Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Jameson Graef Rollins <[email protected]> · Tue, 09 Jul 2013 10:50:48 -0700

Hey, folks.  I'm trying to run multiple IOCs on the same host and
network interface and I'm looking for tips to help get it working
cleanly.  I'm aware of some of the issues of servers sharing the same
interface [0].  However, I assume there must be a way to support this
situation, since I imagine it must be common.  But I'm having a lot of
trouble getting it to work.

Some details that may or may not be relevant:
 * I'm using the pcaspy python bindings.
 * I'm trying to bind all of my servers to the loopback interface (I'm
   trying to put together a test infrastructure and this is required
   (afaik) for offline tests).

I can start the first IOC no problem:

0$ EPICS_CAS_INTF_ADDR_LIST=localhost ./testioc.py TEST0:
prefix: TEST0:
db: {'FOO': {'prec': 0}}

Client channel access works as expected:

0$ EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST=localhost EPICS_CA_AUTO_ADDR_LIST=NO caget -t TEST0:FOO
0
0$ 

When I start the second server I get the (expected) shared UDP warnings:

0$ EPICS_CAS_INTF_ADDR_LIST=localhost ./testioc.py TEST1:
cas warning: Configured TCP port was unavailable.
cas warning: Using dynamically assigned TCP port 34497,
cas warning: but now two or more servers share the same UDP port.
cas warning: Depending on your IP kernel this server may not be
cas warning: reachable with UDP unicast (a host's IP in EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST)
prefix: TEST1:
db: {'FOO': {'prec': 0}}

But unfortunately the first server is now no longer accessible:

0$ EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST=localhost EPICS_CA_AUTO_ADDR_LIST=NO caget -t TEST1:FOO
0
0$ EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST=localhost EPICS_CA_AUTO_ADDR_LIST=NO caget -t TEST0:FOO
Channel connect timed out: 'TEST0:FOO' not found.
1$

I've tried variously killing the caRepeater and accessing things in
different order, but nothing seems to work.  Things do work if I specify
different EPICS_CA_SERVER_PORT for the two servers, but that's an
inconvenience for the client since it has to know which record is being
served on which port.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this situation work?

jamie.

[0] http://www.aps.anl.gov/epics/base/R3-14/8-docs/CAref.html#Unicast

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System