La Silla Observatory Science Operation Department DRL replacement to the w*off machines User's Requirements Prepared 2003-03-29T01:29:31 Sat ohainaut Reviewed Released -INTRODUCTION Currently, the w*off (wg5off, w3p6off, w2p2off) machines are HP workstations that receive the raw data from the w*dhs machine. They are meant for the observer to work on his data. They feature a set of data processing tools and recipes. They are also used to store Service Observing data before their distribution, and to store technical data being processed by the various instrument scientists. This document describes the requirements for a Linux machine replacing the HP workstations. -REQUIREMENTS -- HARDWARE * CPU: state of the art, typically a Pentium-4, around 2GHz clock * MEMORY: minimum 512Mb, ideally 1Gb fast RAM * DISKS: we consider here only the disk space for the users. The operating system etc are not considered. Volume should be the most important parameter, i.e. select IDE over SCSI. - a "/home" area large enough to host the home directories of the various users. These home dir. shall contain only "text", no "data", i.e. account configuration files (.tcshrc, .mozilla...), text and documents, local programs sources and executable. Some users are permanent (i.e. these account will be backed-up/modularized), some others are temporary (i.e. will be zapped and reinitialized periodically). 24Gb - a "/data" area for incoming data. It must be able to hold at least 2 full runs (typically 6 nights) of raw data and data processed by the astronomer, i.e. 6n * 5Gb * 4 (each frame existing in 4 steps of data reduction), i.e. minimum 120Gb for NTT/3p6. For 2p2, the equivallent figure (6n * 30Gb * 4 = 720Gb) might be beyond what is available on the marked. Select the largest, reliable disk available (240Gb?) - a "/sciops" area for storage of and work on SciOp data, i.e. service observing, technical data, etc. It must hold at least one period of Service Mode (NTT/3P6: 70Gb) and leave ~70Gb of space for data processing, i.e. >~140Gb for NTT/3P6. For 2P2, the Service data are not stored locally, but the data processing requires more space, so similar (>~140Gb) disk should be provided. * EXTERNAL DISKS: the machine should have USB2/Firewire slots to hot-plug some external disks, such as - Instrument disks: each instrument shall have a ~100Gb disk for storrage of calibration plan data, work in progress, etc... under the responsibility of the Instrument Scientist. - Visitors' disk, in case they have a compatible disk. The operating system should be configured in such way that it recognises and mount automatically these disks, and permits the users to umount/remove them without root privileges in a documented way. * DISPLAY: large, high-res, flat screen. Dual display would be an advantage but is not critical. * CD/DVD writer. -- SOFTWARE * Standard operating system (recommended by VLT, currently RH-7.3), with standard applications. This must include configured EMACS, VI LaTeX, dvips, a2ps xdvi, ghostview, acroread Mozilla xCDroast * SciSoft updated to the latest available version, with local configuration (printers visible from the application softwares, IDL licenses, IRAF pipes, etc...) and patches (infamous /scisoft/saord/bin/access conflicting with LateX). * dhsSubscribe installed and configured to transfer all raw data from the w*dhs machine. In a next step, we may add a secondary dhsSubscribe for pipeline processed data. dhsSubscrive can be left with its "default" options (ie store the data in /data/raw/, DHS filenames, no post-arrival script) -- ACCOUNTS In addition to the various system related accounts: * sciops: used for installation and owner of sciops-related programs (eg MIDAS scripts). This is the equivallent of the nttops or e3p6ops accounts on the current w*off * astro: used by Sciop astronomers for daily work * visitor1, 2, 3: used by the visiting astronomers during their runs. These accounts will be zapped and re-initialized for each new visitor. These accounts could (should ideally be) the current lsusr* accounts delivered to the visitors on the off-line DRL system, PROVIDED that the access time to their home directory is much faster than currently. --oOo--