This page is a proposal for the acquisition and assignment of computers (some are Virtual Machines - VM) to address OPSIM-547 - Assess how to run showMaf.py as a tool for distributing OpSim results.  This issue stems from the need to have a central repository where analysis output for ALL simulation runs are collected for OpSim Team use, as well as a central repository where analysis output for a subset of these runs can be made available to the science community.  Currently, Mantis Run Log performs both functions for SSTAR output.

I am finding that the virtual machine "opsimcvs" is not well suited for distributing MAF output for the following reasons:

opsimcvs (now a Virtual Machine - VM - on ops2)

• Simulator code depends on opsimcvs, because it writes to the trackingDB
• Mantis Run Log - current distribution / collaboration for SSTAR output
• holds archives of CVS for Simulator and SSTAR
• runs on CentOS which is not ideal for MAF installation
• current plan is to phase out this machine entirely along with SSTAR and CVS
• ideally, a single machine would perform this central repository function.

Proposal for OpSim by function

A suite of 5 machines could perform the current OpSim functions - two existing machines (ops1 & ops2) one new machine to be acquired (ops3), and two virtual machines to be set up on existing machines.

1. development for Simulations (TBD)
   
   
2. production for Simulations (ops1 & ops2)
• would not need MAF installed or maintained as only Simulator codebase would be maintained
• this solves the problem of different python requirements for the Simulator and MAF
• only run simulations on these machine (as usual, run from /lsst/opsim with all output in this dir, not /home/*)
  
  
3. development for MAF (VM my laptop or VM on ops3, a new machine)
•  8Gb VM on my laptop
• can use VPN to access ops1 & ops2
• can run MAF on ops1/ops2 DBs over VPN or local sqlite files to test code
  
  
4. production for MAF (ops3, a new machine)
• run production MAF on ops3 -> update new code and run or rerun MAF on ops1 or ops2 to create output files
• move output files to ops4 (a VM)
  
  
5. distribution (ops4 or opsdist - VM on DMZ machine)
• LSST/NOAO DMZ machine is to come on line imminently
• copy output files from within NOAO (MAF production machine ops3)
• run showMAF.py on an accessible port (8080?)
• specify runs for science community in one trackingDB
• specify runs for OpSim use (most of them) in another trackingDB

Please feel free to add comments or questions and we can discuss at this week's (Oct 1) OpSim meeting.