ISC Troubleshooting

There are three areas to focus on when troubleshooting ISC grids. The three areas are user errors, IRT errors, and server processes errors. Indications of a user error in your localConfig.py file include that the GFE server processes do not start after deactivating and trying to reactivate your Site and your Site is not receiving all of the desired ISC grids. In order to fix user errors in localConfig.py, first ensure all necessary settings have been added. Then, ensure there are no typos. Make sure that the extraISCparms and REQUESTED_ISC_PARMS lists use plus equals (+=) and NOT equals (=). Finally, validate your config using the instructions in the Server-side files Section of the Configuration and Management Section to check for syntax errors. You can use the IRT website within AWIPS to troubleshoot IRT errors. In most cases GFE Server processes errors will fix themselves.

Location and Structure of Logs

Some of the ISC log information is located in the edex-request log file located in the /awips2/edex/logs directory on the EDEX cluster (dv3, dv4, and dv5). The log files are appended with the date in YYYYMMDD format so that the file name is edex-request-YYYYMMDD.log. The information in the edex-request log files includes:

• IRT registration check (once per hour)
• ifpnetCDF processes extracting grids from the Fcst or Official databases and writing them to a compressed file for transmission over the Message Handling System.
• Receipt of ISC grid files, including site of origin and content
• iscMosaic processes showing received grids being merged into ISC database.

Individual log files are also created by ISC processes running on the system. These log files are located in the GFESUITE_LOGDIR directory specified in siteConfig.py. Usually, this is the /awips2/GFESuite/logs directory. This directory is located on the machines in the EDEX cluster (dv3/dv4/dv5) and:

• Is mounted, so the log files are the same on dv3, dv4, and dv5.
  • This is different from the EDEX log files.
• Is first divided in subdirectories by three-letter site ID.
  • If you request ISC grids, there is a subdirectory for your site in the directory.
  • If Service Backup is performed, there will be a subdirectory for each site you back up.
• Is then divided into subdirectories by date in the format of YYYYMMDD.
• Is then divided into subdirectories by machinename

There are four log files in these directories which are specific to ISC:

• irtServer.log - includes information about your site's IRT registration, including hourly verification of registration as well as the sites and weather elements requested by your office.
• iscMosaic.log - includes information on each ISC file processed by iscMosaic.
• iscExtract.log - tells which grids are pulled out of the file.
• iscDataRec.log - includes information about all ISC grid packages received on the system and how each was handled (sent for processing, etc.).