McIDAS-XCD Administrator's Guide
Version 2022.1

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Configuring Data Removal

As new data is decoded and filed by McIDAS-XCD your disk will begin to fill up. Complete the steps below to free up disk space by removing old data and rotating the -XCD log files.

Removing MD, GRID and Text Files

There are two ways to configure the removal of MD, GRID and text files. If you have a continuous McIDAS session running in the oper account, you may use the McIDAS-X scheduler. If you prefer to configure the data to be removed in the background without a McIDAS session running, you may use the Unix cron command. Command QRTMDG deletes old MD and grid files generated by the decoders; command DELWXT deletes old text files generated by the ingestors.

Using the McIDAS Scheduler

  1. From a McIDAS-X session running under the oper account, verify that there is an active SKED process.

    2. Type: ?

    If the resulting list of processes does not include a line containing "SKED SKEDFILE", start a SKED process with the command below.

    Type: SKED SKEDFILE

  2. Enter the four commands below in the McIDAS-X local time scheduler to delete old data files. The variable nn represents the number of days of data to keep online.

    3. Type: SKE #Y 00:01:00 999999 24 "QRTMDG MD 1 90 nn DEV=NCN

    Type: SKE #Y 00:01:00 999999 24 "DELWXT nn DEV=NCN

    Type: SKE #Y 00:01:00 999999 24 "QRTMDG GRID 50001 100000 nn DEV=NCN

    Type: SKU ON

Using the Unix cron Command

  1. From a shell prompt under the oper account, edit the current cron job list.

    2. Type: crontab -e

  2. Enter the three commands below on new lines in the editor. The variables mm and hh represent the minute and hour of the day to run the QRTMDG and DELWXT commands. The variable nn represents the number of days of data to keep online.

    3. Type:  mm hh * * * /home/oper/mcidas/bin/qrtmdg.k MD 1 90 nn DEV=NCN
    Type:  mm hh * * * /home/oper/mcidas/bin/delwxt.k nn DEV=NCN
    Type:  mm hh * * * /home/oper/mcidas/bin/qrtmdg.k GRID 50001 100000 nn DEV=NCN

Removing GRIB and BUFR Files

  1. From a shell prompt under the oper account, edit the current cron job list.

    2. Type: crontab -e

  2. Enter the two commands below on new lines in the editor. The variables mm and hh represent the minute and hour of the day to run the xcdscour command. The variable nn represents the number of days of data to keep online.

    3. Type:  mm hh * * * /home/oper/mcidas/bin/xcdscour GRIB nn  path_to_grib_files
    Type:  mm hh * * * /home/oper/mcidas/bin/xcdscour BUFR nn  path_to_bufr_files

    The xcdscour command deletes old GRIB1, GRIB2 and BUFR files generated by the decoders. If the GRIB decoder is configured to use a MySQL/MariaDB database the corresponding GRIB1 and GRIB2 database entries will be removed.

Rotating the -XCD Log Files

  1. From a shell prompt under the oper account, edit the current cron job list.

    2. Type: crontab -e

  2. Enter the two commands below on new lines in the editor. The first entry runs the xcdadmin command hourly; the -t option prints the current time, disk usage, and load averages to the xcd.log file. The second entry runs the xcdadmin command once per day; the -r option rotates the log file. See Using xcdadmin from a Unix Shell Prompt to confirm that you are using the most recent version of xcdadmin.

    3. Type:   0 * * * * /home/oper/mcidas/bin/xcdadmin log -t
    Type:   0 0 * * * /home/oper/mcidas/bin/xcdadmin log -r

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