AWIPS makes use of service-oriented architecture to request, process, and serve real-time meteorological data. While originally developed for use on internal NWS forecast office networks, where operational installations of AWIPS could consist of a dozen servers or more, the early Unidata releases were stripped of operations-specific configurations and plugins, and released as a standalone server. This worked, since (at the time) a single EDEX instance with an attached SSD could handle most of NOAAport. However, with GOES-R(16) coming online in 2017, and more gridded forecast models being created at finer temporal and spatial resolutions, there is now a need to distribute the data decoding across multiple machines to handle this firehose of data.
Currently, with our specific EDEX server we use a Database/Request instance that also decodes and ingests a good portion of the data. It handles all data requests from CAVE users, as well as the majority of the decoding and ingesting for data feeds coming down on the LDM. The **radar** data has been specifically exluded (from the decoding and ingest) and it has its own [**Ingest/Decode Server**](#ingestdecode-server) which is explained in more detail below.
For our EDEX we have designated an instance of the ingest/decoding server to be dedicated to handling the radar data. Our *Radar-EDEX* recieves and decodes all radar down from the LDM and then stores it back on our main [**Database/Request EDEX**](#databaserequest-server) in the form of HDF5 data files and PostgreSQL metadata.
This walkthrough will install different EDEX components on two machines in the XSEDE Jetstream Cloud, the first is used to **store and serve** while the second is used to **ingest and decode** data.
It is required that ports 5432 and 5672 be open for the specific IP addresses of outside EDEX ingest servers. It is *not recommended* that you leave port 5432 open to all connections (since the default awips database password is known, and is not meant as a security measure). Further, it *is recommended* that you change the default postgres awips user password (which then requires a reconfiguration of every remote EDEX ingest server in order to connect to this database/request server).
vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
*filter
:INPUT DROP [0:0]
:FORWARD DROP [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:EXTERNAL - [0:0]
:EDEX - [0:0]
-A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p icmp --icmp-type any -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 9581 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 9582 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s 10.0.0.7 -j EDEX
-A INPUT -j EXTERNAL
-A EXTERNAL -j REJECT
-A EDEX -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 5432 -j ACCEPT
-A EDEX -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 5672 -j ACCEPT
-A EDEX -j REJECT
COMMIT
Note the line **`-A INPUT -s 10.0.0.7 -j EDEX`** as well as the following **`-A EDEX ...`** rules for ports 5432 (PostgreSQL) and 5672 (PyPIES/HDF5).
In the file `/awips2/database/data/pg_hba.conf` you define remote connections for all postgres tables with as `<IP address>/32`, after the block of IPv4 local connections and generic `<IP address/24>` for hostnossl:
The command `edex` will show which services are running, and for a Database/Request server, will not include the LDM, EDEXingest, or EDEXgrib:
edex
[edex status]
postgres :: running :: pid 571
pypies :: running :: pid 639
qpid :: running :: pid 674
EDEXingest :: not running
EDEXgrib :: not running
EDEXrequest :: running :: pid 987 1029 23792
Since this Database/Request server is not running the main *edexIngest* JVM, we won't see anything from `edex log`, instead watch the Request Server with the command
JAXB context for PersistencePathKeySet inited in: 5ms
INFO 20:21:09,134 5584 [EDEXMain] Reflections: Reflections took 436 ms to scan 258 urls, producing 31 keys and 3637 values
Found 499 db classes in 720 ms
If the log stops at the **Found db classes...** line, that means EDEX is not connecting to PostgreSQL - double-check `DB_ADDR` in `/awips2/edex/bin/setup.env`
Here you should redefine `DB_ADDR` and `PYPIES_SERVER` to point to the **Main** or **Database/Request** server (10.0.0.9) and the `EDEX_SERVER` to point to the current **Ingest** server (10.0.0.7)
Most likely if you are running a distributed EDEX setup, you are only processing a subset of data. You can change your edexServiceList to only run the processes you need. You will need to update the `/etc/init.d/edexServiceList` file. For example replace the services with the associated right column based on the data you're processing:
You'll want to modify your pqact.conf file to store only the data you want processed. There are example files in `/awips2/ldm/etc` that you can copy over to the main pqact.conf file. For example if you are wanting to process goesr data only, you can do the following steps:
cd /awips2/ldm/etc
mv pqact.conf pqact.conf.orig
cp pqact.goesr pqact.conf
You will also want to edit the `pqact.conf` file on your **Main EDEX** and comment out any entries you're processing on this EDEX server.
#### 5. Start EDEX
edex start
This will start LDM, Qpid and the specified EDEX Ingest JVMs (and not start PostgreSQL, httpd-pypies, or the EDEX Request JVM)
JAXB context for PersistencePathKeySet inited in: 5ms
INFO 20:21:09,134 5584 [EDEXMain] Reflections: Reflections took 436 ms to scan 258 urls, producing 31 keys and 3637 values
Found 499 db classes in 720 ms
If the log stops at the **Found db classes...** line, that means EDEX is not connecting to the *remote PostgreSQL instance* - double-check `DB_ADDR` in `/awips2/edex/bin/setup.env`
You can **manually check remote PostgreSQL connectivity** on any EDEX Ingest server from the command line:
* Be mindful of what IP address and hostnames are used in `/awips2/edex/bin/setup.env` and `/awips2/database/data/pg_hba.conf`, and that they are resolvable from the command line. Consult or edit `/etc/hosts` as needed.
* You can install multiple `awips2-ingest` servers, each decoding a different dataset or feed, all pointing to the same Database/Request server (`DB_ADDR` and `PYPIES_SERVER` in `/awips2/edex/bin/setup.env`):
