20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting1 Overview FW News PVSS News PVSS Scaling Up News Front-end News Questions

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting2 Framework News FW redesigned during 2003 and compatible with PVSSII v3 (FW 2)  On request, and with the participation, of all LHC experiments FW 2 is not compatible with FW 1 or PVSSII or earlier Redesign to simplify configuration and to improve performance First release in Feb 2004 Regular releases since (~monthly) Current version FW 2.09

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting3 Core  FSM: Redesigned version released Hierarchy improvements and increased flexibility (CMS request) Trend tree and configuration DB require modification to be compatible  Configs Completing implementation of performance improvement  Mass configuration Concept and prototype presented and agreed at FWWG New iteration needed to finish (end of October) Devices  Wiener Automatic generation of OPC config file implemented  CAEN EASY system implemented started Needs further clarification with company Some problems with generic OPC server  ISEG First release produced by Sorina Still major problems with OPC server  Rack Monitoring and Control First version ready Needs to be tested with TS/EL PLC software Needs formal agreement in FWWG Compatible with EMDB used by ATLAS, CMS and LHCb Framework Latest Developments

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting4 Tools  Trending tool Adding XY plots (some limitations due to current PVSS bugs) Upgraded/tested to work in distributed systems Many improvements suggested by users have been implemented  Configuration DB Development frozen after next release (waiting for feedback) Mapping to user defined schema  DIP Driver Integration with PVSS complete Being prepared for release  Access control Work re-starting on this component Development  Help Concept agreed: Overview (essentially course material) + reference manual type help for panels and libraries Format for reference help panels agreed in FWWG Framework Latest Developments

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting5 Framework Future Work Collecting requirements for:  Alarm system  Data visualisation  Other miscellaneous items First input from Control Co-ordinators These requirements will need further discussion in FWWG

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting6 PVSS Scaling Up - I Showstopper Tests: “Showstopper” stress tests completed by end June 2004 as planned. Presentation made to JCOP on 22 nd July was well received. PVSS behaves very well indeed and our understanding is much improved.  No design features were found which would prevent the building of large systems.  Many of the minor bugs reported in last 12 months have been fixed in new V3.0 Release (especially in the area of Alarm reporting)

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting7 PVSS Scaling Up - II Ethernet Stress: Collaborating with Peter to investigate and understand the consequences to PVSS of external interference. Introducing deliberate “Ethernet stress” on a private network.

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting8 PVSS Scaling Up - III Optimisation testing: Experiments now invited to specify realistic and relevant scenarios for optimisation tests. Optimisation tests will be used to help determine better configurations. Working towards producing a recommendations document for best configurations

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting9 Front-end News OPC Servers  ISEG After > 2years, and versions, ISEG has still not been able to provide a stable OPC server!  Wiener The Wiener OPC server is progressing better but still has bugs. New release (1.007) received this week – under testing  For both ISEG and Wiener we are finding bugs that should have been found by the company  Cannot continue to invest this level of effort into testing substandard products (applies really only to ISEG now)  CAEN There have been various problems with CAEN systems – lost of communication, OPC crashes. These are being investigated but are not yet understood!

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting10 PVSS News - I PVSSII v3 released in March 2004 Major improvements over were:  Increased robustness and stability  Improved performance  Simplified distributed system configuration and local dp containers  New AES  Remote installable client  Mass parameterization  ModBus TCP/IP driver Latest version PVSS II 3.01 SP1 is available

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting11 PVSS News - II Meeting with ETM 14 th /14 th September Many issues discussed in a constructive atmosphere New intermediate releases to include:  Oracle archiving  Siemens S7 driver Major new developments planned with next versions:  Improved security between PVSS managers (SSL)  Improved alarm handling (avalanche handling + alarm delay)  JAVA thin client  Use of new compilers gcc and VisualStudio 7.1  Identification of invalid data in trend  Dynamic building of name space  VCR facility  Simple XML-based communications protocol  Improved PARA module for Linux

20th September 2004ALICE DCS Meeting12 Security and S/W Deployment Computer Network and Infrastructure for Controls (CBIC) working group started:  Define plan of work to cover development of o/s system and networking tools,  Define rules and policies for connection of equipment,  Define rules, policies and mechanisms for inter-domain and Internet communications,  Document all domains and ensure responsibilities designated,  Investigate technical means to ensure compliance.