Earth System Research Laboratory Global Systems Division Technology Outreach Branch

1. Earth System Research Laboratory Global Systems Division Technology Outreach Branch AWIPS II Thin Client DevelopmentJebb StewartNOAA/ESRL/GSDAffiliated with Colorado State University Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA)September 29th

2. Project Overview Thin Client OSIP Documents at Gate Three AWIPS II Thin Client Analysis and Evaluation

3. Development Objectives • Extend CAVE to support: • Center Weather Service Units (CWSUs) • Weather Service Offices (WSOs) • Incident Support Specialists (ISS) including Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) • NCEP Centers to partially support Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) • River Forecast Centers (RFCs)

4. Development Objectives (Continued) • To enable Common AWIPS Visualization Environment (CAVE) to work outside local area network. • Add Windows OS Compatibility • Low bandwidth and capability to work on any type of internet access (satellite/BGAN, wireless, local network) requirements. • Many base requirements have been pulled from FX-Net program. • Thin Client Requirements document contains many more.

5. Results From Analysis • Analysis was performed on new versions of CAVE as they were released. Last in depth analysis was R1G1-3. • Basically Functionality (ie Weather “Browsing”) works. • Some Missing Requirements. • Performance Problems within Windows Environment need to be resolved.

6. AWIPS II Remote Mode • AWIPS II has built in capability to run in “Remote” Mode • “Remote” mode no longer requires HDF5 file mount and accesses all data through HTTP • To enable “Remote” mode. • Add or uncomment line “awips.mode=client“ • In regular CAVE installation {CAVE_INSTALLATION_PATH}/configuration/config.ini • In ADE com.raytheon.viz.product.awips -> config.ini

7. AWIPS II Remote Mode Ports Required Remote Access Gained using either SSH Tunnels or VPN connection

8. Possible Client Types Explored • AWIPS 2 Built and optimized on Linux. How do we provide a multiple OS solution? • Virtual Desktop • A remote desktop capability using NoMachine (NX) technology where CAVE runs on a remote server and user views the screen as it changes (similar to a streaming movie). • Virtual Machine • On client hardware, A virtual machine is running an instance of Linux operating system using VirtualBox software. CAVE runs natively on Linux OS within Virtual Machine and is viewed on client. • Native Windows • CAVE runs natively on Windows operating system

9. Virtual Client

10. Virtual Machine

11. Native Windows

12. Use Case Matrix

13. Porting To WindowsItems Required • Need proper Eclipse environment. 3.4.1 • Setup Python 2.6 – Including additional support libraries (NUMPY, SCIPY, etc…) • Verify libraries available in site-packages on Linux • Setup JAVA, 1.6 Plus Additional Libraries • Java Imaging, Java imaging IO, JAVA 3D. • Modifications to code • Path Problems (“C:\\users\jstewart”) incorrectly appended to all file paths • Newer JEP version slightly different API. • Script Template Path Problems • Native Library Support – libmeteolib (Contouring), JEP (Python interaction). • Used Cygwin to recompile missing native libraries

14. Porting to WindowsIssues • OpenGL/Graphics Card interaction messy, refreshing canvas problems. • Delay problems. Items behind the scenes take longer than on Linux and using client without waiting results in errors. • UI (Creating widgets, alerts) needs additional work.

15. Porting to WindowsFuture Items • As new releases are created, need to verify portability of changes. • Any extensions created may require additional porting if not 100% java. • Only Basic Functionality has been tested on Windows OS, Other tools (ie GFE …) require further testing

16. Other Thin Client Development • Improve bandwidth utilization by using compression on Thrift objects. • Google Earth Export. • Other Missing Requirements.

17. Questions?Discussion