FROM: John H. Ward
Chief, Production Management Branch
SUBJECT: Changes to the NWS Production Suite
1. National Weather Service Headquarters has requested that no changes be made to
the operational systems during the week of 26 July. A Critical Weather Day will be
in effect from 00Z Sunday, 25 July through 12Z Friday, 30 July.
2. Installation of the CCS Phase II system has begun. The transition of NCEP
operations to the Phase II system is expected to begin in mid September 2004, with
the system expected to become operational on or about 18 January 2005. A moratorium
on changes to the Production Suite is expected to begin on or about 21 September and
end in January 2005. Changes required to correct operational failures will continue
to be made during the moratorium. More details will be provided as they become
available.
3. The transition in the file naming convention for the Global
Forecast System (GFS) has begun. On 14 June 2004, a duplicate file structure was
established on both the TOC and NCEP FTP servers. All file structures containing
AVN now have a duplicate link containing GFS. These duplicate file structures will
remain in place for six months. On approximately 18 January 2005, all file
structures containing AVN will be eliminated. Additional details about this
transition can be found at the following web site:
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/changes/avn-gfs_rename.html
4. NCEP Central Operations is implementing a new DNS solution for World Weather
Building (WWB), Camp Springs, MD. The deployment of the new DNS solution is
scheduled to commence 23 August 2004. A component of the DNS solution is the
retirement of the "wwb.noaa.gov" and "fb4.noaa.gov" DNS domains. The domain
"ncep.noaa.gov" is and will be supported in lieu of the "fb4" and "wwb" domains.
Scripts that access NCEP hostnames using the "wwb.noaa.gov" should be changed to
"ncep.noaa.gov" by 1 August 2004. For example, if accessing "ftpprd.wwb.noaa.gov",
change to "ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov". Changes to scripts should be made by 1 August
2004. This will allow time to address problems before the deployment of the new DNS
system. For internal NCEP users, a separate communications will provide further
instructions. If there are any questions or concerns, please email
ncep.helpdesk@xxxxxxxx and copy Luis.Cano@xxxxxxxx.