ICALEPCS2023 - List of Authors (Schwartz, R.L.)

Paper	Title	Page
TUPDP069	AVN Radio Telescope Conversion Software Systems	661
	R.L. Schwartz, R.E. Ebrahim, P.J. Pretorius SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa
	The African VLBI Network (AVN) is a proposed network of Radio Telescopes involving 8 partner countries across the African continent. The AVN project aims to convert redundant satellite data communications ground stations, where viable, to Radio Telescopes. One of the main objectives of AVN is human capital development in Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) with regards to radio astronomy in SKA (Square Kilometer Array) African Partner countries. This paper will outline the software systems used for control and monitoring of a single radio telescope. The control and monitoring software consists of the User Interface, Antenna Control System, Receiver Control System and monitoring of all proprietary and off-the-shelf (OTS) components. All proprietary and OTS interfaces are converted to the open protocol (KATCP).
	Poster TUPDP069 [10.698 MB]
DOI •	reference for this paper ※ doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP069
About •	Received ※ 20 September 2023 — Revised ※ 09 October 2023 — Accepted ※ 13 October 2023 — Issued ※ 28 October 2023
Cite •	reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUPDP070	Open Time Proposal Submission System for the MeerKAT Radio Telescope	666
	R.L. Schwartz, T.B. Baloyi, S.S. Sithole SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa
	Through periodic Call for Proposals, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), allocates time on the MeerKAT Radio Telescope to the international community for the purpose of maximizing the scientific impact of the telescope, while contributing to South African scientific leadership and human capital development. Proposals are submitted through the proposal submission system, followed by a stringent review process where they are graded based on certain criteria. Time on the telescope is then allocated based on the grade and rank achieved. This paper outlines the details of the Open Time proposal submission and review process, and the design and implementation of the software used to grade the proposals and allocate the time on the MeerKAT Radio Telescope.
	Poster TUPDP070 [0.490 MB]
DOI •	reference for this paper ※ doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP070
About •	Received ※ 27 September 2023 — Accepted ※ 13 October 2023 — Issued ※ 19 October 2023
Cite •	reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUPDP072	Overview of Observation Preparation and Scheduling on the MeerKAT Radio Telescope	669
	L.P. Williams, R.L. Schwartz SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa
	Funding: National Research Foundation (South Africa) The MeerKAT radio telescope performs a wide variety of scientific observations. Observation durations range from a few minutes, to many hours, and may form part of observing campaigns that span many weeks. Static observation requirements, such as resources or array configuration, may be determined and verified months in advance. Other requirements however, such as atmospheric conditions, can only be verified hours before the planned observation event. This wide variety of configuration, scheduling and control parameters are managed with features provided by the MeerKAT software. The short term scheduling functionality has expanded from simple queues to support for automatic scheduling (queuing). To support long term schedule planning, the MeerKAT telescope includes an Observation Panning Tool which provides configuration checking as well as dry-run environments that can interact with the production system. Observations are atomized to support simpler specification, facilitating machine learning projects and more flexibility in scheduling around engineering and maintenance events. This paper will provide an overview of observation specification, configuration, and scheduling on the MeerKAT telescope. The support for integration with engineering subsystems is also described. Engineering subsystems include User Supplied Equipment which are hardware and computing resources integrated to expand the MeerKAT telescope’s capabilities.
	Poster TUPDP072 [1.546 MB]
DOI •	reference for this paper ※ doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP072
About •	Received ※ 05 October 2023 — Revised ※ 09 November 2023 — Accepted ※ 20 December 2023 — Issued ※ 21 December 2023
Cite •	reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

THPDP047	ELK Stack Deployment with Ansible	1411
	T. Gatsi, X.P. Baloyi, J.L. Lekganyane, R.L. Schwartz SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa
	The 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, constructed in South Africa, became the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere until integrated with the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). Our Control and Monitoring system for Radio Astronomy Project such as MeerKAT produces a lot of data and logs that require proper handling. Viewing and analysis to trace and track system issues and as well as investigate technical software issues require one to go back in time to look for event occurrence. We therefore deployed an ELK software stack ( Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash) using Ansible in order to have the capability to aggregate system process logs. We deploy the stack as a cluster comprising lxc containers running inside a Proxmox Virtual Environment using Ansible as a software deployment tool. Each container in the cluster performs cluster duties such as deciding where to place index shards and when to move them. Each container is a data node that makes up the heart of the cluster. We deploy the stack as a cluster for load balancing purposes. Logstash ingests ,transforms and sends the data to the Kibana Graphical User Interface for visualization. Elasticsearch indexes, analyzes, and searches the ingested data into Kibana and our Operations Team and other system users can visualize and analyze these logs on the Kibana GUI frontend.
	Poster THPDP047 [0.503 MB]
DOI •	reference for this paper ※ doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-THPDP047
About •	Received ※ 03 October 2023 — Revised ※ 12 October 2023 — Accepted ※ 13 December 2023 — Issued ※ 19 December 2023
Cite •	reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

