alive module Documentation

Release Notes

Record

aliveRecord.html

The alive record is used for determining where the heartbeat information is sent, as well as the extra environment variables that may be requested remotely.

aliveServer.html

This describes how one can implement a server for receiving and processing the heartbeat meassages, as well as making inquiries to the alive record about the extra information.

EPICS Database

alive.db

This database is basically a straight implementation of the alive record itself. It creates a record of the name "$(P)alive".

The name of the IOC sent back to the server is by default the value of the "IOC" environment variable, but the variable that is used can be changed by setting "$(NMVAR)" to a new value.

The RHOST is defined using "$(RHOST)". The rest of the fields that can be specified have defaults in them that can be overridden. The default for "$(RPORT)" is "5678", and for "$(HPRD)" is "15". If multiple IOC are to run on the same computer, then "$(IPORT)" for each IOC should have a different value, or all "$(IPORT)" values should be set to zero to allow the system to determine it. Only the first seven of the sixteen environment variable fields, "$(ENV1)" to "$(ENV16)", have defaults, being "ARCH", "TOP", "EPICS_BASE", "SUPPORT", "ENGINEER", "LOCATION", and "GROUP".

aliveMSGCalc.db

This database consists of a calcout record that will periodically set the MSG value of the IOC's alive record, based on status PV values of other synApps modules. The MSG usage is undefined, but was intended for sending warnings if something bad happens, as a sequence of error bits. Currently, only the status of the autosave is being used. If the first bit of the MSG is set, then autosave is dead.

This is not included directly in alive.db since the alive module might be deployed without the other synApps modules. It might also become locally customized.

There is an associated aliveMSGCalc_local.req file. It does not use the normal _settings.req convention (which in recent synApps versions causes it to be automatically loaded), as it's intended for manually overriding the global defaults only if that is wanted. Otherwise, changing the calculation parameters would need to be done for every IOC instead of at the master file location.

MEDM display files

aliveRecord.adl

This is the medm ADL file for an alive record. All the fields are exposed on this screen.

How to build and use

• Edit configure/RELEASE to specify the paths to EPICS base. There are no dependencies on any other modules.
• Run Gnu Make to build.
• Note that the alive module is not useful on its own, as it needs a remote server to send heartbeat information.

Checking to see if record works

• Configure an alive record to talk to a remote server daemon that understands how to talk to this type of record.
• Make sure that IPSTS gets set to "Operable", otherwise the information port is not working.
• Make sure that the HRTBT field is set to "On" (the default).
• Make sure that the ISUP field is set to "Off" (the default).
• Set ITRIG field to "Trigger". If ITRIG goes back to being "Idle", then the remote daemon has read the boot information, meaning the record is successfully talking to the daemon.