[McIDAS #KYW-895647]: Questions on 64 bit Mcidas installation

Hi Fred,

Sorry for not being able to get to your questions below before now.  As you
may know, the NWS is implementing an upgrade to the NOAAPort SBN, and keeping
up with the changes being made during the testing phase has been taking a
lot of time.  Also, we had significant problems with our GOES-West ingest
starting at the end of July, and it took us a long time to trace down
the problem.  Last week we had a local company come in to look through all
of the things we had done and then realign our GEOS-West dish so it can
be pointed at any of the current GOES platforms (East, 14 (spare), and West).
We are also very busy preparing for the upcoming User's Committee meeting.
Busy, busy, busy...

re:
> On my spare 64 bit Linux computer we installed the Mcidas software.  While is 
> all
> basically works fine, I have a couple of problems which I need some help.

Out of curiosity:

- what system are you running McIDAS-X on (e.g., OS and OS version), amount
  of RAM, etc.)?

re:
> 1. I have been developing a web page of aviation forecasts using the NAM model
> data (see http://fltwx.db.erau.edu/aviationfcst.php).  For a weather overview 
> display
> (see the display option at the bottom of the page  " Loop Forecast Weather 
> from NAM"
> http://fltwx.db.erau.edu/get_loop2.php?&cnt=27&delay=80&dir=model_erau/NAM/FWX/US/
>  .
> This display uses the Mcidas command GRDDISP NAM/NAM.(i) PAR=MOVIE LEV=10 
> cint=12 etc.

Hmm... I have never used the MOVIE mode of GRDDISP.  Because of this, I may be
passing your questions to the Russ Dengel since he is the creator of the MOVIE
concept and wrote most of the code used in the MOVIE mode.

re:
> The movie option gives streamlines with the lines broken up into segments with
> different graphic colors.  I then save a series of gif images with one 
> graphic color
> turned to white and the other graphic colors turned to gray.  I then make an 
> animated
> gif image of the 5 different graphics with the different graphic colors 
> turned white.
> The web display then cycles through the various forecast times.

OK, I understand the setup.

re:
> Now the problem. I have
> been generating these displays on my old 32 bit Sun workstation.   When I 
> tried to port
> this my 64 bit Dell computer, the movie streamlines go haywire, but the 
> regular
> streamlines are the same between the two computers.

OK.

re:
> The Streamline1.gif (older 32 bit)
> and the streamline2.gif (newer 64 bit) look identical.

I must note that the streamlines are very close to being the same with notable
exceptions.

re:
> Now look at movie1.gif (32 bit)
> and the movie2.gif (64 bit version).  The movie2.gif has the streamlines 
> turned into
> spaghetti.  The sample gif images were generate with the Mcidas command 
> GRDDISP
> NAM/NAM.1 PAR=STREAML LEV=10 CINT=20 and PAR=MOVIE (LEV=10 is the 10 meter 
> wind).
> Could you try the MOVIE option of GRDDISP to see if you get the same results.

Which ADDE server is serving the NAM/NAM grids?  Is it accessible to me so I can
run some of my own testing?

re:
> I looked
> at the code on both machines and don't see any difference in the grddisp.pgm 
> or the
> strmln.for routines.  The streamline subroutine does use bit manipulation to 
> keep track
> of which grids have been drawn through, but both the regular streamline and 
> movie
> subroutines use the same bit manipulations.  Let me know if you get the same 
> spaghetti
> results.

re:
> 2. A second problem which I think is our security, but I haven't been able to
> solve the problem.  We set up the new 64 bit machine (fred-sr) as an ADDE 
> server.  When
> I use the Mcidas on the new machine, I can access your ADDE GOES EAST and 
> WEST data at
> your UNIDATA.UCAR.EDU servers without any problem.  However, I cannot access 
> our local
> ADDE server ER at WXSAT.DB.ERAU.EDU.

Hmm... the fact that outbound requests to goes(east|west).unidata.ucar.edu work
indicates that your network is most likely _not_ blocking outbound requests to
port 112 (it still could be, but this would be very unusual).  What is more
likely is that the firewall on your fred-sr is blocking inbound requests
for port 112, or the remote ADDE server setup on fred-sr is not quite correct.

I just tried to access ADDE on wxsat.db.erau.edu, and I get nothing either via
things like DSINFO, or a test to port 112 using telnet:

% telnet wxsat.db.erau.edu 112
Trying 155.31.115.173...

This just hangs, and I have to kill it by hand.

My first guess is that the firewall on wxsat.db.erau.edu is blocking
inbound connections to port 112 for some if not all machines.

re:
> I can access ER with my 32 bit SUN (fred-jr)
> Mcidas without problem.

OK, this suggests that the firewall on wxsat.db.erau.edu is configured
to allow inbound traffic to port 112 for certain machines/subnets.
The solution if this really is the problem is to open up access to
additional machines, additional subnets, or the world.

re:
> While I think it a permission problem, I have not found where
> to look for the permission.

I would say permission problem if you take this to mean relating to
a firewall.  I could better advise you for what to check if I knew
more about the OS that is running on wxsat.db.erau.edu.

re:
> Also the old fred-jr cannot see the new fred-sr ADDE
> server.  Any suggestions of where I should look?

If the OS is a RedHat variant (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, etc.), then I
would check the /etc/sysconfig/iptables configuration (needs to be
done as 'root').  If you are running a Debian derivative (Debian, Ubuntu,
etc.), then I would have to bone up a bit (I am running Ubuntu 13.1 on
a Odroid U3 single board computer, but I have not dug into the firewall
'ufw' software to be able to give knowledgeable answers off the cuff.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: KYW-895647
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Open