Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Thomas Birke <[email protected]> · Fri, 24 Mar 2006 09:02:10 +0100

Ernest L. Williams Jr. wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Two questions:
>
> (1) How many sites used the EPICS AlarmHandler.
>   
We also use the EPICS AlarmHandler in all our systems.
> (2) Has anyone changed the EPICS AlarmHandler to run in daemon mode or
> as a service?
>   
In machine-controls, we have set it up in the following way:

    * One dedicated machine is running all AlarmHandlers on an overhead
      display
      All alarms are logged by these AlarmHandlers via CMLOG into a
      central logging system
      Most Alarms also issue a SMS and/or email to be sent to the
      operator in charge (via $SEVRCOMMAND)
    * The operator consoles are running the alarm-handlers as well
      These do not log the alarms but the OPMODs (acknowledge) of alarms
      into the same CMLOG system
    * The CMLOG system can be used to browse through the logged alarms
      and OPMODs (besides others) with optional filters.
      Basically AlarmLog-browsing is possible from any system, that can
      access the CMLOG-server (enables alarm-browsing from office-PCs).
      The cmlog-browser can also be started with pre-defined
      config-files to e.g.
      show all alarms from RF-Systems within the last 24 hours and go
      into "update"-mode (display new alarms as soon as the come into
      the logging system
    * No AlarmHandler does any file-based logging anymore

This setup has proven pretty reliable here at BESSY, esp. logging via
cmlog (or similar) is a "must" (IMHO) and using the SEVRCOMMAND to send
notifications is getting more and more fine-tuned (emails sent to
device-responsibles...).

Thomas

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System