DBNet Installation Procedures

1. Ensure that perl 5.002 or greater has been installed.

   Type in:

   perl -v

   There are a number of sites that are repositories for the latest version of perl, which include GNU mirror sites. http://www.perl.com and https://www.gnu.org/software/perl/perl.html to name a few.

2. Ensure that the perl time modules have been installed.

   Type in:

   perl -e 'use Time::CTime'

   If an error is returned, the time modules need to be installed. The time modules, Time-modules-96.061301.tar, are available from the above mentioned sites and the DBNet ftp site. This step may require root access.

3. Create a DBNet account.

   The convention is that the account name should indicate the machine where DBNet is being installed. For example, if the machine is called spock, the account name would be dbnspock. Any Unix shell should work; we have been using csh. This step may require root access.

4. Create a symlink from /usr/DBNet to the DBNet home directory path.

   For example, if DBNet home is /usr/home/dbnspock:

   Type in:

   ln -s /usr/home/dbnspock /usr/DBNet

   The reason for this symlink is to provide a simple method of indicating the location of DBNet to an RPC program called InterFace Server - Paranoid mode (IFSP). This program can be run from the command line or from inetd and uses an environment variable called DBNROOT to locate the $DBNROOT/table and $DBNROOT/log directories. Setting this environment variable when running IFSP from inetd can be cumbersome, thus, IFSP defaults to /usr/DBNet when DBNROOT is not set. This step may require root access.

5. Setup the DBNROOT environment

   The value should be the full path of the DBNet home directory. The DBNROOT environment variable is used by almost all the DBNet components. The purpose of this variable is to allow DBNet to be installed in any directory. The configuration tables and executable programs are located using this variable. Include this setup in .cshrc and .profile or whatever initialization file is used by your shell.

6. FTP the DBNet-V2.x.tar file from www.ncep.noaa.gov into DBNet's home directory.

7. Untar the file maintaining the permissions as archived in the tar file. For example:

   Type in:

   tar -vxPf DBNet-V2.x.tar

   Note: the P option may not be supported and/or unnecessary (defaults to maintaining the permissions). Check your local documentation. Three directories will be created as a result of untaring the file: bin, src and table.

8. Change into the src directory and build the executables using the following:
   make -e -f Makefile.OSTYPE prod
   for the production mode installation. Or
   make -e -f Makefile.OSTYPE dev
   for the development mode installation.

   Where

   OSTYPE = HPUX10, IRIX5, UNICOS9, LINUX2, or AIX

9. Change into the bin directory and symlink perl to $DBNROOT/bin/perl. For example:

   Type in:

   ln -s /usr/gnu/bin/perl perl

   Note: Assumes perl is installed in /usr/gnu/bin.

10. Modify bin/start_dbnet.sh.

    There are some DBNet programs that do not exit and start_dbnet.sh ensures that only one instance of each program is running. Modify this script for your OS type and ensure the appropriate programs are run.

    The minimum required DBNet programs:

    • IFSP
    • dbn_qh.pl
    • dbn_external.pl
    • dbn_monsrv.pl

    If servicing an async device running the X.224 protocol:

    • dbn_async.pl
    • dbn_x224.pl

    If servicing BUFR decoders:

    • dbn_bufr.pl

11. Modify table/dbn_config file.

    Modify the $dbn_root_dir to indicate the DBNet home directory (not necessary if /usr/DBNet is symbolically linked). Browse the file, there are a number of options that may pertain if servicing an async device, a BUFR decoder or the DBNet monitor dbn_monsrv.pl.

12. Modify the cleanlist file.
13. Modify the cron/ctab file.

    To ensure continuous execution of the various DBNet programs, the start_dbnet.sh can be croned to attempt to start the programs if not running. In conjunction, the DBNet programs can be started from the machine initialization scripts (rc files).

14. Modify the parsing table (table/parsing.tbl).
15. Start DBNet

    If the start_dbnet.sh was croned, DBNet will start from cron. Regardless if croned or not croned, DBNet can be started by running bin/start_dbnet.sh.

16. Congratulations, you have successfully installed DBNet.