Weekly Report for Week Ending June 5, 2003

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  June 9, 2003 will be:

 CANCELLED DUE TO NSF REVIEW PREPARATION

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Saulson)

no report

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

 
LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Lindquist)
There was no site teleconference on Thursday, June 5, 2003 due to the Program Advisory Committee meeting.
 
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)
From: Ed Chargois <chargois_e@ligo.caltech.edu>
No report this week.
 
DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)
>From: Linda Turner - turner@ligo.caltech.edu>
No report this week.

> From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>
Processed and distributed 7 DCN's
 
DCC Activity
WE 06/5/03      Packages/Faxes
In                         20/36
Out                      13/47
 
COST SCHEDULE CONTROL SYSTEMS (Cunningham, Brambila, Kaufman, Salone)

From: "Brambila, Ruth" <Ruth.Brambila@caltech.edu>
Completed the internal modification to CSRS, change order 3 and an internal modification for funds transfer to Star Service to re-do the Air Condition system. Completed change order 6 to Excel Group.  Working on change order 16 to Research Electro Optics and change order #14 to Crystal Systems.
Working with Ed Jasnow and Bill Tyler on the Raytheon work order.
Submitted the subcontract files on MIT, Northrop Grumman, and Butler to the PWC auditors for review.
Placing and reconciling pcard orders.
From: Gina Salone <gsalone@ligo.caltech.edu>
No report this week.

From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman@ligo.caltech.edu>
Completed monthly financial reports which have been posted on the network.
Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport
 SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)
AdLIGO Optics Coating RFP: The RFP package is out on the street. Proposals are due end of the month. Proposers Teleconference is planned.
Crystal Systems Inc.: CO No. 14, for the purchase of additional HEM sapphire test flats, was released to Purchasing.
Research Electro-Optics: CO No. 16, for coating of additional LIGO supplied test optics, was released to Purchasing.
From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@ligo.caltech.edu>

CONSTRUCTION:

We continue to go down to the wire in spending out the remaining construction funds by June 30.  Computer deliveries, completion of the LLO pre-fabricated storage building, and resolution of retention issues for Chervenell at LHO are the big drivers at this point.

OPERATIONS:

P-cards for new employees at the sites remains an issue since they must be trained personally by the P-card team at Purchasing Services.  Arrangements are being made to have members of this team go to the sites to train multiple numbers of new employees
 
SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd, Tischler)
>Irene Baldon
Processed the paper work for Thirty (30) new/revised trips.  There are approximately fifteen (15) trips in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done and/or paper work completed.  And an additional seven (7) general inquiries.  Until further notice I will be doing travel for LHO travelers.
The 2003 SURF Program will be held from June 16th thru August 22nd.  LIGO/Caltech will have twenty (22) students, LIGO/Hanford will have seven (7), and LIGO/Livingston will have three (3), with four (4) going to Pisa, Italy.  I continue ticketing the thirty-two (32) coming to one of the three (3) LIGO sites and Pisa will be handling the four (4) going there as Passports and VISAs are confirmed.
Completed four (4) Expense Reports and there are seventeen (17) reports yet to be done.  I continue to contact travelers who have outstanding Expense Reports (more than one (1) month old) to ask for their cooperation in sending me their receipts so that they can be closed in a timely manner.  There  are six (6) reports more than 30 days old at this time.
Reconciled sixty-five (65) P-Card items which required numerous phone calls to hotels, car rentals, etc., in order to track down which traveler incurred which charge; and the pulling of each traveler's file to assure that charges are correct for each fee incurred.
I'm happy to report that the new EFT Program for Travel Reimbursement Direct Deposit continues to be functioning well and although there have been a couple of minor bugs Michelle and I are working on them.  Prospects are good for a successful implementation.  If you have any questions or problems with EFT please let me know so that we can address it promptly.  For those of you who have not as yet sent me your form for participation please send it to me as soon as possible and I'll get you signed up immediately.  Thanks for your cooperation and help on this one.
Worked on the preparation and distribution of the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for June 2, 2003.  Arranged three (3) new teleconferences and arranged five (5) new reservations on the LIGO Calendar.
I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.
>Dorothy Lloyd
Processed the usual invoices for payment. Tracked and followed up on invoice problems. Reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of May 26.
Processed the usual requisitions, change orders and payment requests.
Continue to monitor contract and blanket order encumbrance and notify task managers when supplements are needed.
Jim continues with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.
>From: Ryan Tischler <rtischle@ligo.caltech.edu>
NSF Review -following up on details
Mayfield High School tour
 Advanced LIGO (Frey)
From: Thomas Frey <tfrey@ligo.caltech.edu>
 
Attended PAC meeting all day on Thursday the 5th.

