SNAP Post-Installation & Configuration Instructions
Congratulations, the SNAP software installation is complete! The following instructions will guide you through the process of installing optional components and the initial configuration of SNAP.
- Install jEdit and the SNAP jEdit Plug-in (optional)
- Install AcGrace (optional)
- Run SNAP's Configuration Tool
- Install the SNAP Calculation Server as a Service (optional)
- Final Instructions
Step 1:
Install jEdit and the SNAP-jEdit Plug-in (optional)
The current jEdit plug-in for SNAP is designed to work with jEdit version 4.1. This version is included as an optional part of the SNAP installation. Instructions on installing the jEdit plug-in are provided in:
<SNAP Install Dir>/jEdit/jeditplugininstall.htm.
Step 2:
Install the AcGrace Plotting Software (optional)
SNAP provides an interface to the AcGrace plotting package. The software along with installation instructions is available at the following link:
AcGrace is a X11 Motif application which must be run under the cygwin unix emulation software when installed on a Windows platform. When running in Windows, it is important to include the C:\cygwin\bin and C:\cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin directories in your system path. The system path can be modified using the System application located in the Control Panel. Select the "Advanced" tab, click on the "Environment Variables" button, and select the "Path" system variable. Insert the paths to your cygwin bin and X11 directories.
AcGrace startup options can be added to the .Xdefaults located in your home directory. The following options are useful for setting the initial size and location of the display, turning on the autoscale option, and controlling the size of the dialog used to display TRACE data channels.
XMgrace*numTraceCompShown: 6
XMgrace*numTraceChanShown: 7
XMgrace*geometry: 630x510
XMgrace*autoscaleOnRead: true
Step 3:
Run SNAP's Configuration Tool
The location and appearance of the SNAP software installation varies slightly depending on platform.
For instance:
- For Windows, icons are added to the Start Menu.
- For Solaris, Linux and most Unix-like systems shell scripts are installed to launch each of the applications. They can be found in the bin directory under the SNAP installation directory.
- For systems with GNOME or KDE installed, menu items are added for each.
The SNAP application suite uses a single preferences file named .snaprc that is stored in a directory called .snap that is located in the users home directory. This file is created the first time an application is started. Configuration Tool is used to customize this configuration file.
! Note: .snaprc is stored in the "current" user's home directory, not a system wide configuration.
Step 3a: Open the Configuration Tool
The Configuration Tool uses an interface similar to the ModelEditor's Property View. This Property View contains all of the global SNAP preferences organized into 3 attribute groups. Each of these groups and the preferences they contain are described below.
Step 3b: Configure SNAP
Configure the following options on the General and Calculation Server attribute groups:
General Group
AcGrace Executable
The path to the AcGrace executable installed in Step 2. Several SNAP applications can spawn AcGrace to plot data. (If you do not intend to use AcGrace, you may leave this blank.)
jEdit Executable
The path to the jEdit executable installed in Step 1. (If you do not intend to use jEdit, you may leave this blank.)
Use System Look & Feel
The system look and feel is the Java look and feel designed to integrate with the native applications on the system. When this is set to 'No', the Java platform-independent look and feel will be used. This setting will take effect next time a SNAP application is started.
Note that this setting is only available on platforms (such as Windows) that have a different system look and feel from the Java platform-independent look and feel.
Calculation Server Group
The following options should be configured in the Caclulation Server group if you plan to submit calculations on the local machine.
Server Status
The current status of the Calculation Server and controls for starting and stopping.
Start Server At Login
This is a Windows-only option used to start the Calculation Server at login.
When set to 'Yes' a shortcut will be placed in the 'Startup' group of your 'Start Menu.'
Use Fixed Port
When set to 'Yes' the Calculation Server will use the same port number every time it is started. When set to 'No' (recommended) the first available port number will be used.
Port
The fixed port number to use for the Calculation Server.
Max Concurent Jobs
The number of jobs (TRACE, RELAP5, etc.) that can be running simultaneously. Any jobs submitted beyond this maximum will wait in the job queue until a spot is opened.
Runs Folder
All jobs submitted to the Calculation Server will be placed in individual folders inside this folder.
Logging Level
This attribute determines the detail of the information written to the Calculation Server log file.
Critical Messages Only is the lowest.
Debugging Messages is the highest.
Executables
The SNAP Calculation Server can use many executable versions for each supported code type.
To add an executable:
- Click the E (edit) button next to the Executables attribute.
This will open the Edit Executables dialog and allow the executables to be added, removed and modified.
- Click the Add button near the center of the dialog.
This will create a new executable in the list in the top half of the dialog. The attributes of the newly created executable will be shown in the bottom half of the dialog.
- Define the attributes of the new exectuable
- Plug-in
- The plug-in (i.e. "code type") that this plug-in will be used with. Select the appropriate plug-in for this executable from the combo box to the right.
- Exec ID
- A short (one word) name for the executable. This name is used only for distiguishing between executables of the same analysis code type. For instance: RELAP5 version MZB might be called "
Relap-MZB".
- Description
- A one line description of the executable.
- Executable
- The absolute path to the executable.
- Executable Arguments
- Additional command line arguments to pass to the executable.
- Supports Interactive Execution
- Set to true if this executable (and it's corresponding server plug-in) support the SNAP interactive command system.
- Default to Interactive Execution
- Set to true if jobs submitted using this executable should default to using the SNAP interactive command system.
- DeMUX Executable
- The absolute path to the demultiplexer for this executable.
- DeMUX Arguments
- Additional command line arguments to pass to this executable's demultiplexer.
Repeat this process for each executable and code type desired.
Step 3c: Start the Calculation Server
Press the Start Server (play) button next to the Server Status attribute in the Calculation Server group. This will launch the Calculation Server in the background and update the Server Status accordingly. A dialog will appear that indicates that the server is being launched. After this process completes, the Server Status will be updated.
After starting the server the Stop Server and Show Server Status buttons will be enabled and the Start Server button disabled. To stop the server at this time simply press the Stop Server button.
Step 4:
Installing the Service
The SNAP Calculation server can be set up to start automatically. Under Windows, this is accomplished by installing the SNAP Calculation server as an entry in the Start Menu's Startup group. Under UNIX/Linux operating systems an init script can be used to start the calculation server durung the boot process. Instructions for each method are provided below:
Windows-NT/2000/XP:
To start the server at login simply set the Start Server At Login attribute to Yes. This will create a shortcut to the Calculation Server launcher in the current user's Startup group.
Linux/UNIX:
A Linux Init Script is a small shell script that is run at system startup and shutdown. As of this writing, these scripts are not included in the distribution but can be downloaded here[snapcalc]. These scripts may also work on other Unix-like systems but have only been tested to work under Redhat Linux.
These scripts will require some slight modification before use to set:
- The user account the server will run under.
- The SNAP installation directory.
- The path to your Java executable.
The proper location of init scripts on your system is very distribution dependent. In general they are in /etc/rc.d/ or some sub directory thereof. For Redhat they should go in /etc/rc.d/init.d/ and then be setup with the Services Configuration tool. The documentation for the serviceconf for Redhat Linux 7.3 can be found here. For Redhat Linux 8.0, here.
Final Instructions
SNAP should now be configured for your system. Refer to the user's manual and help information included with each application for more information.
If you're new to SNAP check out the tutorial section for more detailed information.