ifpServer Startup Information

Starting the ifpServer

runIFPServer [-D] [-n] [-t] [-i] [-b] [-a alternateA2Afile]
 
 

Command Line Option	Optional?	Meaning
-D	YES	Runs the ifpServer as a daemon.  Normal use of the server is to run it as a daemon. The runIFPServer script will add this option automatically.
-n	YES	Runs the ifpServer in a "check" configuration files mode.  The server checks the configuration files, reports any errors, and exits.
-t	YES	Runs the ifpServer in a "terminal" mode, indicating that the ifpServer will not be run as a daemon.  The messages will be output to the terminal and the server will not be run in background.
-i	YES	Runs the ifpServer in a setup mode only. ifpServer will generate the map backgrounds, edit areas, and configure the text products. The server will then stop. No network connections are brought up.
-b	YES	Runs the ifpServer in a BASELINE mode only.  The localConfig, localMaps, localWxConfig are ignored.
-a alternateA2AFile	YES	Configure the text products using the specified afos2awips.txt file.  Normally this switch is only used for testing purposes.

Note: the -t switch overrides the -D switch.  The -n switch overrides the -D switch.
Note: on IFPS systems, there is another script that is run that starts all of the necessary IFPS servers.  That script calls the runIFPServer script.

It is somewhat dangerous to run the ifpServer in BASELINE mode as data may be lost.   Any local weather elements defined will no longer exist.  This may cause local product generation scripts to fail and the user may be forced to run the baseline versions of the text formatters.

ifpServer Check Configuration Files Mode

• serverConfig.py
• localConfig.py
• Maps.py
• MapFiles.py
• localMaps.py
• localWxConfig.py

Here is an example with no errors:

14:42:47.193 ifpServer.C 152 EVENT: IFP Data Server Starting
14:42:47.195 ifpServer.C 153 EVENT: Version: Build Date: Wed Mar 27 14:37:52 2002 Built By: mark On: camper.fsl.noaa.gov (linux2) Version: development
14:42:47.283 ifpServer.C 162 EVENT: Checking for server configuration python errors
14:42:47.284 ifpServer.C 706 EVENT: Loading server configuration info
14:42:49.069 ifpServer.C 168 EVENT: No python syntax errors found
14:42:49.070 ifpServer.C 172 EVENT: IFP Data Server Stopped.
 
 

If an error has occurred, then the messages displayed on the console will be similar to this; typically the last line or two will point out the location of the error and the line number:

14:45:12.649 ifpServer.C 152 EVENT: IFP Data Server Starting
14:45:12.651 ifpServer.C 153 EVENT: Version: Build Date: Wed Mar 27 14:37:52 2002 Built By: mark On: camper.fsl.noaa.gov (linux2) Version: development
14:45:12.775 ifpServer.C 162 EVENT: Checking for server configuration python errors
14:45:12.776 ifpServer.C 706 EVENT: Loading server configuration info
14:45:13.109 ifpServer.C 711 PROBLEM: Failed to load one of the following
serverConfig.py, localConfig.py, or localWxConfig.py
Python error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/scratch/head/GFESuite/etc/serverConfig.py", line 817, in ?
    import localConfig
  File "<string>", line 1
     from serverConfig 8mport *
                       ^
 SyntaxError: invalid syntax

14:45:13.889 ifpServer.C 690 PROBLEM: Error in Maps.py or localMaps.py file:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/scratch/head/GFESuite/etc/Maps.py", line 161, in ?
    import localMaps
  File "/scratch/head/GFESuite/etc/localMaps.py", line 5, in ?
    maps.remove(Cwamzones)
NameError: name 'Cwamzones' is not defined

14:45:13.890 ifpServer.C 172 EVENT: IFP Data Server Stopped.

The above information indicates there is a problem in importing "localConfig", line 1.  The traceback shows the error location.  The second error was found in the localMaps.py file, the name "Cwamzones" was not defined, probably due to a misspelling.

Problems Starting the ifpServer

• Checks configuration files for syntax problems.  The files are serverConfig.py, localConfig.py, localWxConfig.py, Maps.py, MapFiles.py, and localMaps.py. In the event of a problem, then the server will abort.
• If the server is running under "root", the server will abort.  Running under "root" can really hose up the file system.
• Scans the file system and checks the owner and group of all files under release/data/databases, typically /awips/GFESuite/data/databases on the AWIPS-baselined systems.  If the owner/group of any file is not the same as the running ifpServer's owner/group, then the server will stop.  This is to prevent problems having a server corrupting files.  Messages in the log file will indicate the problem file/directory.
• Checks to see if there is another server running on the same RPC port.

Stopping the ifpServer

stopIFPServer

which is located in the release/bin, typically /awips/GFESuite/primary/bin on the AWIPS-baselined systems.

Starting the ifpServer automatically upon reboot

# Change GFEHOME and GFEUSER to match your setup
GFEHOME='/where/you/installed/the/gfe/suite'
GFEUSER='ifps'
if [ -x $GFEHOME/bin/runIFPServer ]; then
    su -c $GFEHOME/bin/runIFPServer $GFEUSER
fi

 # Change GFEHOME and GFEUSER to match your setup
GFEHOME='/awips/GFESuite/primary'
GFEUSER='ifps'
if [ -x $GFEHOME/bin/runIFPServer ]; then
    su -c $GFEHOME/bin/runIFPServer $GFEUSER
fi

Now the server will be started when the machine is booted.
 

Automatic Configuration of Text Products

The text formatters templates are also automatically configured when the ifpServer is started. Although there is no need to manually run the configure text products script anymore, it is still available. Refer to configureTextProducts script.