For list of documents that are being used to develop Adv. LIGO Cost and Schedule, see http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/Cost_MTG_082002/

Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority)
Finished updating the top level schedule prepared by Dennis in MS Project.
Continued preparing revised budget sheet data.
Corrected issue with total cost summary report and generated subsystem cost summary reports as requested by David and Dennis.
Prepared a detailed cost sheet that shows only the costs included in the request for Outreach as requested by Phil for Gary and Fred.
The following is a summary of status by sub system:
COC - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.  Garrilyn provided a minor change to a WBS definition.
PSL -  No action items pending.
AOS - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.  Sent templates to David Ottaway.
IO -  Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
SUS - No action items pending.
Attended meeting and answered questions related to SUS interface with LASTI.
SEI - Received revised (Version 3) data from Dennis and data input of WBS and BOE is in progress.  Completed WBS entries and will finish BOE by Monday AM.
SC - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.  Issued WBS and BOE templates to Peter F. to complete input.
LDAS - No action required at this point in time.
INSTALL - Dennis provided a revision and data input is in progress.  Completed WBS entries and will finish BOE by Monday AM.
 DAQ - No action required at this point in time.
PM - No action required at this point in time.
FAC - No action required at this point in time.
SUP - No action required at this point in time.
Continue to update the LASTI Schedule and incorporate any changes.

Continue input of changes and comments from Mike Zucker.

Cost Book Tool.

ROSTER DATABASE:
BK is continuing work on action items.
Input of supervisor, dept., and specialty codes on hold until after review.
COST BOOK DATABASE:
BK is continuing work on action items.
Continued to work on preparing format for hard copy version to be submitted for NSF reviews.
Preparing reports requested by Dennis and David, required adding some reports and I made some changes to the cost database to accommodate other requested reports.
Development of the Advanced LIGO Project Controls Guidebook continues.

Reports (Lindquist)
No report this week.
 
Change Control/Contingency (Lindquist)
A change board was held during the Executive Committee Meeting on Monday, June 2.  Minutes will be prepared and distributed.
 
Human Resources (Akutagawa)
From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>
Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.
 
Quality/Safety (Tyler)
>From: Bill Tyler <tyler@ligo.caltech.edu>
 Nothing significant to report this week.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) and Interferometer Operations (Raab)

Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (Sigg/Landry)

Vent activities

The 2K MC was locked and the pointing of the input train roughly restored. No one had time to look at the 4K MC as of yet. To fix the pointing of the 4K ITMX we are in the process to bring the coarse actuation system for BSC 3 back to live. There are no other optics mounted on this table so we should be able to rotate the table from the outside. The final word on the asymmetry fix and the ITMX replacement will of course have to wait until we have the arm cavities back.
 

2K IFO (H2)

In preparation for the vent, steering of the POY beam was dead reckoned; see here.
 

4K IFO (H1)

More power at the AS port resulted in 10W over 10ms on the photodiode, killing it: don't look here.

H1 arm cavity lengths were measured, yielding Yarm: L= 3995.04437 m +,- 0.08mm, Xarm: L= 3995.08418m +,- 0.08 mm, Arm length difference = 39.81 mm, Yarm shorter.  Details are here.

A new optics train layout on the AS port appeared to improve the noise in the 100Hz region; look here.

Potential beam clipping on the POX port was investigate, see the entry here.
 
 

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) and Interferometer Operations (Zucker)

Dear Colleagues:
 

I will be leaving LIGO later today to begin my new position at the NSF. Before I go, I want to let everyone know how much I have enjoyed working with all of you, and express the special privilege I have felt to be a part of the LIGO team. What we have accomplished together has been spectacular. It has truly been a grand adventure to be part of the effort that has transformed an arid stretch of tumble weeds and a snake infested swamp into gravitational wave antennae with extra-galactic reach. I'm confident that even more remarkable achievements are in store as LIGO continues to progress.
 

