WebObs is an integrated web-based system for data monitoring and networks management. Seismological and volcanological observatories have common needs and often common practical problems for multi disciplinary data monitoring applications. In fact, access to integrated data in real-time and estimation of uncertainties are keys for an efficient interpretation, but instruments variety, heterogeneity of data sampling and acquisition systems lead to difficulties that may hinder crisis management. In the Guadeloupe observatory, we have developed in the last 15 years an operational system that attempts to answer the questions in the context of a pluri-instrumental observatory. Based on a single computer server, open source scripts (with few binaries) and a Web interface, the system proposes:

• an extended database for networks management, stations and sensors (maps, station file with log history, technical characteristics, meta-data, photos and associated documents);
• a web-form interfaces for manual data input/editing and export (like geochemical analysis, some of the deformation measurements, ...);
• routine data processing with dedicated automatic scripts for each technique, production of validated data outputs, static graphs on preset moving time intervals, possible e-mail alarms, sensors and station status based on data validity;
• in the special case of seismology, a multichannel continuous stripchart associated with EarthWorm/SeisComP acquisition chain, event classification database, automatic shakemap reports, regional catalog with associated hypocenter maps.

Present state and availability

WebObs is presently fully functional and used in a dozen observatories, but the documentation is mostly incomplete. We hope to shortly finish the main user's manual. If you are in a hurry, please contact the project coordinator and we will be happy to help you to install it.

Installation / upgrading

To run WebObs you need to install the package which contains a setup script that will set all configuration files. Installing WebObs is not a classical compilation from sources with 'make'. A part of it requires the free Matlab runtime library, because package contains some compiled binaries.

Download the latest package file and runtime at WebObs page.

A) Installing WebObs <version> from its WebObs-<version>.tgz

You create/choose your WebObs directory within which you will execute the setup process. We suggest /opt/webobs. This directory will contain both WebObs code AND WebObs data, and will be the DocumentRoot of the WebObs Apache's Virtual Host.

setup will prompt you for a Linux WebObs userid (aka WebObs Owner) that it will create. The WebObs userid's group will also be added to Apache's user. See the WebObs user manual if you need to create your own WebObs owner.

The system-wide /etc/webobs.d symbolic link will identify your WebObs 'active' (production) installation.

WebObs comes with pre-defined configuration files and pre-defined data objects as a starting point and for demonstration purposes.

Prerequisities

Graph processes need Matlab compiler runtime 2011b. Download the installer adapted to your architecture in the WebObs directory, the setup will install it during the C) procedure. Or, place it in any local directory then run:

unzip MCR_<version>_installer.zip	
sudo ./install -mode silent	

A number of programs and Perl modules are needed to run webobs. During the C) installation procedure, setup will list the missing dependencies that must be installed. Under Debian/Ubuntu, you might install them using the following packages:

sudo apt-get install apache2 apache2-utils sqlite3 imagemagick mutt xvfb \
   curl gawk graphviz net-tools libdatetime-perl libdate-calc-perl \
   libcgi-session-perl libdbd-sqlite3-perl libgraphviz-perl libimage-info-perl \
   libtext-multimarkdown-perl libswitch-perl libintl-perl

Compiled binaries are using some ISO-8859-1 encoding characters... to get correct display you might install some additional locale. Uncomment FR_FR ISO-8859-1 and en_US ISO-8859-1 lines in /etc/locale.gen, then:

sudo locale-gen fr_FR en_US

Also you need to activate CGI module for Apache:

sudo a2enmod cgid

B) Upgrading WebObs <version> from its WebObs-<version>.tgz

The setup process is also used for upgrading an already installed WebObs.

setup, when 'upgrading' will activate new WebObs code AND only report the data/configuration differences that it can detect between your customized installation and what the new version would installed from scratch.

It is recommended to stop any WebObs-related processes before upgrading.

Configuration files will be updaded and displayed/editabled at the end of the upgrade process to help you apply required changes to configuration/data.

C) Procedure (for both A) and B) above)

With root privileges, in your target WebObs directory:

1. execute tar xf WebObs-<version>.tar.gz
2. execute WebObs-<version>/SETUP/setup
3. (re)start Apache
4. launch the scheduler and postboard

For Debian/Ubuntu users, here is a way to install permanently active scheduler and postboard:

sudo cp /opt/webobs/WebObs-<version>/SETUP/systemd/wo* /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable woscheduler.service
sudo systemctl enable wopostboard.service
sudo systemctl start woscheduler.service
sudo systemctl start wopostboard.service

D) Improving basemap database (optional)

WebObs is distributed with ETOPO5 worldwide topographic data, and will automatically download SRTM data for detailed maps. To improve large scale maps resolution, you can download ETOPO1:

curl https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/relief/ETOPO1/data/bedrock/grid_registered/binary/etopo1_bed_g_i2.zip -o /tmp/etopo.zip
unzip -d /etc/webobs.d/../DATA/DEM/ETOPO /tmp/etopo.zip

and update the ETOPO parameters in the /etc/webobs.d/WEBOBS.rc file with the lines:

ETOPO_NAME|etopo1_bed_g_i2	
ETOPO_COPYRIGHT|DEM: ETOPO1 NGDC/NOOA

Authors

Project coordination

• François Beauducel - Project designer and supervisor - beaudu - [email protected]
• Didier Lafon - Software development - [email protected]

Contributors

• Xavier Béguin - XavierBeguin - [email protected]
• Patrice Boissier - PBoissier - [email protected]
• Alexis Bosson - [email protected]
• Didier Mallarino -
• Jean-Marie Saurel - ovsm-dev - jmsaurel - [email protected]
• Philippe Catherine - CPS97410 - [email protected]

See also the list of active contributors.

References

• Beauducel, F. (2006). Operational monitoring of French volcanoes: Recent advances in Guadeloupe. Géosciences, Editions BRGM, n°4, p 64-68, 2006. Abstract
• F. Beauducel, A. Bosson, F. Randriamora, C. Anténor-Habazac, A. Lemarchand, J-M Saurel, A. Nercessian, M-P Bouin, J-B de Chabalier, V. Clouard (2010). Recent advances in the Lesser Antilles observatories - Part 2 - WEBOBS: an integrated web-based system for monitoring and networks management. Paper presented at European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, 2-7 May 2010. Abstract
• François Beauducel, Didier Lafon, Xavier Béguin, Jean-Marie Saurel, Alexis Bosson, Didier Mallarino, Patrice Boissier, Christophe Brunet, Arnaud Lemarchand, Christian Anténor-Habazac, Alexandre Nercessian, Ahmad Ali Fahmi (2019), WebObs: The volcano observatories missing link between research and real-time monitoring, submitted to Frontiers in Earth Science, section Volcanology.

Copyright

WebObs - 2012-2019 - Institut de Physique du Globe Paris

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.