Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

"Waggoner, Bill" <[email protected]> · Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:20:38 -0600

At STAR we use alh. We run one alarm handler for the entire detector, and three subsystems run there own.

-----Original Message-----
From: Maren Purves [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 1:55 PM
To: Thomas Birke
Cc: Ernest L. Williams Jr.; EPICS tech-talk
Subject: Re: AlarmHandler as a daemon or service

At UKIRT we have something like a subset of what Thomas describes.

Thomas Birke wrote:
> 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

Our dedicated machine is a Linux notebook - it fits into the space
we had thought of putting it, a shelf close to where the telescope
operator sits, and while it does display, I'm not sure the display is
really used. Most of our alarms run silenced.

>       All alarms are logged by these AlarmHandlers via CMLOG into a
>       central logging system

We don't log the alarms other than what the alarm handler itself does.
The only occasion we look at the alarm logs is if we suspect device
hangups that may be triggered by something else in the system.

>       Most Alarms also issue a SMS and/or email to be sent to the
>       operator in charge (via $SEVRCOMMAND)

This is the main purpose why we run alarm handlers: emails.
The telescope not always being occupied, people get notified
of occurrences (mostly cryogenics problems) independent of
whether there is somebody there or not.

We have been doing this on one machine or the other for about 8 years
now - the machine has changed over the years -, and it is working
well for us.

Maren

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Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System