***This page is under development***

***I have not checked the validity of all steps!***

Instructions on how to set up a new mirror for VALD3

Setting up and maintaining mirrors will be easier in VALD3. The setup should be such that the mirror servers will keep themselves updated. This is possible now the basic file structure as well as the source files for the different components are stored in a subversion repository. Once the mirror is prepared, any changes commited to the repository will be automatically be propagated to all mirrors.

Still, setting up a new mirror will require some local tweaking. Here is a step-by-step guide:

Requirements

  1. A 'subversion' client

Preparations

  1. Find a place to install the mirror. A mirror will require a quite a lot of disk space to store all the linelists (about 25-30 GB, Jan. 2011).
  2. If you want to run the web service, you have to make sure that your choose VALD3 to reside on a disk that is visible from your web server. If the web server runs on the same machine as where you will install VALD3 this will not be an issue.
  3. Use ssh-keygen to generate SSH keys that will give quick and easy access to the VALD account on the master server (currently on vald.astro.univie.ac.at). You will need to generate a SSH key-pair, of which you need to add your public key to the file '~/.ssh/authorized_keys' on the master server. If you are not sure how to do this, please check the ssh manpages (ssh, ssh-keygen, etc.).
  4. Test that you are now able to SSH into the master server without the need to give passwords. Note that this means that anyone that has access to your VALD account on your mirror now also can access the master server. Keep your account secure!

Checking out a VALD3 mirror from the repository

  1. Go to the directory that you want to use as the VALD root. This normally is the home directory of your vald account, but any other place will work just fine.

  2. Using the following command, you can now check-out your local copy of the VALD3 software. This will set up the necessary directory structure and files : 

    svn checkout svn+ssh://vald@vald.astro.univie.ac.at/vald-working/development/svnrepo/VALD3
  3. This will give you one subdirectory (VALD3) that contains the entire tree. If you really want, you can move all the subdirectories up one level (including VALD3/.svn), and then remove the (now empty) VALD3 directory.

Configuring the mirror

Compiling and installing the software

Performing a first update

Checking functionality