| News 2011 |
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Calar Alto News for 2011
3.5m Telescope Ball Reparation
We have starting this year speaking about something not related directly to our Department, but to the whole Observatory: The 3.5m Telescope Ball Reparation. In fact, this stuff is more under the scope of other Departments, mainly Mechanics, but did affec all of us and involved our Department.
The repair was totally successful. Although our contribution was little, we prepared some software for monitoring sensors that allow tracing the ball bahaviour in real time and with stored data. Such software includes programs like caplot (for graphing the ball sensors in real time and also plotting recorded data) and um35 (for the micrometers, also in real time and for recorded data). Caplot program was finally extended and this program can be used by Electronic and Mechanical Departments not only for the ball sensors but for accesing and plotting any EPICS variables in real time and in recorded mode.
As a result of all works done for monitoring ball behaviour, a program called zeus was developed and it is now running on a terminal at the observers room and also at the 3.5m pult for maintenance tasks. This program is monitoring the ball behaviour and represents the first step of alarms if the telescope reaches some dangerous point. This is thought as a "yellow light" on a semaphore, warning the observers or the technician about ball problems that can affect the security and the integrity of the ball (and the telescope). The red alarm was introduced by Karl Zimmermann inside the Telescope Control Software, and it will stop inmediately the telescope in case of a serious threat. Finally there is also a daemon called zeusd that is recording all ball sensors important data and sending mails with daily reports every morning. Those recorded data are stored so in case of future problems people involved can see records from the past and compare situations.
Mango
Related with the software that allows ball monitoring, is the increase of Mango features. Mango facility is not only concerning the ball problem, but monitoring a great amount of data coming from all telescopes and other facilities. Finally mango was divided into two: one for the observers, so they can monitor several telescopes functions, and the other for engeneering works.
Archive
A really big job not only done this year but in develop since 2008 is the Astronomical Images Archive System. We can say that the application, as it was designed, is already finished. Of course, next years new features will be included, as they will appear to be necessary, but the project as designed is completed. Its main characterictics are:
- Highly modular and scalable, again in hardware and software
The archive system represents a centralized storage of images, with image validation, nomenclature unification, backup and a large storage capacity that can be extended for future needs. The system allows an easy image recovery. It is responsible also to provide publishable images to the Spanish Virtual Observatory (SVO)
Next image represents Archive structure.
You can access the application at: https://www.caha.es/APPS/ARCHIVE
Finally, late 2011 we have replaced the 6 1TB disks at the second cabinet of the archive with 16 disks of 2TB each. So at present, the archive has two units (on the main cabinet) with 5.4TB each plus one complete cabinet with the amount of more than 23TB (two of the 16 disks are for hot spare and the RAID5 parity).
Video Surveillance System
The main reasons for the Video Surveillance System are the safety measures and comply with "Ley de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales".
For the system design we took the advantage of the previous webcams infraestructure already working at Calar Alto together with the high bandwidth available on the campus (a ring of 10GBps network together with connections of at least 1Gbps to each facility). The reuse of existing hardware was also other concern. Main characteristics of the system are:
- Fully configured system as needed - Good expandability - Limited access to records with security measures - Secure RAID 5 storage
All the system was based on the Axis webcams together with the Axis Camera Station software
Next image shows the system diagram:
Spare link with the University
A second electronics (complete system) for the microwave link with the University (our gate to the world) was bought and tested successfuly.
IPv6
We have started with some internal IPv6 tests. In fact, we asked RedIRIS to give us IPv6 addresses and now we have it: 2001:720:C24::/48
The idea is to begin upgrading the necessary hardware in order of initiating using the dual stack (both IPv4 and IPv6 at the same time) next year. 2012 budgets include the necesary hardware for commencing with in deep IPv6 tests.
Second ADSL line at Almería Office
In order to improve Office's communications, we have installed a second ADSL line there.
New computer for Tecs at 3.5m Telescope
The old ULTRA 1 computer for the TECS at 3.5m Telescope, has been replaced by a more powerful ULTRA 80 machine. Together with this, another identical ULTRA 80 computer has been prepared as a hot spare for the new tecs computer. A syncronization of telescope software takes place between the main computer and the spare, so we now have a quick replacement in case of problems with the main computer.
Jobs for HEXA and a new web
We have extended our network in order to reach the site-testing place for HEXA. Together with this, a new web for HEXA started working late this year. At present it has only restricted use.
Virtualized Windows Server for entry point to Windows computers
Our server for accessing our windows computers from external networks has been virtualized and integrated into our virtualized server farm. It has the advantage from the previous version that now it is working as a gateway to the solicited machine, so no need of entering into this gateway and then jumping into the desired computer. This jump is now transparent to the user. All communications are encrypted.
Virtualized Windows Server for Administration
The last job of the year was finishing with the virtualization of Windows servers. The last one was the Administration Server, which was integrated into our virtualized server farm.
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