Helping Hands Make Strong Partnerships

Published: 15 May 2004

The U.S. Department of Energy requires all contractors using LINUX-based computers to implement RedHat Enterprise Version 3.0 (RHE V3.0) software as their standard operating system. This applies to computer systems running at the ARM Climate Research Facility’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) locale, and implementation there is planned for late 2004. All existing software packages will need to be tested to run under the new RHE V3.0 operating system, including SGP’s SuomiNet software. This software integrates a network of global positioning systems to distribute spatially and temporally dense atmospheric data in real-time from broad and diverse regions.

Fortuitously, SGP’s RedHat Certified Engineer had tested the SuomiNet software as the LINUX operating system there evolved. This expertise was called upon in April when a key collaborator at NASA found out that agency would not renew its computer security wavier for the Suominet system due to the lack of security updates available for the original RedHat operating system used to run SuomiNet. On a recommendation from research partners at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, or UCAR (the organization that receives SuomiNet data), the NASA representative contacted SGP’s RedHat expert for help. After installing RHE V3.0 on a test machine and using a test global positioning system receiver provided by UCAR to verify performance, detailed instructions were prepared for installing the SuomiNet software on machines running RHE V3.0. These instructions were provided to NASA and UCAR users, and will be available to others that may require similar upgrades.

NASA is important to ARM as an instrument provider, participant and sponsor of extensive experiments, and research collaborator. The assistance provided by SGP data systems staff allows partners at NASA to continue the operation of their SuomiNet network utilizing the new RedHat Enterprise version for LINUX in conducting their research. It also provided the SGP RedHat expert with invaluable experience in the upgrade procedure that will pay dividends when the transition is implemented at SGP later this year. This move must be made to continue with support from RedHat, to take advantage of the latest security updates, and to comply with the DOE-standard LINUX operating system.