I'd especially like to thank Barry Barish and Gary Sanders; for hiring me in the first place more than eight years ago, and for their kind and generous support as this opportunity at the NSF has evolved. And finally, I'd like to express my thanks and appreciation to the resident staff and LSC colleagues at LLO for all they have done: their countless hours of hard work, the camaraderie, and the shared enthusiasm that have made our efforts so worthwhile.
 

I'm extremely pleased that a candidate as able as Mike Zucker will be taking over as the new LLO Observatory Head, and look forward to hearing of your continued successes.
 
 

Mark
 

GHS NOTE:   WE ALL WISH YOU WELL IN YOUR NEW CHALLENGING ROLE. GOOD LUCK MARK!
 

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• Koji Arai is visiting from TAMA, and is helping Mike Smith and Alexei Ourjoumtsev re-assemble and align the vacuum-prepped mode-matching telescope and Faraday isolator. Thanks, Koji!
• Core digital suspension controllers (DSC), LSC, ASC, and other Electronics (B. Abbott, Heefner, Bork, Taylor):
• Dennis and Jay debugged and fixed some problems with a dewhitening board for the DSC.
• Ben and Art are populated the two end racks (ETM DSC's, oplevs, QPD's, etc), and wiring is close to completion, including 40m runs of fibers. Almost all of the hardware is there; Rolf will install the Pentiums, linux box, RM fiber loops, etc, on Monday.
• From Rolf: Primary work this week is to complete end station software for 40m lab. The PC side is complete. The VME is 95% complete, with only the GDS EXC/TP function to add. We will install and start testing the system at the 40m lab on Monday. At this time, we will also remove the present separate DAQ network and move all traffic onto the new high speed network. The DAQ controller, TP manager, and Arbitary Waveform Generator (AWG) code has been modified to accomadate this move. The AWG code has also been ported to move onto a Pentium CPU instead of the MIPS CPU, as used at the sites.
• From Jay: first draft rack and wiring diagrams for the ASC and LSC are complete and under review. These include a new board for interfacing the beam line QPDs to an ICS110B for beamline servoing. Hope to get started on these racks in the next couple of weeks.
• Lisa is making progress on adopting the Hanford video switch control state code, EPICS database, and PICS screens, for the 40m. Steve ordered monitors for the control room, they are expected in the next week.
• We have been unable to use dtt to take transfer functions, because the computer clock was not synch'ed to GPS to less han 1 second. Lisa Bogue, Dennis and Rolf debugged the problem and determined that the Sun's clocks drift by 0.7 secs every 10 minutes! Lisa set up a cron job to resynch with ntp (network time) every 10 minutes.
• Dennis has reorganized and rationalized the /cvs/cds/caltech file directory, putting medm screens in sensible places, etc.
• Suspended mass mode cleaner (Ugolini, Miyakawa, Vass, Abbott):
• The mode cleaner has been locking reliably and robustly, despite intensive work on the MCR beamline.
• We still have to optimize the gains, cross-over frequency, and other parameters, to minimize the frequency noise. This can wait till Osamu returns next Tuesday.
• Conor noticed that the RFAM photodiode in the MC transmitted path wasn't working, and will look into it.
• Mode Cleaner WFS system (Ourjoumtsev, Abbott, Eichenfield):
• Alexei and Ben have made much progress debugging the WFS sensing electronics and PZT mirror actuation path. They've actuated on the PZT mirrors, and observed hysteresis.
• Alexei has tuned all the WFS phases and offsets, for WFS1, and will do WFS2 next.
