The WRF EMS distribution includes an installation script, wrf_install.pl, which is used to simplify the process of installing and configuring the system on your workstation. It is recommended that the installation be conducted by root user; however, it may be installed by another user provided that you have full write permission on the partition where the package will reside.

To install the WRF EMS:

1. Mount the DVD on your workstation

2. Change directories to your DVD drive

3. Run the "wrf_install.pl" script

The wrf_install.pl script will do the following:

•  Prompt you for the installation directory (Default: /usr1)

•  Check to make sure the directory exists and whether you have write permission

•  Prompt you for the name of the user to assign ownership of the package

•  Create a new account and home directory if the user does not exist.

•  Check that the user's login shell is either tcsh or csh.

•  Prompt you for a password if a new user was created

•  Install the WRF EMS from the DVD.

Note that useful information will be printed to the screen while the installation takes place so don't leave the room.

•  Following installation of the package, the script will build PerlTk libraries for your system.

•  The script will configure your WRF EMS, which includes updating configuration files and Perl scripts with the location of the WRF EMS on your system. Should the PerlTk build fail, precompiled libraries for either 32- or 64-bit system will be installed.

•  The script will then configure SSH your system so that you can run distributed memory (DM) binaries. These binaries will provide a 15% performance gain over the shared memory (SM) executables with the ARW and NMM cores.

•  The wrf_update.pl routine will be installed (disabled) in the user's crontab file. The wrf_update.pl script automatically downloads and installs updates and patches to the EMS from the SOO/STRC ftp server and notifies the user(s) of any changes. More on the wrf_update utility later.

•  Update the users .cshrc file so that the WRF EMS environment variables are correctly defined the next time the user logs in.

See, isn't that simple? The WRF EMS practically installs itself.

Depending upon the speed of your DVD reader and hard disks, the installation should take ~10 to 15 minutes. Most of this time is taken up with the unpacking of the very large terrain data sets such as topography and land use.

Following successful installation log out and back in as the WRF EMS user and make sure your environment is set correctly. Try the following commands:

% cd $WRF - you should be in the top level of the WRF EMS

% ls $WRF_STRC - You will see the contents of the $WRF/strc directory

If both of the above tests are successful then your installation is complete and you are ready to model.