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<DIV><SPAN class=235283604-09022006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I
think the easiest way is to do a 'ps -ef | grep blast'. If it returns a
process (other than itself) in the list, then you know someone is running
blast. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=235283604-09022006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=235283604-09022006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>The
other (simpler) option is to maintain a seperate BLAST database that you can
copy in place under a standard maintainence window. We normally reboot our
server once a month when system patches are applied. During this outage
period, the new database could be copied in place.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=235283604-09022006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=235283604-09022006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Let me
know what you end up doing. I'm curious to the solution you decide
on. I might want to use that here. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=235283604-09022006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=235283604-09022006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Ryan</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=235283604-09022006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=235283604-09022006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
bio_bulletin_board-bounces+golharam=umdnj.edu@bioinformatics.org
[mailto:bio_bulletin_board-bounces+golharam=umdnj.edu@bioinformatics.org] <B>On
Behalf Of </B>Samantha Fox<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, February 07, 2006 12:16
PM<BR><B>To:</B> The general forum at Bioinformatics.Org<BR><B>Subject:</B> [BiO
BB] Updating NCBI databases<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Hi,<BR>I had a question regarding
regular update of BLAST databases. Is there a standard way to move the updated
databases to the user section, making sure that the current copy is not
already in use ?<BR><BR>Suppose I update the database monthly, but a user
might have a big BLAST job running when my cron script starts the update. This
can lead to errors. How can I prevent that ?<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR><SPAN
class=sg>~S</SPAN> </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>