Starting and Stopping the Radar

Manual Start-up

To start the radar, there is a script called steamed_hams.py. The name of this script is a reference to a scene in an episode of The Simpsons in which Principal Skinner claims there is an aurora happening in his house.

Usage

usage: steamed_hams.py experiment_module run_mode scheduling_mode [-h] [--embargo] [--rawacf-format {hdf5,dmap}] [--realtime-off] [--kwargs ...]

Positional Arguments

experiment_module

The name of the module in the experiments directory that contains your experiment class, e.g. normalscan

run_mode

Possible choices: release, debug, pyprof, rawrf, engdebug

Runtime mode.

release: runs Python modules with -O -u for faster performance, generates antennas_iq and rawacf files. debug: runs usrp_driver module with gdb, limits performance to at most one pulse sequence per second. pyprof: runs Python modules with profiler and usrp_driver module with gdb. rawrf: generates rawrf data only, limits performance to at most one pulse sequence per second. engdebug: runs usrp_driver module with gdb, limits performance to at most one pulse sequence per second, and generates rawrf, intermediate filter stage, and antennas_iq data.

scheduling_mode

Possible choices: common, discretionary, special

The type of scheduling time for this experiment run.

Named Arguments

--embargo

Embargo the file (makes the CPID negative)

Default: False

--rawacf-format

Possible choices: hdf5, dmap

Format to use when writing rawacf files. Defaults to config file specification.

--realtime-off

Disable the realtime FITACF3 data server module

Default: False

--kwargs

Keyword arguments for the experiment. Each must be formatted as kw=val

Default: ''

An example invocation to run twofsound in release mode during common time would be:

$BOREALISPATH/scripts/steamed_hams.py twofsound release common

Note

This script will kill the Borealis software if it is currently running, before it starts it anew.

The experiment name must match to an experiment in the src/borealis_experiments folder, and does not include the .py extension. The scheduling mode is one of common, special, or discretionary, depending upon the DARN-SWG schedule (see the scheduling working group page here)

The script will boot all the radar processes in a detached screen window that runs in the background. This window can be reattached in any terminal window locally or over ssh (screen -r) to track any outputs if needed.

To start the radar without the optional realtime module, pass the flag --realtime-off and the module will not be run. For example:

/home/radar/borealis/scripts/steamed_hams.py normalscan release discretionary --realtime-off

If starting the radar in normal operation according to the schedule, there is a helper script called scripts/start_radar.sh.

Automated Start-up

In order to start the radar automatically, the script start_radar.sh should be added to a startup script of the Borealis computer. It can also be called manually by the non-root user (typically radar).

The scheduling Python script, make_atq.py, is responsible for automating the control of the radar to follow the schedule, and is started via the start_radar.sh script with the appropriate arguments.

This script should be added to the control computer boot-up scripts so that it generates a new set of scheduled commands.

Automated Restarts

Occasionally, the Borealis software stops due to some software or computer issue. To automatically restart the radar software when this occurs, and to avoid lengthy downtimes, the scripts restart_borealis.daemon and restart_borealis.py were created.

restart_borealis.py finds the directory Borealis writes to and checks the file most recently written to. If the file hasn’t been written to within a specified time period, the script assumes the radar has stopped running and tries to restart it using stop_radar.sh and start_radar.sh.

restart_borealis.daemon runs continuously, periodically executing restart_borealis.py. If the radar is restarted consecutive times, an alert is sent to our group’s Slack workspace to notify us that the radar likely has a problem requiring manual intervention. For more information on integrating Slack alerts, see here.

To set up the daemon using systemd:

1. Copy borealis/scripts/restart_borealis.daemon to /usr/local/bin/. Ensure the file can be executed by the radar operating user (i.e. radar).

2. Copy borealis/scripts/restart_borealis.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/. Modify the user specified in the service file to match the radar operating user. The service file is shown below:

   restart_borealis.service

   # Place me at /usr/lib/systemd/system/restart_borealis.service
   # Modify the `User` field as necessary to match your system.
   [Unit]
   Description=Restart borealis daemon
   
   [Service]
   User=radar
   ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/restart_borealis.daemon
   Restart=always
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target
   

3. Enable and start the service:

   sudo systemctl enable restart_borealis.service
   sudo systemctl start restart_borealis.service
   systemctl status restart_borealis.service
   

Alternatively, restart_borealis.py can be run via crontab, as shown below:

*/10 * * * * . $HOME/.profile; /usr/bin/python3 /home/radar/borealis/scripts/restart_borealis.py >> /home/radar/borealis/restart_log.txt 2>&1

Stopping the Radar

There are several ways to stop the Borealis radar. They are ranked here from most acceptable to last-resort:

1. Run the script stop_radar.sh from the Borealis scripts/ directory. This script kills the scheduling server, removes all scheduled entries from the at queue and kills the screen session running the Borealis software modules.

2. While viewing the screen session running the Borealis software modules, type ctrl-A, ctrl-\\. This will kill the screen session and all software modules running within it.

3. Restart the Borealis computer. NOTE In a normal circumstance, the Borealis software will start back up again once the computer reboots.

4. Shut down the Borealis computer.

UPS & Power Outages

To protect the Borealis computer from power outages and ensure the computer can safely turn off, the computer should be powered by an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Additionally, powering the Borealis hardware (N200s, octoclocks, and network equipment) with the UPS will mitigate potential radar restarts due to power brownouts or short power outages. In this scenario, the UPS should shut temporarily turn off the radar while the Borealis equipment is on battery power during the power outage (since the transmitters will be powered off). This can be done as follows:

1. Use apcupsd to communicate between the radar computer and the UPS. Follow the APCUPSD User Manual to install and configure for your setup.

2. Copy the offbattery and onbattery scripts from borealis/scripts/apcupsd/ to /etc/apcupsd/. These scripts will be executed when each event occurs on the UPS:

   1. onbattery: This occurs when the power outage starts. This script will schedule the radar to turn off via stop_radar.sh, and stop the restart_borealis.service daemon so the radar doesn’t restart during the power outage.

   2. offbattery: This occurs when the power outage ends. This script will cancel the scheduled stop_radar.sh script call, and restart the restart_borealis.service daemon.