e-VLBI Station Recommendations

These are recommendations for stations participating in e-VLBI observations. They are here to help get the best results out of each science run, and as a central repository for the configuration that we expect the stations to use for e-VLBI. As our e-VLBI capabilities and software keep evolving, we'll keep this page updated with the latest information.

 

  1. Skype - Communications between JIVE and the stations during an e-VLBI run is done in a Skype text-chat. The username for the JIVE operaters is 'jiveops', and they will invite you to a Skype group chat channel. If you don't get the invitation, please let us know as soon as possible. Keep an eye on the chat window, so we can warn you in case we detect problems with the signal from your station.

  2. Installed software - the recommended configuration is:
    • Debian Etch ('uname -r' should show: 2.6.18-6-686)
    • SDK 8.2, which consists of the following packages:
      • streamstor: 1.1.4
      • mark5a: 1.0.7
    • jive5a: version 2.0
      • Download link
      (You can verify the version of these packages by running "dpkg -l <pkg>")
    • Firmware versions: Using "ss_rev?" should report:
      ApiVersion 12.13 : ApiDateCode Apr 13 2011 (or later).
      See this page for instructions on updating your firmware.
      N.B.: using any other firmware will cause problems with starting e-VLBI
      Make sure that the diskpacks have been erased with SSErase while running this firmware before recording. Otherwise, recording will fail.

  3. Mark5 access - Access through SSH to your Mark5 is often very helpful for troubleshooting during a session. To make this possible in a secure way, please allow access to the 'oper' account by SSH from JIVE, by installing the JIVE SSH public key in ~oper/.ssh/authorized_keys

    SSH connections from JIVE will come either from the JIVE IP-range (192.42.120.0/24) or from the Astron firewall NAT address (192.87.1.181 AND 192.87.1.182). Using the 'from' clause in the .ssh/authorized_keys, it is possible to limit access with this key to only these originating IP addresses for added security.


  4. Sudo privileges - Unfortunately, we occasionally run into a situation where we get no data from a station, and cannot contact the operators of the particular telescope. Often, all that is needed is a reboot of the Mark5. The 'oper' user should therefore have 'reboot' privileges in the /etc/sudoers file.

  5. Starting jive5a - Stations should start the jive5a software themselves before a session. However, in case of a reboot or non-response of the station operators, we need to be able to do so as well. To give both the telescope operator and the correlator operator access to the jive5a logging output, the preferred way to start jive5a is: ./execute.sh ./log /opt/jivemark5a &
    This will log the output of jivemark5a to /tmp. The shell-scripts ./execute.sh and log are made available by JIVE.

  6. Field System access - To automatically obtain Tsys and other data: Install the software that Des Small from JIVE has created and distributed; instructions and code are available here.

Last updated: Feb 2012 (revision 1.1).
copyright 2012 JIVE