From nch@roe.ac.uk Fri Jan 16 12:21:16 2004 Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 11:52:35 +0000 (GMT) From: Nigel Hambly To: WFCAM Science Archive Team -- Eckhard Sutorius , Harvey MacGillivray , Ian Bond , Mike Read , Nigel Hambly , Bob Mann Cc: CCs for WSA weekly meeting minutes distribution -- Clive Davenhall , Andrew Lawrence , Andy Adamson , Peter Shillan , John Taylor , Jim Emerson , Martin Hill , Mike Irwin , Peredur Williams Subject: WFAU WSA weekly meeting minutes: 16th January 2004 Minutes of WFCAM Science Archive meeting: 16th January 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- Present: NCH, IAB, ETWS, HTMG, RGM, PMW Apologies: JPE, MAR, JMS, AL, MCH, GPS, JDT DONM: 10am, Friday 23th January 2004, plate library. Actions discharged: ------------------- ACTION: ETWS (in consultation with NCH & HMG) to look into the djoser SATA RAID errors. Done: see Hardware. ACTION: NCH & PMW to send materials to JPE for inclusion in the PPRP review papers. Done: see Project Management. ACTION: NCH, IAB & ETWS to meet 3pm Wed afternoon to organise a block of time to finally integrate/test the ingestion software Done: see Software. ACTION: PMW & HMG to order Veritas Backup Exec Agent for MS SQL Server from Eclipse. Done: Agent licence ordered from Eclipse. Actions partly discharged but continuing: ----------------------------------------- ACTION: IAB to check that all necessary SW for curation client functionality is present on djoser. Continues as part of overall integration/testing of ingest procedure (see software below). ACTION: ALL to review risk register and think of any new internal or external risks that should be documented in the risk register. Defered until top level plan is explicitly defined. PMW tabled the VISTA risk register as an example. ACTION: RGM to progress design of a web cookbook based around the 20 Queries. ACTION: JPE to design and set up centralised VDFS web pages. Progressing. (there is now a link to it from our WSA Twiki). ACTION: NCH to attend PPRP meeting on 4/2/04 to make ANOTHER presentation as to science archive progress and forward plan. - continuing; thanks for progressing these. Actions carried forward from 07/01/04 meeting: ----------------------------------------------- None. Specific points and new actions: -------------------------------- Project management: PPRP input has been prepared (thanks mainly to sterling efforts on the part of PMW) and sent to JPE. The input has been included into a paper for the PPRP meeting; the paper is being sent to NAW this morning for inclusion in the combined VDFS/GAIA case for support that the panel will be reviewing. The bid goes to Q3'07, and includes a case for an extra developer from Q4'04 for the WSA. PMW noted that when the dust has settled over the PPRP stuff, the Q1'04 plan needs a bit of revision in the light of work being carried over from the last quarter. IAB noted that it would be great if we can complete the CU1-4 integration and testing in time for the Feb 4th meeting so as to be able to say in all honesty that the archive is ready for immediate ingest should data start flowing tomorrow. Comments and issues arising from CASU fortnightly minutes: NCH noted that there may be some confusion as to network bandwidth issues regarding comments in the last CASU minutes: just to clarify, WFAU is completely happy with CASU/WFAU network performance at > 10 MBytes/s in the latest multi-threaded scp tests by ETWS. The issue is closed as far as we are concerned. Back to you guys at CASU... Networking: See above comment. Hardware: SATA RAID5 array has been rebuilt without any loss of data; the 3dm monitoring software is set up to be able to log any suspect disks. We have a spare to swap in should the same array give any problems in the future; presently everything is operating normally. NCH noted that Eclipse have been extremely helpful and negotiated a loan of an LSI 4-channel Ultra320 RAID adaptor. Unfortunately, we could only borrow for 2 weeks, and since we are still having teething trouble with the SCSI disks on the catalogue servers (see below) the priority is to get the existing hardware stable before looking ahead to upgrades. NCH has thanked Eclipse for looking into this, and suggested that if they have the necessary spare disks & motherboard lying around then the required test would be easy to do. HMG noted that the C1 power supply issue has stalled due to an on-going site-wide review of power, in the light of recent problems and the requirements for the new building. Site services cannot redirect the WSA hardware supply at present, and point out that the network switch would also have to be independently supplied as well. For the time being, C1 power cabling will stay as it is, and once the site-wide issues have been resolved the question can be looked at again. NCH noted that the timescale for completion of the new building fits with the timescale for data arriving in the archive; in any case, this is not a critical issue. HMG volunteered to keep an eye on things in the meantime. Software: IAB, NCH & ETWS met to thrash out the final integration/testing of CU1-4 in readiness for data ingest. The only major problem encountered was in getting the third-party Python middleware components working together as regards ODBC access between the linux curation client and Windows SQL Servers. Work is ongoing to determine the solution to ODBC access; in the meantime, PyMSSQL (which works OK for test purposes) is installed and working. NCH noted that HME has got the new CVS server up and running very quickly; the question of availability of the extremely useful ViewCVS browsing software has been addressed via a helpdesk ticket from the ATC SEG side. The new CVS is externally accessible, so it will be possible eg for JAC/CASU to have access to the WFAU repository if/when needed. SSA: NCH reported that the SDSS-EDR crossneighbours had been installed (easily and quickly). Final indexing tests were going well until the hardware decided to misbehave again (same old problems with SCSI disk/controller errors). JNTD, Eclipse and NCH are all looking into this; the only lead at the moment is the possibility of similar firmware updates for Ultra320 being needed on the PC motherboards and controllers. Until this is sorted out, the launch of the terabyte SSA will have to wait. Miscellaneous: RGM noted that the SDSS-DR1 "sneaker net" box is ready for shipment to us from Europe. JNTD has been alerted, and is OK with attachment of the server to the WSA hardware for transfer of DR1. This should take place over the coming few weeks.