• Now that we can use dtt, Alexei will begin taking transfer functions for the open loop of the alignment servo.
• Matt is learning about the system to develop a simulink model of the servo, includin actuation on both the PZT mirrors and the suspended optics.
• Suspended optics:
• Steve and Lisa re-hung the SRM optic after baking, damped it, and prepared it for installation. All core optics are now either installed or ready for installation, on the bench with their EQ stops engaged.
• When we install in the next month, we'll probably put the PRM and SRM off to a side, to begin commissioning a "simple" Fabry-Perot Michelson.
• PSL and ISS (O. Miyakawa, B. Abbott, R. Abbott, F. Nocera, D. Ugolini, S. Vass, C. Mow-Lowry):
• Conor & Stan realized that the PSL beam was going through the 3 pockels cells with the wrong polarizations. Conor inserted half-wave plates to correct it.
• Conor has completed a detailed layout of the PSL which reduces the number of turning mirrors and picks of the FSS beam after the PMC. He has passed it on to Mike for updating the detailed AutoCAD layout.
• He and SURF Matt Eichenfield finished calculating all the mode matching lenses that are required for the new layout (mode matching into the PMC, the FRC, the suspended mode cleaner, and through the AOM and the EOMs). They used Alexei's snazzy beam optics GUI, as well as mode matching code by Matt.
• Alexei continues to develop his beam optics GUI.
• Plan to perform this re-layout while we install all our in-vac components, sometime in the next few weeks.
• Optical sensing (Smith, Ourjoumtsev, Goggin, Miyakawa, Arai):
• OPTICS PARTS LIST, Orders pending: 1 q-switch E/O shutter from Fast Pulse. It had fallen off their list; Mike put it back on.
• FARADAY ISOLATOR: Final assembly and alignment is expected the week of 6/9.
• OPTICAL LEVER ASSY: Assembly on hold.
• IFO STEERING MIRRORS: Parts are cleaned and baked. Final assembly and is expected the week of 6/9.
• MODE MATCHING TELESCOPE: Telescope is assembled. Final alignment is expected by 6/6.
• SPS BREWSTER PRISM MIRROR: Parts are cleaned and baked. Assembly is expected the week of 6/9.
• SURF Naman Bhatt will implement the optical levers and their use in local alignment sensing and control.
• Electro-optic shutters (Smith, Ourjoumtsev):
• Alexei installed one EOS on MCR, and it is operating under manual control; work to get EPICS control is progressing.
• He has set the "open" and "closed" HV on the EOS so that the light on the WFS's never gets too big during loss and re-aquisition of lock, and so that there's sufficient light on the LSC PD to re-acquire lock and not lose it when the EOS opens up. He's working out how to change the settings if the light power into the IFO changes.
• however, the EOS leads have gotten damaged, and it may be serious. Under investigation.
• Electricians will get AC power to the small racks that hold EOS electronics, from rack 1X1, next week.
• Facilities and vacuum envelope (Ugolini, Vass, Jones):
• The STACIS active pre-isolation system has one or more problems (faulted electronics?) that needs attention...
• Power has been installed for a portable A/C unit for the control room.
• South Annex Bake Ovens (Taylor):
• Bob completed the vacuum-prepping of the parts for the Mode Matching Telescope, Faraday isolator, PZT steering mirrors, etc. Bob is preparing all the traveller paperwork.
• Bob completed the bake of the SRM optic and gave it to Steve to be re-hung.
• The ultrasonic cleaning bath crapped out. Bob repaired it, cleaned it out, and it is ready for use again.
• Bob tuned up the Dycor RGA's, they now have very good AMU resolution.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

