Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

"Kasemir, Kay" <[email protected]> · Thu, 7 May 2015 15:00:52 +0000

Hi:

https://wiki-ext.aps.anl.gov/epics/index.php/How_to_Make_Channel_Access_Reach_Multiple_Soft_IOCs_on_a_Linux_Host 
or
https://wiki-ext.aps.anl.gov/epics/index.php/How_to_Configure_Channel_Access
or
http://www.aps.anl.gov/epics/base/R3-14/12-docs/CAref.html
describe the basic issue of reaching multiple IOCs running on the same computer
--> Need to use broadcast address.

For the command line 'caget' you need to set the EPICS_CA_AUTO_ADDR_LIST and EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST environment variables.
For CSS, you need to set the corresponding preferences. In the UI, that's under Edit/Preferences/CSS Core/EPICS for the running instance, or better use a "plugin customization" file as described in the "Hierarchical Preferences" section of the CSS book, http://cs-studio.sourceforge.net/docbook/css_book.pdf.
The related setting would be

## File "my_settings.ini"
org.csstudio.platform.libs.epics/auto_addr_list=false
org.csstudio.platform.libs.epics/use_pure_java=true
org.csstudio.platform.libs.epics/addr_list=xx.xx.19.255 127.0.0.1
org.csstudio.platform.libs.epics/max_array_bytes=100000000 

.. and then you run css like this:

css -pluginCustomization /full/path/to/my_settings.ini

Thanks,
Kay

On May 7, 2015, at 10:02 AM, Matt Bickley <[email protected]>
 wrote:

> On 05/07/2015 01:25 AM, Franklin Fuller wrote:
>> Hello,
>> 
>> My problem is: I have two soft IOCs running on a Mac (Yosemite) and I
>> can't seem to get CSS to connect to both simultaneously.  CSS connects
>> to each individually without issue.  In the terminal, I can use
>> caget/caput to drive both devices simultaneously.
>> 
>> I see this problem has shown up in this email list before, but the
>> suggestion seems to be to fix the CA.  As I'm able to get caget/caput to
>> work, though, I'm not sure it's a problem with CA.  Frankly, it's not
>> yet clear to me where exactly one should modify the myriad of
>> environment variables discussed.  The best I've found so far is two
>> variables defined in base/startup/Site.profile.  Currently I have:
>> 
>>  EPICS_CA_AUTO_ADDR_LIST=YES
>>  EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST="xx.xx.19.255 127.0.0.1"
>> 
>> Where in the second I put both the "broadcast" IP and the local IP.
>> I've tried various settings here.  No solution yet.  I have also put
>> these into my ~/.bash_profile for good measure.
>> 
>> I also see the opposite of what others report: the first ioc started is
>> the one that CSS connects to, not the last.
>> 
>> ~Franklin
> 
> Ralph Lange solved this problem and wrote a very nice summary of
> his solution here:
> 
> https://wiki-ext.aps.anl.gov/epics/index.php/How_to_Make_Channel_Access_Reach_Multiple_Soft_IOCs_on_a_Linux_Host 
> 
> We had the same issue, implemented Ralph's suggested changes, and it
> resolved our situation very nicely.  Our system administration staff
> thought this might cause the relevant computers to actually rebroadcast
> over the network, but there is no additional network traffic...
> all extra communication stays local to the computer running multiple soft IOCs.
> 
> -- 
> Matthew Bickley                                 Email: [email protected]
> Deputy Head of Accelerator Operations           Telephone: 757-269-7347
> TJNAF
> 

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System