[develop] noaacloud MET updates

[EdwardSnyder-NOAA]

DESCRIPTION OF CHANGES:

Minor changes so that the MET VX tasks can run on parallel works NOAA cloud platforms. This PR is similar to the release-v2.1.0 PR #450 but now is for the develop branch.

Type of change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• This change requires a documentation update

TESTS CONDUCTED:

• hera.intel
• orion.intel
• cheyenne.intel
• cheyenne.gnu
• gaea.intel
• jet.intel
• wcoss2.intel
• NOAA Cloud (indicate which platform)
• GCP and Azure
• Jenkins
• fundamental test suite
• comprehensive tests (specify which if a subset was used)

DEPENDENCIES:

DOCUMENTATION:

ISSUE:

This PR addresses the MET VX request in #387.

CHECKLIST

• My code follows the style guidelines in the Contributor's Guide
• I have performed a self-review of my own code using the Code Reviewer's Guide
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• My changes need updates to the documentation. I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
• My changes do not require updates to the documentation (explain).
• My changes generate no new warnings
• New and existing tests pass with my changes
• Any dependent changes have been merged and published

LABELS (optional):

A Code Manager needs to add the following labels to this PR:

• Work In Progress
• bug
• enhancement
• documentation
• release
• high priority
• run_ci
• run_we2e_fundamental_tests
• run_we2e_comprehensive_tests
• Needs Cheyenne test
• Needs Jet test
• Needs Hera test
• Needs Orion test
• help wanted

CONTRIBUTORS (optional):

[MichaelLueken]

Thank you very much, @EdwardSnyder-NOAA, for preparing this PR so quickly! These changes are the same as those from PR #450. Approving now.

One quick question, is there an issue with verification tasks on noaacloud that requires the number of tries to be increased from 1 to 2? I'm fine with increasing the default number of tries from 1 to 2, I'm just interested in why this was required.

[EdwardSnyder-NOAA]

@MichaelLueken - The verification tasks were increased because some of these tasks would overlap each other by trying to create the same directory. If I remember correctly, two verification tasks look for the same directory and see that it doesn't exist, so both try to create it. One is just faster than the other which results in the second one to error because it cannot make a directory that already exists. I've seen this error happen more than once in an experiment, but I've also seen clean runs as well. So, it appears to be dependent on platform and timing of the tasks.

[MichaelLueken]

Thank you for the explanation, @EdwardSnyder-NOAA! I'm onboard for increasing the number of max tries from 1 to 2.