no report

LASTI (Zucker)

MEPI (Myron, Ken, Rich, Dave, Bill)
 

We ran a sensor correction measurement cycle over the weekend and got a
full set of data on all three directions (X,Y,Z). This was done by
locking up 7 modal loops, varying the sensor correction coefficient and
recording the ground and witness seismometers. The transfer functions
were then calculated and the effects of varying the sensor correction
could then be evaluated. Some of the data from this run can be seen on
the ilog for Tuesday June 3. Their resolution (in terms of sensor
correction coefficient) is limited due to the low loop gain at low
frequencies. Plots of the loop gain are also in the June 3rd ilog entry.
We reworked the control laws to get more low frequency gain and reran
the measurement; some of these data have been entered into the ilog, on
June 5.
 

HEPI (Myron, Ken, Rich, Dave, Bill)
 

After installing the new pump and motor we remeasured the hydraulic
pressure spectrum. This spectrum along with a spectrum for the old pump
can be found on the June 3rd ilog.
 

LLO EPI Installation (Ken Mason)
Bid packages have been delivered to 5 suppliers for all fabrication and machined parts (excluding actuator) for the EPI systems to be installed at Livingston. Three bidders have already completed quotes.
 
 

ISC TELESCOPE IMPROVEMENT (Ken Mason)
An ISC telescope has been designed with a very high stiffness, the first mode being at 415 Hz. Also included are provisions for acoustic isolation. Fabrication drawings are now being created for building a prototype.
 
 

Thermal Compensation Advanced LIGO (Dave)
 

Spent time preparing for NSF Review.
 

Thermal Compensation Initial LIGO (Dave, Dan Mason)
 

Dan Mason is coming up to speed on the CO2 laser that will be used as the actuator.
 

LASTI Optics
 

Waseem Bakr (UROP student) has started a trade study to determine whether it is feasible to increase the g factor of the LASTI cavities given the expected excellent seismic isolation that LASTI will have.
 
 

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

SIMULATIONS AND MODELING (BHAWAL)
 

_______________
 

E2E MODELLING:
_______________
 

e2e weekly Physics meeting
---------------------------
Luca, Matt, Malik, Virginio, Hiro, Biplab discussed the new optical model
code and WFS issues in hardware and e2e-model.
 

e2e in Japan
-------------
Dr. Hayakawa of the Institute of Cosmic Ray Research, working with
Prof.Kuroda and Prof.Ohashi, raised a question regarding the use of e2e and
presentation of the work using e2e. Barry and Gary endorsed that e2e is a
freeware copyrighted by LIGO/Caltech and that people/groups with a proper
MOU/attachment exchanged with LIGO can present and publish their works
so long as they quote e2e/LIGO/Caltech properly.
 

New Optical Model
------------------
(Matt & Hiro) Matt revisited the new optical model code, adding and updating
 comments and writing a new test program. This has new implementation of the
 modal model for the next generation of the optics/field simulation in e2e.
 This object oriented implementation makes it easier to model complicated
 objects (mirror with wedge and thickness). Hiro received the package and
 started playing with it.
 

FFT modeling
------------
 Hiro started (again) to prepare the mirror phasemap for the FFT
 simulation to study the as-built LIGO performance using the measured
 phasemap. This work will be used later for the calculation of the mode
 decomposition matrix to be used in e2e so that mirror aberration effect
 can be included in the time domain simulation.
 

WFS signals in presence of mode mismatch
-----------------------------------------
(Biplab) Started calculation of dynamical misalignments in presence of
 mode-mismatch using as-built parameters in order to see how the signals
 may change in a not-so-hot IFO.
 

Code development and maintenance
---------------------------------
(Ed Maros) Work was completed on the  CVS repository for the e2e. The
  JAlfi directory has been removed and a new directory called alfi
  now appears at the same level as e2e. This allows the simulator
  and the alfi editor to have different release cycles.
 

(Melody) Figuring out the reasons for the differences in the results
  generated by the different versions of gcc in different platforms
  (Linux and Sun) using different optimization levels.
 

Alfi
-----
(Bruce)
 - Fixed copy/paste problem regarding adding of some ports (PR 404).
 - Completed new port reposition interface for internal and external
   movement of ports on nodes (PR 380).
 - Working on Copy/Paste problems with Macro and settings not being
   copied into the new nodes properly (PRs 394 and 413).
 
 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

LIGO DATA ANALYSIS SYSTEM
 

SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (BLACKBURN)
----------------------------
 

The 0.7.0 Release of LDAS went out this week. It was installed onto the
Caltech systems on Wedesday and being installed at LLO, LHO, and MIT as
of today (Thursday). This release includes an enhanced "createRDS" command
to support merging LLO and LHO channels into a single RDS frame. It also
fixes the issues seen during the science run. Most of the effort over the
past week has gone into testing and packaging up this release. It requires
a new LDCG and that LAL and LALwrapper be compiled with GCC 3.2.3 under
Redhat Linux 7.3. However, the wrapperAPI's binarys will run successfully
under Redhat 9.
 

We grabbed the S2 locked segments from LHO and LLO and inserted them
into the database at CIT. A Burst script is now running on CIT,
"walking" along the S2 RDS frames.  It is running three burst jobs
analyzing H1:LSC-AS_Q.  There was a small problem with one of the
ligotools (lwtprint) which the script uses.  The attributes in the XML
entities are in a different order which confused the ligotool.  Philip
fixed it temporarily for me so that The Burst script works again. Results
of these pipelines are going into the TEST database on LDAS-CIT.
 

