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firewall and Leginon and other problems

Added by Anonymous almost 20 years ago

We've run into a couple of problems with setting up

Leginon in Leeds. I've confirmed that the security

arrangements for the Tecnai PC will complicate the

choice of configuration. The Tecnai PC is currently

behind its own firewall (a Linux PC). (Leeds

University campus itself has a firewall - although

this shouldn't be a problem unless we want to be able

to control the microscope off campus or access the

Leginon web site.) It might be possible to have the

Leginon/ Linux PC behind the firewall together with

the microscope PC which could be simpler; but it may

be limiting in terms of location of the Leginon PC.

So it looks like the Leginon PC will have to talk to

the microscope PC through the microscope PC firewall.

Do you know what ports we have to allow through the

firewall? (I'm not sure if we are going to allow

network traffic through for particular ports or IP

addresses or have both types of restriction in place.

The problem with IP addresses is that we will probably

have initially a Leginon laptop PC which will go back

to using DHCP and so have a dynamic IP address.) The

other problem is that I've been told by Neil Ranson

that FEI require us to obtain express permission to

install software on the microscope PC to avoid

invalidating the warranty. I'm waiting for the

contact person to reply to my request for permission

to install Leginon on the microscope PC.

At the moment, I'm also trying to set up the Tecnai

simulator together with Leginon on another Windows PC

for testing purposes. There seem to be some

installation problems with this - probably due to the

Tecnai software. The pyscope installer complains

about a missing CAMC4 library and the notes mention

that CAMC4.EXE needs to be installed for the Tietz

camera.

The Tecnai Software CDs include a CAMC.EXE (not a

CAMC4.EXE) which does not install (and I'm going to

contact FEI about various problems with the Tecnai

CDs). This is a bit unfortunate as we actually have a

Gatan camera, not a Tietz camera, although I suppose

all of the libraries have to be there anyway,

William


Replies (4)

- Added by Anonymous almost 20 years ago

Since you have a Gatan camera, you can ignore the error about CAMC4.

-Christian

- Added by Anonymous over 19 years ago

Okay, thanks. Unfortunately, we still haven't got

through the bureaucracy at FEI so we haven't obtained

permission to install Leginon on the microscope PC.

I've got a bit further with setting up a simulator PC.

(I discovered that I was missing some important CDs,

including Gatan's CDs with Digital Micrograph.) At

the moment I have Leginon running on the laptop sort

of talking to the Leginon client running on the

simulator PC (which is started up after FEI's

temserver for the microscope simulator, the Tecnai

user interface and DM). I went into the "Manual"

application and attempted to acquire an image.

Everything just hangs though - I'm not sure if

something is missing or if the problem is that the

simulator PC is too slow and does not have enough

memory. On one attempt, the Leginon client crashed,

due to running out of memory, and Leginon on the

laptop gave errors on the attempts to acquire images;

but usually what happens is that Leginon/ Manual just

sits there waiting for the image to come in. (In the

attempt that crashed with memory problems, I had tried

to increase the logging level in the Leginon client

from Settings->Logging.) DM on the simulator PC

appears to hang (and does not refresh properly). I'm

not sure if I have installed the correct software from

FEI and Gatan to run a simulator (or if I have

configured it correctly). I installed the Tecnai

simulator from FEI,additional Tecnai software (from

the CDs for the real microscope, a Tecnai F20) and

Gatan Microscopy Suite. GMS was installed as the

"on-line" version (rather than the offline version) on

the simulator PC - with options for the Ultrascan

4000SP camera and acquisition device Windows/

firewire, I think, which may not be correct. Also,

the Leginon documentation and/or instrument database

refer to a Gatan simulator rather than a Tecnai

simulator, so I'm not sure I have the correct

simulator software,

William

- Added by Jim Pulokas over 19 years ago

William,

While Leginon is running, several ports are used

when they are needed.

Any port between 49152 and 65535 could be used by

Leginon. This range

is defined as "dynamic/private" by the organization

that decides on port

assignments

(see http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers )

We allow Leginon to use any available port in that

range. Those ports

are used for communication between Leginon nodes.

It is also important

to open ports for MySQL so that all nodes can access

the server. The

numbers used by MySQL can probably be found in the

mysql config files or

also in the web page I mentioned.

It may also be necessary to open ports for NFS if

leginon will be

storing files on a remote system.

Let me know if you need more info on this.

Jim

- Added by Anonymous over 19 years ago

Thanks. By the way, is anybody using off-campus

access to Leginon? I think the Scripps campus has a

firewall. The reason I am asking is that John Trinick

is interested in allowing people to use Leginon

off-campus to control the microscope (for working

from home and also for a demonstration at a meeting in

Sheffield, in June, I think). A problem with this is

that this means going through two firewalls - the

Leeds University campus firewall and the local

firewall (which entails getting permission from two

sets of people - one set is basically in our group,

fortunately). The options for the campus firewall

appear to be to allow network traffic through for the

specified ports or basically allow everything for the

microscope PC (or possibly another PC that

communicates with it) - what Leeds University ISS

calls JIPS access - or possibly have VPN access to the

microscope PC (or another on-campus PC that talks to

it). There will be a certain amount of bureaucracy

and paperwork for any of these options. My guess is

that JIPS access is the least secure option but it

will probably be less of a technical headache to deal

with subsequently,

William

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