NOTICE: This version of the NSF Unidata web site (archive.unidata.ucar.edu) is no longer being updated.
Current content can be found at unidata.ucar.edu.
To learn about what's going on, see About the Archive Site.
Hi Samuel, re: > We are looking to buy a Linux based server platform to run LDM/McIDAS and > possibly GEMPAK. I am wondering what you have in mind because of your reference to a "server platform". Is your intention to setup a machine what numerous users will login into to run McIDAS and GEMPAK? If yes, how many users? If no, would the machine be better discribed as a workstation? > What vendor/hardware platform/requirements do you suggest, if any? We have used a variety of PC platforms as workstations (as opposed to servers) over the years ranging from boxes that we assembled from parts to off the shelf units from outfits like Dell Computer. All boxes work well assuming that they have quality parts (e.g., motherboard, RAM, had disks, etc.). The machines we are currently buying for internal use are Intel dual core, 64-bit Xeons with at least 4 GB of RAM and a reasonable (e.g., 250 GB+) amount of hard disk. We run the Fedora distribution of Linux on these machines (e.g., Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7), but the choice of Fedora over some other Linux variant is more-or-less historic. That being said, we do prefer RedHat-base/compliant Linux distributions because we have the most experience on them. RedHat Enterprise, Fedora, and CentOS all fall into this broad classification. We purchase machines like the one generally described above so that: - we can run any Unidata analysis/display application: GEMPAK, IDV, McIDAS-X, LDM, netCDF, UDUNITS, etc. - we can perform stress tests of a variety of software simultaneously If you are really looking for solid yet not extremely configured workstations, you can decrease the memory included in the machine, but I would not recommend less than 2 GB. Cheers, Tom **************************************************************************** Unidata User Support UCAR Unidata Program (303) 497-8642 P.O. Box 3000 address@hidden Boulder, CO 80307 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unidata HomePage http://www.unidata.ucar.edu **************************************************************************** Ticket Details =================== Ticket ID: XTD-131268 Department: Support Platforms Priority: Normal Status: Closed