Working on our servers

Internal servers

If you are part of the ESCER Centre you will most likely be working on one of our "internal servers". Check out our server pool under: Serveurs de recherche

Linux/UNIX

The operating system on our servers is Linux. If you are not familiar with Linux/UNIX have a look a the basic Linux/UNIX commands: Basic Linux/UNIX commands

Connection to internal servers

Connection to our servers from ...
(replace 'servername' by the name of the server and 'username' by your username)

1) ... workstation at UQAM (connected to the internet via cable) use:
        ssh -YC username@servername.sca.uqam.ca

2) ... outside UQAM (including UQAM WiFi):
    To connect to the above servers from any other computer you first have to connect to st0 or hoppy (external servers of the ESCER Center) with:
        ssh -YC username@st0.sca.uqam.ca
    respectively
        ssh -YC username@hoppy.sca.uqam.ca
    Once connected you can connect to the servers above by again just using the name of the server:
        ssh -YC servername

3) ... other server or to transfer data from one server to another of the ESCER Center
    Only use the name of the server:
        servername
    (For transfers the speed will be faster than when using the longer address!)

To change your password, follow the instructions on our wiki page:
    Change password

Your home

On all of our internal servers you have the same home called: /HOME/username
For your home you have a quota of 200 MByte.
Everything under the home directories is backed up. You can find more information about our backup policies and how to retrieve the backups on the following wiki: :
    Home backup
Since the homes are backed up it is highly recommended to keep everything that is small and important in your home, like all your scripts and programs! You can work with symbolic links if you like to have your scripts and programs accessible from other directories or on other file systems.

Your data

To store your data you have disk space available on a filesystem on one of our internal servers. You find the names in the email you got about your account creation.

If ever you need to transfer data from or to one of the internal servers, follow the instructions on the following page: Transfert de données de/vers l'extérieur

The software

On our UQAM servers as well as on clusters of The Alliance 'modules' (http://modules.sourceforge.net) are used to give access to different software packages. Learn more about modules on the following page: Modules

Python

Even though there are default Python version installed on some of the servers it is strongly recommended to load a version via the modules (see above):   Accéder à Python

Jupyter

If you want to use Jupyter follow the instruction on the following site:   Accéder à Jupyter

RPN Python

To be able to read/write RPN files in Python, follow the instruction on the following site:   RPN Python

GEM / CRCM

At the ESCER Centre we a using a slightly modified version of ECCC's (Environnement Canada et Climat Canada) weather forecast model GEM (Global Environmental Multiscale), officially called "Developmental version of CRCM/GEM
". For more information click o the following link: CRCM/GEM

GEM model output

Instead of being in NetCDF or GRIB format, the GEM model out- and input is the RPN standard format. This format comes with it's own set of tools to look at / modify the data.

On the internal servers of the ESCER Centre you can find some practice data under:

    ~data/Example_data

You can find some general information about our GEM model output here:   GEM model output

Full description of the tools below and other tools can also be found on the following page:  Looking at RPN files

Having a first glance at the GEM model output

vl3 / vl4 / vl5 → list variable names and descriptions

To list the names (and if lucky units) of the variables inside a file try the command:

And there are some more variable lists here:    Variable dictionaries

voir → list content (names / date/time / level)

To have a closer look at the fields and see date/time, levels, etc. try 'voir':

For more information about 'voir' check here:   voir - documentation

xrec → visualize fields

To visualize the fields you can use 'xrec':

But you need to have connected with 'ssh -YC ...' to open windows.
For more information about 'xrec' check here as well:    xrec - documentation

Manipulate RPN files

To extract fields you can use either 'r.diag select ...' or 'editfst'. You can find information about both here:   Manipulating RPN files
But both these tools can be a little tricky to use. So don't hesitate to contact me when you get there!

Convert RPN to NetCDF

In general it would be better to keep GEM output in RPN format to avoid "doubling" the output data. However, in some cases it can be useful to convert files in RPN format to NetCDF format or vice versa.
The tool with which one can do this is called cdf2rpn.  You can find information about cdf2rpn under the following link:    cdf2rpn - documentation