Modified waveburst table in database, and added new table "sngl_block"
to support the BlockNormal search code being developed at Penn State.
Modified guild to work with the new table.
 

Traced the problem with using NDAS frames in stochastic searches to an
issue in the generation of the NDAS frames. The DMT tool used to create
these frames was occasionally dropping out data. It was reported that
about one NDAS frame per day per IFO had this problem. These problematic
NDAS frames are being regenerated by the DMT group.
 

In order to trace the problem with the NDAS frames, the frame file utility
programs such as frverify and frdump6 had to be enhanced to isolate the
problem and make sure it wasn't a bug in LDAS. These now provide much more
diagnostic information than previous version.
 

Work continued on the porting of LDAS to the new GCC 3.3 compiler. The
Sun port continues to be a problem. We have developed simple test programs
that clearly show the problem on the sun but the same test programs run
without fault under Redhat Linux 9. We have found GCC patches that we
will be testing out this week. Unfortunately, every rebuild of the GCC
compiler on our current Solaris test platform takes 7 hours. We hope to
have faster boxes next week to increase the turnaround time as we look
for a solution to the issues of this compiler under Solaris.
 
 

HARDWARE SYSTEMS (ANDERSON)
---------------------------
 

Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
 

* Got bad 9940 drive (wouldn't mount tapes) replaced.
 

* Provided some assistance to LHO vis a vis their bad T3 (t3-4).
 

* Staged NDAS data to support Szabolcs Marka's effort to find the bad frames.
 

* Began re-archiving data (specifically NDAS frames) to 9940B drives.
  9940A drives are now switched off.  Am trying to figure out why the first
  few tapes were written with small block sizes (16k).  Subsequent tapes
  are being written with the correct blocksize (256k).
 

* Leaned on StorageTek to clean up the mess in Powell-Booth left over from
  the silo upgrade.  Finally successful (today).  Am also leaning on STK
  to get correct power supplies for our two new 9940B drives.
 
 

(Al Wilson)
 

* Setting up systemimager for cloning of nodes at CIT, LHO, LLO.
 

* Setting up nodes 41-56 on the LDAS-CIT system.
 

* Preparing the old nodes 1-16 from LDAS-CIT for use in LDAS-DEV.
 
 

(Stuart Anderson)
 

* Worked with Albert and Al to install the first full rack (40 units)
  of the new LDAS-CIT Beowulf nodes. Two units developed problems
  during the weekend burn test. The failures where combined into
  one node and sent back to ASA (power supply and memory). The remaining
  39 nodes have passed the memory stress test.
 

* Installed new 224-port copper GigE switch which has been successfully
  used by Al to start cloning the new Beowulf nodes for LDAS-CIT.
 

* Started installing new Sun 280R server to replace ldas-sw.
 

* Identified incorrect disk drive size in recent Sun order and initiated
  remedial action with Sun.
 

* Received notification from Shipping and Receiving that 14 pallets of
  computers from ASA have arrived at Caltech.
 

* Decomissioned a rack full of old 4GB drives that would not die but
  where taking up too much space in Millikan.
 

* Transferred one dual- and one quad-processor Intel machine to General
  Computing at Caltech to make room for newer LDAS servers.
 
 

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
 

* Configured Gigabit card in pcraid2 (using reiserfs).
 

* Moved S1 data to make room for S2 rds triple coincidence data.
 

* Running burn-test with RH7.3 of new 3GHz datacon/beowulf boxes.
 

* Electrical work on ldas lab scheduled to begin June 5/6.
 
 

Livingston
----------
(Igor Yakushin)
 

* Set up a test replication configuration from LHO's LHO_TEST database
  and LLO:'s H_TEST_R. At first it worked fine but later H_TEST_R
  completely lost replicated data. My guess, is that some kind of overflow
  happened (not enough primary logs, insufficient buffer pool or something
  like that). I increased the number and size of primary logs, turned on
  logging both for capture and apply programs and restarted replication.
 

* Experimenting with multipage_alloc configuration parameter of a
  database. According to the documentation, turning it on should speed up
  the insertion rate.
 

