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EPICS Crate MonitoringINS-EPICS-10$Revision: 1.3 $ |
This document describes how EPICS monitors the Input/Output Controller (IOC) Crate Parameters and allows a remote reboot of the Crate.
Log on as whtobs and execute the "start_epics" command in a terminal window. This will start a Graphical user display on the terminal.
This GUI allows you to select an EPICS Subsystem to control or monitor.
Click on the required Input/Output Controller (IOC) under the STATS column. This will start the EPICS monitoring GUI. The example shows the TEST IOC Crate
The table below describes the monitored values.
| Parameter | Description | |
| CPU Load Average (%) | Load on the CPU, normally between 7% - 30% for ING EPICS systems | |
| CA Clients | The number of clients connected to this IOC. For example each instance of medm is considered a client | |
| Largest Free RAM Block | This not the total RAM available | |
| CA Connections | The number of connections to the Process Variables (PV) in this IOC. For example if medm has 3 GUI screens active with 32 PV,s in total, then the value displayed would be 32. | |
| Available FDs of xxxxxx | The number of File Descriptors in total and available in this IOC | |
| Time of Day | The time and date held in the IOC | |
| Last Boot Time of IOC | The time and date that the IOC was last booted | |
| VxWorks Kernal | The software version of the vxWorks Kernal | |
| Board Support Package Version | The software version of the vxWorks Board Support Package | |
| EPICS | The software version of EPICS which is running on this IOC | |
| Security | If the IOC is able to be rebooted via this interface (not used at ING) |
The values in the IOC are monitored and has warning and alarm levels. The warning level value is shown in yellow, on this GUI the "CPU Load Average (%)" parameter is at a warning level. An alarm value is in red and the cause of the alarm should be investigated and corrected.
The only control mechanism is the Reboot button which will pop-up the Reboot GUI.
The Reboot GUI allows the user to reboot remotely an EPICS Crate
The New button re-reads an access control list file which contains a list of users allowed to reboot the crate. This is not used at ING.
The Secure/Defeat button inhibits the reboot of the Crate. This is not active and not used at ING.
The INHIBITS A-F are bits which will inhibit the reboot of the IOC Crate. The reboot may be inhibited if the value of any one of the PV's in ioccratename:vxStat:Reboot.A to ioccratename:vxStat:Reboot.F is set to a non zero value. The message sent to the logfile is "Reboot not allowed at this time from EPICS" if a reboot is attempted. The GUI above shows that INHIBIT A (PV name usp:vxStat:Reboot.A) is active and will not allow the crate to be rebooted. Normally however these inhibits are not active and not used at ING.
To reboot the IOC the Enable button must be activated. The display will then change from SAFE and show ENABLED, there is a time limit of 10 seconds in which time you may click the red Reboot button to start the Crate reboot action. After this time it will revert to the SAFE state.
During reboot the GUI will not be able to access the PV's and will show a white display for the active PV areas. This is normal and the correct display will reappear when the crate has successfully rebooted.
In general if an EPICS crate is not being used then the GUI for that crate will show all the PV's in white
The display above shows an active EPICS crate but certain PV's are not available for display this is an error condition and must be reported to the EPICS software manager for correction.