Glossary¶
Key terms used throughout the OpenECPDS documentation. Where a term has a dedicated page, a link is provided.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Data Store | The multi-purpose repository at the heart of OpenECPDS. It does not necessarily store data physically but works like a search engine, crawling and indexing metadata, while optionally caching content. See Architecture Overview. |
| Data Acquisition | The active service that automatically discovers and retrieves data from data providers. See Acquisition. |
| Data Dissemination | The active service that automatically distributes data products to remote sites. See Dissemination. |
| Data Portal | The passive service that lets remote sites push and pull data (FTP, HTTPS, S3). See Data Portal. |
| Data File | A record of a product stored in the Data Store, with a one-to-one mapping to the product, holding its physical specifications and provider metadata. See Entities. |
| Data Transfer | A transfer request linked to a unique data file, with schedule, priority, status, rate, errors, and history. See Entities. |
| Data File ID | A unique identifier allocated by the Master Server for a registered file, used to track it. See ECPDS command-line Tool. |
| Destination | A place where data transfers are queued and processed to deliver data to a unique remote place. See Entities. |
| Alias | A link between two or more destinations so data queued to one is also queued to the others (optionally conditional). See Entities. |
| Dissemination Host | A host that connects and transmits a data file's content to a target system. See Entities. |
| Acquisition Host | A host that discovers and retrieves files from a source system, including file selection rules. See Entities. |
| Transfer Method | The configuration on a host that determines which transfer module (protocol) is used. See Entities. |
| Transfer Module (ECtrans module) | A pluggable implementation of a protocol or storage backend (FTP, SFTP, S3, etc.). See Transfer Modules. |
| Master Server | The central coordinator: authentication, metadata, scheduling, Data Mover allocation. See Components. |
| Mover Server / Data Mover | The service that moves bytes — connecting to remote systems via transfer modules, storing and streaming content. See Components. |
| User Data Mover | In Data Portal workflows, the mover the customer connects to. See Data Portal. |
| Target Data Mover | In Data Portal workflows, the mover where the file is stored. See Data Portal. |
| Continental Data Mover | A standard Data Mover with limited functionality and an alternative communication module, deployed near target sites to optimise dissemination. Configured via a Proxy Host. See Continental Data Movers. |
| Proxy Host | A host defined to associate a Continental Data Mover with a destination for pre-replication and communication. See Replication directory. |
| Monitor Server | The web-based monitoring and management interface. See Components. |
| Transfer Scheduler | Per-destination scheduler controlling priorities, parallel transmissions, and retries. See Entities. |
| Retrieval Scheduler | Scheduler that retrieves file content for registered transfers (fetch mode and acquisition). See Lifecycle. |
| Acquisition Scheduler | Scheduler that triggers discovery of remote files on acquisition hosts. See Acquisition. |
| Push Mode | Submission mode where both metadata and content are pushed directly. See Lifecycle. |
| Fetch Mode | Submission mode where metadata is submitted first and content retrieved asynchronously. See Lifecycle. |
| Failover | The mechanism for switching between hosts when a connection fails. See Failover. |
| MQTT | Lightweight publish/subscribe messaging used for OpenECPDS notifications and acquisition. See MQTT Overview. |
| Topic | An MQTT addressing string (supporting + and # wildcards) used to route notifications. See MQTT Overview. |
| Retain flag | An MQTT flag that keeps the most recent message available for late subscribers. See MQTT Overview. |
| WIS2 | The WMO Information System 2.0, with which OpenECPDS integrates via MQTT. See WMO WIS2. |
| ETag | An entity tag identifying a stored object's content in the Data Store. See Object Storage. |
| Event categories (PRS, RET, UPH, INH, ERR, CPY, DEA) | Structured log event types capturing system activity. See Event Logging. |
| RMDCN | A dedicated network used for institutional data exchange (referenced as a NetworkCode). See Continental Data Movers. |
| Standby | A submitted transfer flagged to be ignored by the Data Transfer Scheduler until activated. See Lifecycle. |