* Got all the remaining hardware from SUN.
 

* Upgraded kernel on both IDE RAID boxes.
 

* Restored /frame21 after multiple disk failure.
 

* Since it turned out that currently LDAS cannot work with NDAS frames,
  I generated AS_Q only RDS frames both at LHO and LLO to exchange them
  between sites.
 

* Wrote a perl script to set up creator_db differently for different sites.
 

* Backed up the databases at MIT before LDAS upgrade.
 
 

Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)
 

* Assisting Ben Johnson with installations of the new LDAS beowulf
  cluster, new L700 tape library system, new switches, and recabling the
  room to work with the new switches.
 

* Assisting Ben Johnson with T3 problems: t3-4 has a firmware/hardware
  problem.  Ben has been working with Sun to fix the problem.
 

* Assisting Igor Yakushin with creating and writing to tape H1H2 AS_Q
  only S2 RDS frames to be sent from LHO to LLO.  The reverse will be done
  for L1 AS_Q.
 

(Ben Johnson)
 

* Continuing work with Sun about t3-4. I have updated the firmware
  level on u1d4 of t3-4 to revision 1204. Problems still persist...
 

* Configured StorEdge 3510 FC RAID with 11 disks as one RAID 5, with
  one hot spare disk.
 

* LDAS room temperature monitor is sending data into the CDS network
  for testing. It has not been fully put into the EPICS, i.e. the
  operators won't know if the room gets too hot yet.
 

* New beowulf and datacon boxes have passed memtest86.
 
 

DATA ANALYSIS ACTIVITIES (LAZZARINI)
------------------------------------
 

Greg Mendell:
 

1) Assisted the PULG group on the final draft of its S1 paper.
 

2) Continuing to work on a proposal with Mike Landry for the PULG group
to start writing a stackslide DSO to run under LDAS, in preparation for
the PULG face-to-face meeting June 16-17.
 

3) Continuing to prepare my SURF student project, which is to study
various methods of parameter estimation for continuous wave sources.
 

4) Found memory leaks in LALIndependentTestDetResponse.c, the
independent test of the beam pattern response functions that Malik
Rakhmanov and I are working on.  The problem does not seem to invalidate
the simple test the code currently does, but these need to be fixed
before we can expand the tests.
 

Philip Charlton:
 

The only thing I have to report this week is that I looked into Isaac
Salzman's observation that running LDAS pipelines with NDAS frames
produced slightly different results from the same pipelines using
RDS or raw data. The differences were very small (order 10^-6).
 

I found that the raw NDAS and RDS/raw data were identical, however the
downsampled data had a few tiny differences (order 10^-7 to 10^-6).
Downsampling of data is done on frame-sized chunks. Although the
algorithm is designed so that (as much as possible) downsampling a long
data set in chunks should give the same result as downsampling the entire
data set in one operation, there are necessarily some differences,
due to the slightly different ways that data must be processed when
downsampling in chunks vs a continuous data stream.
 

For this reason, I believe the observed differences are due to the fact
that the NDAS frame files are downsampled in 1-second chunks while the
the RDS and raw frames are downsampled in 16-second chunks.
 

Peter Shawhan:
 

1) Worked on S1 inspiral paper
 

2) Organized face-to-face meeting of the inspiral group, to be held
at Caltech on June 20-22.  Primary goal is to get analysis of the
S2 data going.
 

Kaice Reilly:
 

I prepared the stochastic scripts to produced the necessary intermediate
data products. I didn't run them yet becuase of disk space logistics. Worked
with Stuart and the group to setup a work area at Caltech for the stochastic
group and to move the stochastic cvs to Caltech (ldas-sw).  Most of my other
time has been dedicated to preparing for PAC 14.  Computer problems
and getting locked out of the building have made this interesting.
 

Teviet Creighton:
 

Prepared a talk on the S1 pulsar analysis for the PAC.
 
