From nch@roe.ac.uk Fri Apr 9 16:43:08 2010 Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 15:54:08 +0100 (BST) From: Nigel Hambly To: WFCAM Science Archive Team -- Eckhard Sutorius , Mike Read , Mark Holliman , Nigel Hambly , Nicholas Cross , Rob Blake , Ross Collins Cc: CCs for WSA weekly meeting minutes distribution -- Andrew Lawrence , Andy Adamson , Jim Emerson , Keith Noddle , Lorenzo Rimoldini , Mike Irwin , Bob Mann , Stephen Warren Subject: WFAU VDFS Science Archive weekly project meeting minutes, 9/4/10 Minutes of WFAU VDFS Science Archive meeting: April 9th 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Present: NCH, RSC, RPB, MAR, NJC, MSH, ETWS Apologies: JPE, AL, KTN, RGM DoNM: 10am, Friday April 16th 2010 in the VISTA Hut Actions discharged this week: ----------------------------- ACTION: NJC to check the v0.8 VIRCam data for new image metadata attributes. Discharged; although ETWS is doing one last run through the v0.8 products to fully check all fits files for new keys and appropriate datatypes. Actions partly discharged but continuing: ----------------------------------------- None this week. Actions carried forward from 26/03/10 meeting: ---------------------------------------------- ACTION: RPB to append U/06B/H54, U/07A/H16, U/07B/H60, and U/07B/H60B to WFCAMOPENTIME for world use. Specific points and new actions: -------------------------------- Project management: NCH noted that a VDMT took place in the week with KTN, NJC, RGM and himself in attendance. For some reason JPE did not attend, so the meeting was a general conflab between CASU and WFAU over the state of things. NCH noted that the main issue discussed from our point of view were the recent issues over archive-end implementation of the "stand-alone" CASU codes (see below for further details). (NCH expressed the worry that Vista surveys are in danger of being significantly less successful and productive than UKIDSS from the community perspective unless somebody takes an overseeing role, especially in VDFS ...) The team lamented the absence of PMW from these meetings from now on, but gamely agreed to fill in the progress spreadsheet for March. NCH asked for opinions on whether we should continue with this administrative task, noting that it was originally set up for oversight via VDMT. Given that it is useful to keep on overview of what's going on and to see where particular individuals are stretched or underused, NCH suggested it may be useful to continue with the book-keeping, at least in the immediate term. ACTION: NCH to fill out a Q2 2010 plan and continue with the progress monitoring for the time being. WFCAM & VISTA updates: Nothing of note this week. Comments and issues arising from CASU minutes: The team noted the minutes of the meeting of 24/3; there were no major comments. Regarding archive-end implementation of CASU codes, we now understand that there are (at least?!) three versions of codes supported by CASU: MJI's "science toolkit" (good ol' fortran), JRL's pipeline translations (to C) and then a further "stand-alone" version of the C codes for external (e.g. WFAU's) use. NJC and JRL have been communicating copiously on getting the latest versions of the latter working up here, but a major stumbling block was astrometry against local 2MASS fits files. These have been made available by MJI and copied up by ETWS, but then it transpired that the option to use them was switched off?! Anyway, we thank JRL for his hard work in supporting our requirements, noting also that VDFS is nothing if not a collaboration, and it must be understood by all that efficient, archive-end implementation of CASU codes is a key requirement, especially for Vista Public Surveys. Networking: ETWS noted that transfer rates of the 2MASS fits files (see above) to /disk05 were a bit up-and-down like the proverbial (some worries about errors on /disk05 may be related) so we must monitor closely the transfer rates of the reprocessed UDS data ... WSA/VSA Operations: ... transfer of which is next on the list of things for ETWS to do. [incidentally, profuse apologies to ETWS for comments in the previous minutes about operational procedures not being documented on the TWiki - turns out everyone else in the team cannot a) operate a mouse, and b) read]. Various VHS support requests have come in this week, and we're catching up on answering them after the Easter hols... Hardware and Systems: MSH and MAR noted that web serving from surveys.roe.ac.uk is to be transfered from thoth (which has been suffering from filled up disks recently - MAR and RPB are keeping the clean-up cron procedure under review) to seshat today; it will take ~24hr for the DNS change to propagate around the internet. MSH noted that the new VO server is up and running all VO services (apart from the secure ones); the new curation server awaits delivery of mission-critical components, i.e. KVM cables. Software: RSC reported: "A new release branch, release_15, of the software has been made for the VSA schema changes and WSA non-survey schema improvements brought about by NJC's new automated template design. It also includes ProgrammeBuilder support for VSA surveys allowing them to be automatically configured as shallow or deep, whilst maintaining a consistent schema. The WSA database has been updated for the new non-survey schema design, so WSA operations should now proceed in release_15. Following the release, scripts that had database command-line options have now been changed to a compulsory database argument. This was made only to trunk to allow for further live testing prior to release. Finally, we've decided to remove the static constraints scripts from SVN as they were always outdated, being parsed from table schema scripts and only used on the rare event of a database creation (the curation codes and presumably also the schema browser take the constraints directly from the table schema). Hopefully this will result in an error message on database creation prompting the operator to recreate these scripts to the latest version rather than run an outdated, incorrect version of the script." NJC reported working on testing new versions of the stacking software, and wcs fitting software and discussing the implementation with JRL; NJC has also been working with RPB to set the new VSA up. MAR is looking at implementing an object name resolver in some of the WSA web apps following a request from JAC. Survey Data Release: NCH noted that he's been a good boy and got his 09B/DR8 eyeballing qc in to MAR this week. NCH asked MJI in the VDMT if GPS requirements for 09A reprocessing for DR7 have been received; apparently they haven't. Non-survey Data Release: RPB and MAR noted that there are ~4 non-survey releases in each of 09A and 09B, affected by recent VDFS snafus upstream, that need recreating and re-releasing to their prospective PIs, but Vista ops are taking precedence over everything at the moment. Astrogrid deployment & Data Analysis services: Nothing of note this week. Miscellaneous: Early doors next Thursday: 6pm at The Old Bell prior to curry with PMW. ============================================================= Nigel Hambly Tel: +44-131-668-8234 Institute for Astronomy Fax: +44-131-668-8416 School of Physics and Astronomy University of Edinburgh Email: nch@roe.ac.uk Royal Observatory Blackford Hill Edinburgh EH9 3HJ The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. =============================================================