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howto:bootes:bootes_3

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Bootes 3 (New Zealand)

Computers

Provided by NZ (who?)

  • 3 rackable units (1 telescope + dome, 1 all sky, 1 spare)

I remember we were speaking about

  1. Telescope/camera/anything PC in the dome, none or only very limited archive. (Rackable)
  2. AllSky camera PC in the dome, not specified whether the archive will be local or remote. (rackable)
  3. An archive PC located away from the dome. With lots of HDDs in a nice RAID. (no rackable?)

my idea of the archive workplace would be rather like an ordinary PC table with an ordinary monitor & keyboard etc. More like a primary RTS2 console for the whole system.

Replacement of a failed PC can hardly be done by a simple box change. Therefore a complete backup PC is a wonderful diplay of a waste. If anything fails, a local hardware store will fix it. It's our responsability to have backups good enough to be able to replace the SYSTEM fast and easily. Buying a spare HW - motherboards/CPUs/RAMs is a waste of money.

  • quad CPU
  • 2 deep (80cm) rack 12-16 U height

Two racks mean two times the problems, two times the cabling, two times everything. I do not agree unless it is clear that it cannot be done in a single rack.

  • as big HDD as you can buy (1TB for each?) in units (=RAID) and in box, so we will be able to quickly replace failed hardrives

I agree, in case of the archive PC. The PCs in the dome may, most likely, live with a single or a mirrored 200-500GB HDD for the system. Nothing extremely expensive. I would keep the hotswap option though.

  • lot of SATA connectors, USB connectors
  • at least one serial connector (Davis Meteo station), so far I did not know about any other
  • 1Gb (the fastest you can get) network card

and an appropriate high-speed switch !!

  • 1 UPS

rather two - for the dome and for the building, remember the two systems should be galvanically separated.

  • Linux Debian-based distribution (preference will most probably shift towards Ubuntu) No purchase needed
  • 1 monitor, 1 keyboard, 1 mouse etc. For the archive PC / console.

Computer setup

Could be done after BOOTES Team comes on site but could be easily done before, to allow for a remote setup - sparing more time for the unexpected. I guess Ubuntu server edition could be done easily in the PC shop.

  • install Linux (the PC shop in NZ)
  • install RTS2 (petr, remotely?)
  • test it (on site)

This, however, depends on the availability of internet connection on site prior to arrival of BOOTES Team.

Network

Provided by New Zealand (who?)

Router / switch, so that we can connect all together (do we want EVERYTHING connected to Internet?) The archive PC could serve as a router/firewall to the Internet, 10/100/1000Mbit/wireless router would be handy to provide a good connection of all components together with notebooks of operators when on site.

Dome installation, weather station

Petr, Florentino

  • Davis weather sensor (windspeed, etc), it is known to work with RTS2 and http://meteo.othello.ch
  • Zelio based roof control with a direct rain detector connection
  • Eigenbrodt rain detector directly connected to Zelio.

UPS provided by New Zealand? Must be able to support emergency roof closing (power failure). We have same good experiences from Watcher with MGE UPS Systems UPS (http://www.mgeups.com). I suggest to call them and ask for solution - 3 PC backup, preferably rack mounted, and let us see what they suggest.

GPS should be a part of telescope delivery and if yes, we can use it for timing. But we need to check that (Alberto?).

Astrometry, image processing

Antonio, Petr (Martin remotely)

  • First astrometry
  • Pointing model

Travelling

Petr: 1st Feb → 2nd Feb on site 3rd Feb start working 28th leaving

Alberto:

Florentino:

Antonio:

howto/bootes/bootes_3.1228840958.txt.gz · Last modified: 2008/12/09 00:00 (external edit)