Jefferson Lab Report

1
Jefferson Lab Report

• Karen S. White
• 11/14/00

2
Overview

• Status of Jefferson Lab Control System
• Work In Progress
• Transitioning to Operations

3
Our EPICS System

• Over 70 HP-UX Workstations
• Over 150 IOCs Motorola 167/177, PowerPC 2700
• 226 Device Control Applications
• 1200 Instantiations Across IOCs
• 300 User Interface, System and High Level
  Applications
• Very Reliable, Working Well

4
Outstanding Problems

• CPU load too high on many IOCs
• Replace 15-30 167/177s with PowerPCs over the
  next year
• Reduce load from UDP broadcast traffic
• Channel Access Security Semaphore Bug
• When switching between security modes,
  occasionally, a semaphore is not released causing
  varying numbers of IOCs to appear down to the
  operators

5
Working On

• New Archive Engine with LANL Matt Bickley Talk
  for Chris Larrieu
• Striptool Matt Bickley Talk for Chris Larrieu

6
Working On

• Central Database
• For Operational Data
• For Development Data Like Configuration Info
• Evaluating Requirements
• Learning from Other Labs First
• Held a Workshop with other EPICS sites 9/00
  (Bickley Talk)

7
Working On

• Managing Network and IOC Load
• Use Channel Access Gateway for all clients
  outside of Control Room
• Channel Access Nameserver
• Improvement Joan Sage Talk
• Use with more clients currently only medm and
  burt
• Upgrading CPU starved IOCs to Power PC -Richard
  Dickson Talk

8
HELIOS

• New project at JLab
• Compact Synchrotron Light Source being moved from
  New York
• Current control system runs on VAX/VMS
• Plan to convert to EPICS

9
Operational Considerations

• Development and Maintenance Resources
• People, Hardware, Software
• Maintenance Schedule How Often, When?
• Can you load new software
• Can you reboot IOCs/Workstations/Network
• Procedures for insuring smooth return to Ops
• Capacity Planning
• Replace a fraction of selected hardware annually
• Add additional capacity for data storage, network
  bandwidth, CPUs annually

10
Standards

• Ability to maintain the Control System depends on
  Standards
• Documentation
• Code Development
• Code Structure
• Code Control
• Installation
• Testing
• Naming Conventions

11
Upgrades

• Upgrading Software
• OS Version IOC Workstation
• Patches
• EPICS Version
• Adding New Features
• Adding New Systems
• Upgrading Hardware
• Additional Capacity
• Maintainability
• Must be able to upgrade machines independently

12
Control System Segmentation

• JLab Control System Segmented Into Fiefdoms
• Segmentation Transparent To User
• Fiefdoms Can Function Independently
• Prevents machine downtime for failure in a
  non-critical area
• Minimizes machine downtime for failure in a
  critical area
• Network Control
• Traffic Isolation
• Redundant Routing
• Dedication of Resources
• Allows machines to be upgraded independently

13
Fiefdoms Structure

• Server with
• Executable Code
• IOC Load Files
• Data Files
• User Accounts
• Network Segment with Controlled Access
• Workstations
• Operator Consoles
• Code Execution Engines
• IOCs

14
Inside A Fiefdom
WKST
WKST
WKST
WKST
To External Network
Internal Network
Server
IOC
IOC
IOC
IOC
IOC
15
Control System Segmentation
FEL
DEV
AES
OPS
GTST
ACC
SVC
EXT
CRYO
HALL
TLAB
CHL
HABC
Router
Fiefdom