Main Green Bank Page 85-3 Page 85-3 status Operation Manual Procedures Computer Setups Clock Offsets

Pulsar Monitoring Telescope 85-3: Computer and software setups

Here we try to list all the annoying details that have to be set up right to make the observations run right.

1. User environment.

Certain environment variables and paths need to be set. They are all set up for user "gbiop" by the ".cshrc.local" file. Another user would have to say:

  • cd /home/o5/gbi/install
  • source gbi.bash {if the user is running a Bash shell}
  • or: source gbi.csh {if the user is running a C-shell}

    The host machine is "osiris"; the vxWorks machine is "gb853".

    If we need to change the host machine for some reason, we have to modify the .cshrc.local file and also the "~gbiop/BIN/853screens" file.

    The most important environment variable is "YGOR_TELESCOPE". This should be set up by running the gbi.bash or gbi.csh script in the appropriate install directory. To set it directly:

    {for C-shell} setenv YGOR_TELESCOPE /home/o5/gbi/install

    {for bash} export YGOR_TELESCOPE=/home/o5/gbi/install

    2. "Install" directory.

    All the software and configuration files for running 85-3 or the Interferometer is in an "install" directory. The normal install directory for the GBI and 85-3 will be:

    /home/o5/gbi/install

    In the event that osiris is down for some reason, the backup install directory will be on bunda:

    /home/gbt6/gbi/install

    Useful directories to know about are listed here (note that if we have to change to the backup install directory you would have to change "o5" to "gbt6" in these paths.

    3. Single-board computers.

    There are 2 single board computers, both are Motorola MV167s. They have 68040 processors and run at 33MHz, with 8 MB of RAM.

  • "gbint" - controls 85-1, 85-2, the digital delays, and A/D.
  • "gb853" - controls 85-3.

    The single-board computers get their boot-up file and load their software from files on osiris. Their boot-up parameters have to be set so that osiris is the host, and the startup files are:

  • gbint: /home/o5/gbi/install/etc/startup/gbint.startup
  • gb853: /home/o5/gbi/install/etc/startup/gb853.startup

    On osiris, it is required that the vxWorks boot file be present in: /tftpboot/vxWorks5.3

    Osiris must have a "bootp" demon running ("bootpd").

    tftp and ftp must both be enabled on osiris.

    See J.Ford if these need to be changed or fixed.

    The executable files that the single-board loads are in /home/o5/gbi/install/exec/mv167-vxworks/

    4. YGOR processes on the SUN host.

    The SUN host computer normally will be "osiris" for both the GBI and 85-3. Several YGOR processes run on this machine. They are started and stopped by the "TaskMaster" program. You can type: "TaskMaster osiris status" to see which ones are running.

    Note that since the GBI is not running (since Oct 2000), the processes sampler2log, gbmont3, and statwebgbi are no longer used.

    These tasks are all started and stopped by "TaskMaster". The list of tasks that TaskMaster manages is specified in the config file: "/home/o5/gbi/install/etc/config/osirisProc.conf"

    To start and stop processes with TaskMaster, you have to login to the host computer (in this case: osiris), and you have to change users to "monctrl":

    slogin osiris -l monctrl

    To find the numbers of the tasks:

    To stop task number N:

    To start task number N:

    To stop all YGOR processes:

    To start up all YGOR processes:

    5. Status file processes.

    The schedule control program produces status files that you can consult to find out what the telescope is doing. Two of these files (status.853 and T853status.html) are copied to other locations where they are available. There is a process that has to be running on osiris so that these files get copied frequently. The process (called "status853.sh") is normally started when the computer (osiris) is re-booted. To make sure that this happens, there is a script in the file:

    osiris:/etc/rc3.d/S98gbidaemons

    This will run status853.sh which starts a process "statweb853", which should normally be running all the time on osiris.

    If statweb853 is not running, it can be restarted as follows:

    The status files are first created in directory /home/o5/gbi/logs/Scan853 and /home/o5/gbi/logs/Scangbi.

    The "status.853" file is copied to /home/dubhe1/gbiop/85-3.LOGS/ for use by the pulsar back end computer.

    The "T853status.html" file is copied to /home/dubhe1/gbiop/public_html/ where it can be found by any web browser.

    6. Configuration files.

    Lots of important setup information and hardware configuration data is in a bunch of configuration files. These are located in:

    /home/o5/gbi/install/etc/config/

    They serve many purposes. Here is a list:

    Last updated 18 July 2002, by F.Ghigo