 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL COMPUTING (WALLACE)
 

MIT:
(Keith)
-Rebuilt Ultra 1 workstation guinevere with new harddrive
-Investigating tryplesync software package to sync with
 calcium calendar service
-General support for summer students
 

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-Added three hard drives to the GC File server.  Spent most of Tuesday
working with Sun tech support on an issue with the Solaris Management
Center.  This software has been causing problems on both NIS+ tables and
Logical Volume Management.  Installed the recommended patch cluster to
the file server on Monday.  Sun had me roll back one of the patches as a
result of the call support call.  The issues are still unresolved.
-Pricing various options for a new backup system.  I am considering a
RAID similar to what LDAS has for backups.  This would be periodically
backed up to tape.  We have significantly outgrown our tape library for
backups.  I am also considering different software options that would
allow me to use the RAID instead of the library for daily/weekly backups.
-Set up a new computer for Allen.  His old computer will be wiped and
given to one of the summer students.
-Working with ASA on a computer that has been having problems.  This is
the second time the computer has been back for service.
-Still working with Bonnie to restore most of her software.  It had been
upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 a while back and it just
finally died.  She lost some e-mail when it did die, however most of her
files are intact.
-Setting up computers for the SURF students and teachers today and
tomorrow.
-Worked on a couple configuration issues on some of the Sun servers.
Turning of various services and ssh configurations, etc.
-Planning on how to upgrade the web server/ilog files, since the order
has gone through for the hardware.  I am beginning to think that perhaps
the ilog server should be a separate server.  Also, the database
functions on the web server should be moved to a separate machine.  The
web server upgrade will probably take several days to a week to do
everything I believe should be done.
 
 

Hanford:
(Christine)
- Writing the PR to buy the GigE network equipment.
- Started setting up the new Cisco router.
- Various user support.
 

CIT:
(Lisa)
- An incredibly large pile of spam blocks
- Did monthly's and root dumps of all servers
- Did a couple of small scripts for users
- Went to a Sun seminar on core dump analysis
- Worked on an ntp sync problem for the 40meter
 

(Mike)
-Worked on loading two PC's for up coming surf students.
-Worked on loading a laptop for the loaner pool.
-The Scanner up on the 3rd floor went out. After troubleshooting it I ended
up replacing this with a backup scanner we had in storage.
-Finished up loading Pro/Engineer for Calum. This installation took many
hours due to loading this software on win 2000.
-Ran end of the month ghost backups on all NTSRV's.
-Called in a laptop to Dell tech support.
-Backed up Lori Robison's computer by getting a ghost image of her
workstation. Then I set this computer up for a visitor that is going to
work from this computer.
-Loading a laptop with an OS for testing for a Dell technician to test with
after he replaces parts.
-Larry and I setup SCR for the PAC meeting that included setting up
additional network connections and rearranging furniture to allow adequate
seating.
-Worked on Ken Mailand's computer due to some OS problems and installed
zone alarm.
 

(Veronica)
- LIGO website: worked with George Stokes on troubleshooting of the DCC
databases. Helped him understand the d/b architecture and the workflow.
Provided support files and information. Working with him on possible
immediate and long-term solutions.
Worked with Larry on DVD burning issues. Contacting Caltech Digital Media
Ctr for help in converting a set of files to a format suitable for our
software, in response to Phil's request for a backup copy of a DVD.
Posted several updates to various parts of the LIGO website.
- CaJAGWR website: user support. Updated the website in several places.
Vote count for the Executive Committee elections.
- Project Science: user support.
- LSC website: posted a stray talk from the last LSC meeting.
 

(Larry)
-Went through a number of purchases. Most were minor items for various people
and LDAS. Started going through where things are at financially this year on the
GC budget.
Discussing the pros & cons people have had with the IDE raid systems. We need
more disc space and just checking on the best way to get it now that we have a
few more options.
-Worked with a number of users going over their setups, adding and modifying
their accounts. We've spent a great deal of time going over logistical issues to
get a computer up and going for all of the summer visitors and SURF students.
With the surplus units coming in from LDAS we should have enough equipment for
everyone.
-In between all of the distractions for user needs and going over different
issues for the PAC and NSF meetings, I have been able to start working on the
Livingston GC audit report. So far it appears that most of the problem items
were already identified and being worked on.
-Worked on the server room. It looks like the air-conditioning will not handle
any more equipment, I plan on talking to the PMA group to see what some of our
options may be.
 
 

Advanced LIGO Development (Shoemaker)

For additional information about this report, contact sanders@ligo.caltech.edu