Cumulus Support

Hi Ritchie,

Thanks for the reply, which version has steve made changes to.

I have installed a Windows Home Server Add-in called Whiist which allows simple creation of websites and I have set this up how do I get Cumulus to put the relevant files in the \\Server\WebSites\Weather Directory?

I have already copied over the files/folders mentioned in the help. But when I go to the website nothing loads.

More help required I'm afraid!

Regards,

There's no option in Cumulus to put the files in a particular place. You either have to run it in the web server space, or use ftp.

Steve

The latest 1.8.5 will have the change specifically for user processed templates. All other web files will be found in c:\program files\cumulus\web anyway, so indexT.htm will be there as index.htm etc etc
The user processed files will be found in their source folder, so if you have c:\cumulus\webtemplates that is where they will be. But the filename will have tmp added to the extension. ie myfile.htm will be myfile.htmtmp

You will have to create a routine to copy and rename the files locally, a batch file and windows scheduler will do the trick.
When you describe \\server\websites\weather from what perspective is this ?
You may need to alter the paths, particularly when dealing with web server based configs, as that may not actually be the true root path to the files.
Did your software come with any examples ie was there a sample index.htm, and where is it located ???
Try pinging your machine on port 80 to make sure that is open, you may be on another port, 8080 is quite common in these cases.

Other than that, let me have the URI of the site you got the utility from and if I get time I will have a look at how it is configured (no promises there)
At least you now have some where to look.

Yes - of course - in my reply I was forgetting that you can put your user-specified files where you want, and Cumulus will process them there.

Sorry for adding to the confusion.

Steve

Thanks Ritchie for the reply, haven't got time to investigate now but will look tomorrow.

The link for the add-in is:

http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php? ... howfile=63

I already have set-up another test site with this and it works ok.

Regards,

Right; we have progress!

I have copied all the files from the Cumulus\Web folder to \\Server\WebSites\Weather and this has the desired result i.e. I can see everything from any PC on my LAN.

Now what I need to know is:
Is there a way to have Cumulus automatically update the data at a set interval to a local directory? e.g. c:\WebSites\Weather If there is not please may we have an option in the future?

In the meantime can someone tell me how to copy the data regularly at set intervals.

I am assuming that copying the data from this location is the correct place?

Thank for everyone's help so far.

Regards,

GTB wrote:if you go to the cumulus "service" and click on the "logon" tab, there is a tickbox to allow it to interact with the desktop

works for me

I tried that but, although it seems to run OK as a service, I could only access the UI if I logged in locally. I couldn't find a way of accessing it from a Remote Desktop session. Also, having logged in locally, I couldn't then log out without shutting down Cumulus.

SteveR.

You *can* connect to the 'console' session of the server using Remote Desktop.

Depending upon exactly which version of the Remote Desktop software you have running on your 'workstation' you can use either:

mstsc /v:server /admin

or

mstsc /v:server /console

(Microsoft DO like to change things just for fun)

Once you have the console session you should be able to run the Cumulus 'service' interactively without having to be physically there.

Mark

MarkB wrote:You *can* connect to the 'console' session of the server using Remote Desktop

Interesting, I didn't know that - I'll investigate. It would still leave the issue of not being able to log off without Cumulus closing, but I can probably live with that.

Thanks very much.

Steve.

You can run a script tp copy the .tmp files as .html files on a scheduled


or

...and this is from Luca at http://forum.wegotserved.com .....

You have the option to use the FTP server already included on your WHS and managed by IIS.

HERE IS HOW: logon to your whs

enable IIS FTP Server (disabled by default installation)

1. From the Start menu, click Control Panel, double-click Add or Remove Programs, and then click Add/Remove Windows Components.

2. From the Components list, click Application Server, and then click Details.

3. From the Subcomponents of Application Server list, click Internet Information Services (IIS), and then click Details.

4. From the Subcomponents of Internet Information Services (IIS) list, select the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service check box, and then click OK.

5. Click Next. You might be prompted for the Windows Server 2003 product CD (insert your WHS setup disk, follow instructions on screen to select the required files - under \SRV_2003\i386 )

6. Click Finish.

Now your ftp server is already up and running.
You can test this by opening a cmd prompt and firing an ftp connection to the host itself :

ftp 127.0.0.1 <enter>
( use your Administrator account as ftp-user to test or use any of the user accounts you created in whs console, they are all authorized by default)

note : the command to quit a ftp session is "quit" or "bye"



To change settings for the default FTP site

1. In IIS Manager, expand the local computer, expand the FTP Sites folder, right-click Default FTP site, and click Properties.

2. Change the default settings on the property pages to replace any inherited settings as needed. For information about individual settings, click Help.


note : the default web site binds all addresses, accepts anonymous users and stores file to "c:\inetpub\ftproot".

If you use this ftp server only for your local application, you could bind only 127.0.0.1 and uncheck "allow anonymous connections".

GW

Regarding running Cumulus as a service...

I took a look at my setup this morning and discovered that the last time I was experimenting with the service setup I had accidentally left both the service instance running and and interactive instance in an RDP session. I had intended to make sure that I didn't do that as I expected multiple instances to conflict. However, I can't see any evidence of its having caused any problems: the logs are being updated when either the service instance or the interactive instance is running, it doesn't seem to be generating double entries in the logs when both are running, and I haven't noticed any error messages indicating conflicts with accessing the weather station (USB connection to Fine Offset station).

I don't know whether I was just lucky or if Cumulus contains code to handle multiple instances. If the latter then perhaps it's OK to run it as a service (to keep the show running all the time) and also in an RDP session as and when required to get at the UI. I'm a bit uneasy to just assume there will be no conflicts though...

SteveR.

There's nothing in Cumulus to handle multiple instances - I'm surprised it doesn't cause problems. You'd expect the station to get confused with two applications talking to it at the same time; I know that running Easyweather and Cumulus at the same time causes problems.

Steve

On further experimenting, it seems somewhat variable. Sometimes the second instance shows credible figures (except that it can raise the warning "Ignoring dubious relative pressure reading, using offset of zero"). Other times it shows zeroes (except in the fields that I expect come from the logs rather than the station).

Perhaps it just depends on whether the station is busy talking to the first instance when the second tries to establish a connection or something.

SteveR.

Blackmyre wrote:Perhaps it just depends on whether the station is busy talking to the first instance when the second tries to establish a connection or something.

Yes - if you could synchronise them so that they weren't reading at the same time, you'd probably be OK.

Steve

steve wrote:Yes - if you could synchronise them so that they weren't reading at the same time, you'd probably be OK.

Except for the "using offset of zero". Not a problem anyway - it seems to work quite well when run as a service and accessed via RDP to the console session. This is all stuff that's outside its intended mode of operation anyway, we're fortunate that it works this way at all.

SteveR.