20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 1

Overview• FW News• PVSS News• PVSS Scaling Up News• Front-end News• Questions

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 2

Framework News• FW redesigned during 2003 and compatible

with PVSSII v3 (FW 2) On request, and with the participation, of all

LHC experiments

• FW 2 is not compatible with FW 1 or PVSSII 2.12.1 or earlier

• Redesign to simplify configuration and to improve performance

• First release in Feb 2004• Regular releases since (~monthly)• Current version FW 2.09

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 3

• Core FSM:

• Redesigned version released• Hierarchy improvements and

increased flexibility (CMS request)

• Trend tree and configuration DB require modification to be compatible

Configs• Completing implementation of

performance improvement Mass configuration

• Concept and prototype presented and agreed at FWWG

• New iteration needed to finish (end of October)

• Devices Wiener

• Automatic generation of OPC config file implemented

CAEN• EASY system implemented

started• Needs further clarification

with company• Some problems with generic

OPC server ISEG

• First release produced by Sorina

• Still major problems with OPC server

Rack Monitoring and Control• First version ready• Needs to be tested with

TS/EL PLC software• Needs formal agreement in

FWWG• Compatible with EMDB used

by ATLAS, CMS and LHCb

Framework Latest Developments

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 4

• Tools Trending tool

• Adding XY plots (some limitations due to current PVSS bugs)

• Upgraded/tested to work in distributed systems

• Many improvements suggested by users have been implemented

Configuration DB• Development frozen after

next release (waiting for feedback)

• Mapping to user defined schema

DIP Driver• Integration with PVSS

complete• Being prepared for

release Access control

• Work re-starting on this component

• Development Help

• Concept agreed: Overview (essentially course material) + reference manual type help for panels and libraries

• Format for reference help panels agreed in FWWG

Framework Latest Developments

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 5

Framework Future Work

• Collecting requirements for: Alarm system Data visualisation Other miscellaneous items

• First input from Control Co-ordinators• These requirements will need further

discussion in FWWG

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 6

PVSS Scaling Up - IShowstopper Tests:• “Showstopper” stress tests completed by

end June 2004 as planned. http://itcobe.web.cern.ch/itcobe/Projects/ScalingUpPVSS/welcome.html

• Presentation made to JCOP on 22nd July was well received.

http://agenda.cern.ch/fullAgenda.php?ida=a043290

• PVSS behaves very well indeed and our understanding is much improved. No design features were found which would

prevent the building of large systems. Many of the minor bugs reported in last 12

months have been fixed in new V3.0 Release (especially in the area of Alarm reporting)

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 7

PVSS Scaling Up - II

Ethernet Stress:• Collaborating with Peter to investigate

and understand the consequences to PVSS of external interference.

• Introducing deliberate “Ethernet stress” on a private network.

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 8

PVSS Scaling Up - III

Optimisation testing:• Experiments now invited to specify realistic

and relevant scenarios for optimisation tests.

• Optimisation tests will be used to help determine better configurations.

• Working towards producing a recommendations document for best configurations

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 9

Front-end News• OPC Servers

ISEG• After > 2years, and 10-15 versions, ISEG has still not been

able to provide a stable OPC server! Wiener

• The Wiener OPC server is progressing better but still has bugs. New release (1.007) received this week – under testing

For both ISEG and Wiener we are finding bugs that should have been found by the company

Cannot continue to invest this level of effort into testing substandard products (applies really only to ISEG now)

CAEN• There have been various problems with CAEN systems – lost

of communication, OPC crashes. These are being investigated but are not yet understood!

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 10

PVSS News - I• PVSSII v3 released in March 2004• Major improvements over 2.12.1 were:

Increased robustness and stability Improved performance Simplified distributed system configuration and

local dp containers New AES Remote installable client Mass parameterization ModBus TCP/IP driver

• Latest version PVSS II 3.01 SP1 is available

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 11

PVSS News - II• Meeting with ETM 14th/14th September• Many issues discussed in a constructive atmosphere• New intermediate releases to include:

Oracle archiving Siemens S7 driver

• Major new developments planned with next versions: Improved security between PVSS managers (SSL) Improved alarm handling (avalanche handling + alarm

delay) JAVA thin client Use of new compilers gcc 3.2.3 and VisualStudio 7.1 Identification of invalid data in trend Dynamic building of name space VCR facility Simple XML-based communications protocol Improved PARA module for Linux

20th September 2004 ALICE DCS Meeting 12

Security and S/W Deployment

• Computer Network and Infrastructure for Controls (CBIC) working group started: Define plan of work to cover development of

o/s system and networking tools, Define rules and policies for connection of

equipment, Define rules, policies and mechanisms for

inter-domain and Internet communications, Document all domains and ensure

responsibilities designated, Investigate technical means to ensure

compliance.