-order machines,
namely Solaris and Mac PPC.  You did not tell me enough to answer this
question since you did not tell me the names of your machines, their
architecture, or the versions of aips involved.


 >   6. In the new installation, for some reason I do not need to type
 >      LOGIN.SH to start AIPS.  What does this mean?  Is this a problem
 >      with respect to the instructions below?

        If you reference START_AIPS to start aips then it will do the
LOGIN.SH.  This is fine so long as you compiled aips locally.  If,
however, you used the binary installation which will perform better,
then your login file will need to reference LOGIN.SH to get the xterms
that run the message and Tek servers to have correct
$LD_LIBRARY_PATHs.  If you reference LOGIN.SH yourself, then the
$SYSLOCAL will be in your $PATH and the word aips (or AIPS) is
sufficient to start aips.

 > 
 > Note:  I have worked with Linux before, but I am not particularly adept 
 > at using Linux outside of specific software and some basic things.  In 
 > other words, I an not a network administrator.  Please make it as simple 
 > and explicit as possible.  Sorry for my ignorance.  Thank you for your 
 > assistance.
 > 
 > *How do I configure a new AIPS host machine?*
 > 
 >         * Follow these instructions /only/ is the new machine is the
 >           same architecture as one or more already in use. Otherwise see
 >           the next section.
 >         * Move to your |$AIPS_ROOT| area, edit |HOSTS.LIST| and add the
 >           new host.
 >         * Make sure you have already set up a template area
 >           |$AIPS_VERSION/$ARCH/TEMPLATE/|; if not create it and copy the
 >           contents of |$DA00/| to it.
 >         *  From the Unix command line, type |SYSETUP WOOHOO| where you
 >           substitute the appropriate hostname for |WOOHOO|. You will
 >           need to have already called |LOGIN.CSH| or |LOGIN.SH|.

Eric Greisen