Paper

Title

Page

AVN Radio Telescope Conversion Software Systems

661

R.L. Schwartz, R.E. Ebrahim, P.J. Pretorius
SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa

The African VLBI Network (AVN) is a proposed network of Radio Telescopes involving 8 partner countries across the African continent. The AVN project aims to convert redundant satellite data communications ground stations, where viable, to Radio Telescopes. One of the main objectives of AVN is human capital development in Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) with regards to radio astronomy in SKA (Square Kilometer Array) African Partner countries. This paper will outline the software systems used for control and monitoring of a single radio telescope. The control and monitoring software consists of the User Interface, Antenna Control System, Receiver Control System and monitoring of all proprietary and off-the-shelf (OTS) components. All proprietary and OTS interfaces are converted to the open protocol (KATCP).

Poster TUPDP069 [10.698 MB]

DOI •

reference for this paper ※ doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP069

About •

Received ※ 20 September 2023 — Revised ※ 09 October 2023 — Accepted ※ 13 October 2023 — Issued ※ 28 October 2023

Cite •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUPDP070

Open Time Proposal Submission System for the MeerKAT Radio Telescope

666

R.L. Schwartz, T.B. Baloyi, S.S. Sithole
SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa

Through periodic Call for Proposals, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), allocates time on the MeerKAT Radio Telescope to the international community for the purpose of maximizing the scientific impact of the telescope, while contributing to South African scientific leadership and human capital development. Proposals are submitted through the proposal submission system, followed by a stringent review process where they are graded based on certain criteria. Time on the telescope is then allocated based on the grade and rank achieved. This paper outlines the details of the Open Time proposal submission and review process, and the design and implementation of the software used to grade the proposals and allocate the time on the MeerKAT Radio Telescope.

Poster TUPDP070 [0.490 MB]

DOI •

reference for this paper ※ doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP070

About •

Received ※ 27 September 2023 — Accepted ※ 13 October 2023 — Issued ※ 19 October 2023

Cite •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUPDP072

Overview of Observation Preparation and Scheduling on the MeerKAT Radio Telescope

669

L.P. Williams, R.L. Schwartz
SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa

Funding: National Research Foundation (South Africa)
The MeerKAT radio telescope performs a wide variety of scientific observations. Observation durations range from a few minutes, to many hours, and may form part of observing campaigns that span many weeks. Static observation requirements, such as resources or array configuration, may be determined and verified months in advance. Other requirements however, such as atmospheric conditions, can only be verified hours before the planned observation event. This wide variety of configuration, scheduling and control parameters are managed with features provided by the MeerKAT software. The short term scheduling functionality has expanded from simple queues to support for automatic scheduling (queuing). To support long term schedule planning, the MeerKAT telescope includes an Observation Panning Tool which provides configuration checking as well as dry-run environments that can interact with the production system. Observations are atomized to support simpler specification, facilitating machine learning projects and more flexibility in scheduling around engineering and maintenance events. This paper will provide an overview of observation specification, configuration, and scheduling on the MeerKAT telescope. The support for integration with engineering subsystems is also described. Engineering subsystems include User Supplied Equipment which are hardware and computing resources integrated to expand the MeerKAT telescope’s capabilities.

Poster TUPDP072 [1.546 MB]

DOI •

reference for this paper ※ doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP072

About •

Received ※ 05 October 2023 — Revised ※ 09 November 2023 — Accepted ※ 20 December 2023 — Issued ※ 21 December 2023

Cite •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

THPDP047

ELK Stack Deployment with Ansible

1411

T. Gatsi, X.P. Baloyi, J.L. Lekganyane, R.L. Schwartz
SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa

The 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, constructed in South Africa, became the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere until integrated with the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). Our Control and Monitoring system for Radio Astronomy Project such as MeerKAT produces a lot of data and logs that require proper handling. Viewing and analysis to trace and track system issues and as well as investigate technical software issues require one to go back in time to look for event occurrence. We therefore deployed an ELK software stack ( Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash) using Ansible in order to have the capability to aggregate system process logs. We deploy the stack as a cluster comprising lxc containers running inside a Proxmox Virtual Environment using Ansible as a software deployment tool. Each container in the cluster performs cluster duties such as deciding where to place index shards and when to move them. Each container is a data node that makes up the heart of the cluster. We deploy the stack as a cluster for load balancing purposes. Logstash ingests ,transforms and sends the data to the Kibana Graphical User Interface for visualization. Elasticsearch indexes, analyzes, and searches the ingested data into Kibana and our Operations Team and other system users can visualize and analyze these logs on the Kibana GUI frontend.

Poster THPDP047 [0.503 MB]

DOI •

reference for this paper ※ doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-THPDP047

About •

Received ※ 03 October 2023 — Revised ※ 12 October 2023 — Accepted ※ 13 December 2023 — Issued ※ 19 December 2023

Cite •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)