Newsletter 7 - March 1999


  
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Number 7     ***         INTEROP NEWSLETTER      ***        March 1999
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In This Issue:

1. CEOS IDN meeting in March

2. Automatic Updates For MD6-Isite Databases

3. Linux Directory Mirroring Project Proposal

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                    CEOS IDN meeting in March
                    =========================
The CEOS meeting will be held at Rinku Gate Tower in Osaka, Japan on
March 9-12, 1999.  This years spring meeting is hosted by the National
Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA).  Logistical information can
be found at:

http://www.eoc.nasda.go.jp/guide/ceos/informationSG-6.html


AGENDA
======
 WGISS Access Subgroup Meeting Agenda
       Osaka, Japan--March 1999
                DRAFT


Tuesday March 9,  1999 

08:00  Registration 
09:00  AS Business    T. Fisher 
  Leadership 
09:30   CINTEX Meeting   Y. Enloe 
12:00 Lunch 
13:00   CINTEX Meeting   Y. Enloe 


Wednesday March 10,  1999 

09:00 Joint Meeting AS, NS & DS 
 Welcome/Introduction  S. Sobue(?), SG Chairs 
 CII    O. Ochiai 
 NS Presentation   D. desJardins 
  WWW TT    C. Best 
12:00 Lunch 
13:00 AS/DS Joint 
 Data Services TT  G. Percivall 
  

Thursday March 11, 1999 

09:00 AS  Meeting 
 Browse TT   O. Ochiai 
 Guidelines   B. Thomas 
 Pilot Projects  K. McDonald (?) 
 Future Directions  New AS Chair 
12:00 Lunch 
13:00 IDN Task Team    L. Olsen 


Friday March 12, 1999 

09:00 Presentations from Industry 
12:00 Lunch 
13:00 Joint AS and DS Meeting 
 Pilot Projects 
 Agency Reports 

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              Automatic Updates For MD6-Isite Databases
              =========================================

IDN Nodes running MD6-Isite may now keep their Isite databases current
automatically by using update software available from the GCMD. Since
its release last summer, the software has been updating the Isite
database content daily at the GCMD, ESA and UNEP Grid in Geneva. The
DIFs are extracted daily from the GCMD ORACLE database, transferred
via ftp to the node and indexed whereby they become available to the
Isite search engine. Thus updates to the GCMD ORACLE database will
appear in a node's Isite search within one day.

The software is comprised of a series of shell scripts that are run by
a cron job. The software is easy to install and can easily be
configured to run with whatever frequency and at whatever time best
suites a particular IDN node.  This software can be installed at any
site running MD6-Isite. The software and installation instructions can
be retrieved via anonymous ftp from gcmd.nasa.gov. The package is
called MD6_Isite_Update.tar.gz and is located in
/pub/software/products. The GCMD staff will be happy to answer
questions and offer assistance to any node that wishes to install this
software. For more information contact Lynn Halpern at
halpern@gmcd.nasa.gov.


**********************************************************************
              Linux Directory Mirroring Project Proposal
              ==========================================

   Maintainable, Inexpensive Directory Mirroring Project using the
                    Linux Environment (MI-DiMPLE)
                 Tom Northcutt: tnorth@gcmd.nasa.gov


The Linux environment is currently the optimal environment for
software distribution, configuration and maintenance.  Current
distributions (RedHat, Debian, Slackware, Caldera, and SuSE) have
advanced tools for software installation and maintenance.  For
example, RedHat uses a packaging system (RedHat Package Management
(RPM)) that allows major software installations with the click of a
button (in a GUI) or a simple command line statement (e.g. rpm -i
xemacs_20.1.rpm).  Because packages are pre-compiled and pre-tested, this
installation method is virtually foolproof.

In order to more easily maintain the wide variety of IDN nodes across
the world, it may be useful to investigate the potential for using the
Linux operating system to reduce/eliminate the porting and
distribution problems associated with a distributed system.

One noticeable benefit is that any node could use a freely available
relational database to maintain and serve their metadata.  This could
directly complement the current development work toward distributed,
object oriented architectures (both Java and Perl development) and
would enhance node maintenance capabilities for their metadata.

For more information on this developing proposal, see:
https://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/~tnorth/midimple/
or contact: Tom Northcutt (tnorth@gcmd.nasa.gov). 

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