Full Installations Instructions for the SOO/STRC WS Eta

Note: For those of you familiar with installing and running the SOO/STRC WS Eta feel free to use the quick install instructions.

1. Preparing Your System for Installing the WS Eta for the First Time.

a) Create an "eta" user account.

Although this step is not necessary, it is generally a good idea to create a separate user account for the WS Eta if the model is going to be used by more one person. I suggest that you use the name "eta" for this account. Creating a separate WS Eta account and assigning ownership of the model code and executables to "eta" avoids potential security and use issues. You DO NOT have to use "eta" for the user name. If you wish to use an alternate name then simply replace "eta" with your moniker of choice in these directions.

Use the appropriate sys admin tool to create user "eta" and be sure to give it a good password. As part of the process of creating the user, you will be asked to choose an environment. Be sure to select the C-Shell (/bin/csh) for the WS Eta environment.

b) Log into your workstation as user "eta".

The WS Eta package requires a lot of disk space, especially when you begin running simulations. In order to support this large distribution, I recommend that you install it on one of your external disk drives and not in the user “eta” home directory. For example, you might choose to install the WS Eta software in /usr1. Even though user "eta" will be doing the installation, we don't want to install WS Eta in the eta home directory (/home/eta) as there may not be enough space to install everything on that partition.

Create a directory on one of your external hard drives. You may call it anything you like; however I suggest calling it "worketa3.1". For the rest of the installation, I will assume that you've chosen to install the software in the "/usr1/worketa3.1" directory. If your distribution is to be installed in another location, simply replace "/usr1/worketa3.1" with the correct path on your machine.

Note that if you don't install the WS Eta under the worketa directory you will have to make a few minor changes to the run-time scripts. Save yourself the trouble and just name the directory "worketa", or contact me for help.

You may need to be root to create the /usr1/worketa3.1 directory. Here's how:

# su
# mv worketa worketa3.1 (If you have an existing WS Eta version)
# mkdir /usr1/worketa3.1
# chown eta:users /usr1/worketa3.1
# ln -s /usr1/worketa3.1 /usr1/worketa
# exit

Now create a symbolic link from the eta home directory, /home/eta, to the location of the /usr1/worketa directory. This will allow you to login as user "eta" and then easily change directories to the location where the model is run.

# cd ~eta (cd /home/eta)
# ln -s /usr1/worketa worketa

You will now see a file called "worketa" in the /home/eta directory.

You are now ready to install the WS Eta distribution!

2. Installing the SOO/STRC WS Eta

a) Log in as user eta

If you have a pre-existing WS Eta distribution, you should rename the top level of the older version. For example, rename your current worketa directory as worketa2.0

Create a directory that reflects the new version of the model, such as worketa3.1

Create a link from worketa to the new distribution:

% ln -s worketa3.1 worketa

Whenever you install files from the the SOO/STRC WS Eta package, they are to be places in the worketa (worketa3.1) directory.

b) Download the distribution and data files from the ftp site.

All of the files necessary to set up the model are located in the worketa directory on the SOO/STRC ftp site. If you do not know, or do not remember the address and account information for this server, please contact me.

There are 3 files that make up the WS Eta distribution and 1 to be used in the user "eta" account. However, you must decide which combination of files is appropriate for you. Choose one file from each of the following groups:

User eta files:

wsetadir.tar.Z	The wsetadir.tar.Z file contains the .cshrc, Common.cshrc, and Common.aliases to be used by user “eta”. The distribution:
worketa_soostrc_*.tar.gz	WS Eta core distribution the workstation Eta. The splat, "*", refers to a particular version and/or patch level.
worketa_topo.tar.gz	WS Eta topography dataset
worketa_sfc_BigE.tar.gz	WS Eta static surface files for big endian machines, i.e, all those except LINUX, DEC, or COMPACT
worketa_sfc_LittleE.tar.gz	WS Eta static surface files for little endian machines, i.e, LINUX, DEC, or COMPACT. All others grab
worketa_sfc_BigE.tar.gz

 

c) Binary distribution users

If you do not have a compiler, you need to download a 4th file. With the SOO/STRC WS Eta package, a variety of binary distributions are provided for both LINUX and HPUX. The ability to run a particular configuration will depend on you computer resources. Note that the LINUX binaries were built on an INTEL machine running Redhat 7.2, Kernel 2.4.X. The HP binaries were built on an HP C3000 running HPUX 10.20. These files can be found in the worketa/worketa3.1/binary directory on the SOO/STRC ftp site.

The files are:

worketa_bin_HPUX_##x##.tar.gz	WS Eta binary distribution for HPUX at ## by ## horizontal grid points.
worketa_bin_LINUX_##x##.tar.gz	WS Eta binary distribution for LINUX at ## by ## horizontal grid points.

Note that there are separate binaries for multi-CPU systems

Also note that the horizontal grid dimensions of the binary distributions were created so that the computational model domain has a 2 to 3 lat/lon ratio.

d) Installing the WS Eta distribution

First, unpack the wsetadir.tar.Z file in the top level of the user eta account.

% mv wsetadir.tar.gz ~eta
% cd ~eta
% zcat wsetadir.tar.gz | tar xvf -

If you used something other than /usr1/worketa to point to the top level of the WS Eta distribution, then you will have to edit the Common.cshrc file and change the default setting of the WS_ETA environmental variable for your OS. If you plan on using NAWIPS/GEMPAK to view the model output, you will also have to edit the NAWIPS environmental variable.

If they are not already located in the top level WS Eta directory, move the WS Eta files to /usr1/worketa and unpack them. The following example is for a LINUX system:

% mv worketa_soostrc_*.tar.gz /usr1/worketa
% mv worketa_topo.tar.gz /usr1/worketa
% mv worketa_sfc_LittleE.tar.gz /usr1/worketa

Now unpack the files

% zcat worketa_soostrc_*.tar.gz | tar xvf -
% zcat worketa_sfc_LittleE.tar.gz | tar xvf -
% zcat worketa_topo.tar .gz | tar xvf -

And the binary distribution if necessary:

% zcat worketa_bin_linux_##x##.tar.gz | tar xvf -

e) WS Eta environmental variables

The $WS_ETA/ETA.cshrc file is used to set up the environment needed by the WS Eta. It is sourced automatically when you log into the user "eta" account, provided you have the location of $WS_ETA correctly defined in your Common.cshrc and you are running C-Shell (/bin/csh). Other users who want to run the WS Eta should also source this file. It is not necessary to edit the $WS_ETA/ETA.cshrc file unless you want to run the model on more than 1 CPU.

f) Running on multi-CPU workstations

Note: You do not need to change anything in the ETA.cshrc file unless you have a milti-CPU machine and want to run the model on more than 1 processor. If you have a multi-CPU workstation, you will need to change the NCPUS variable near the bottom of the Eta.cshrc file.

Change:

setenv NCPUS 1
to
setenv NCPUS 2

NOTE: If you are compiling locally rather than using the SOO/STRC binaries, you will have to edit the $WS_ETA/src/config/Makeinc.linux file for the 2 CPU compiler directives.

After modifying these files, log out and back in as user "eta".