[evla-sw-discuss] Central server

[Kevin Ryan]

Hi Michael,

Well, I thought I was thinking long term. :)

Maybe I was asking for the wrong thing.   We want to be able to point  
to a directory (say /home/widar) and know that no matter what process  
is accessing that directory, be it a GUI on someone's laptop far away  
(via URL), or a CMIB writing data products via NFS to a file, it will  
be the same location for everyone and everything.

What brought this up is the Test Executor GUI's that have directory  
path fields.  Those paths are relative to the CMIB's boot server  
(CMIBS don't have their own disks); the problem arises when we add  
more boot servers.  If they all mounted the same /home/widar  
directory, then it would not matter.

I'm pretty sure this is something that will be required (or at least  
be handy) even on the final system for things like property and  
configuration files and perhaps temporary CMIB data products for  
maintenance/testing.  It would be nice to keep other things like the  
web start applications in this directory also.

Does this make any more sense?  I should have said central  
'directory' rather than 'server'.  How the James Gang implements this  
directory would be up to them.

Kevin

On May 6, 2008, at 2:31 PM, Michael Rupen wrote:

> Hi Kevin,
>    are you thinking of the 4-station PTC or the 10-station system  
> or beyond?
> In the long run it's not obvious to me that many of these files  
> should reside
> on a single central file system, though initially this may be useful.
>
>            Michael
>
> On Tue, 6 May 2008, Kevin Ryan wrote:
>
>> Hi gang,
>>
>> This is more of a James question but I think that many on this list
>> might be interested in the outcome.
>>
>> Work on the WIDAR correlator TestExecutor software suite has gotten
>> me thinking about how (or if) we will implement a 'Central Server'.
>> We want configuration files (the ones that set up the various
>> correlator modes), data output files such as those generated by the
>> Station Boards during OTS testing, property files and the Java Web
>> Start GUI application files all to reside on one central file system
>> that is mounted by all processors in the correlator including each of
>> the 256 CMIBs.  ... I think.
>>
>> Presently, the Java Web Start application files and the system
>> property files reside on 'filehost'(?) at '/home/asg/www/widar'.
>> This translates to the URL 'http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/asg/widar/' used
>> by Java for access to these files.
>>
>> Also, presently, the CMIBs access a directory on 'cmibhost' (the CMIB
>> bootserver in Bruce & Kevin's office) called '/opt/widar' where
>> configuration files are kept for now.  When the system goes online
>> there will be more than one CMIB bootserver which will cause
>> confusion since there will no longer be a single central '/opt/widar'
>> directory.
>>
>> It would be nice if we could combine the '/home/asg' and 'opt/widar'
>> areas on 'filehost' and 'cmibhost' into one area common to (and
>> mounted on) all processors in the correlator.  This machine must also
>> be a web server.
>>
>> I don't think this machine should be one of the online units like
>> MCCC.  I don't even know if it has to reside in the correlator room,
>> but keep in mind that there will be occasions where CMIBs will be
>> writing output data products to it via NFS.
>>
>> Suggestions James or anyone?  Is this something that the mirrored (or
>> whatever it's called) 'filehost' at the VLA could do?  Does the EVLA
>> already have something like this running out there that we could  
>> share?
>>
>> Kevin
>>
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