RDB and EPICS

							                   RDB and EPICS

              The World According to SLAC
              Ideas and Implementations by:
               J. Rock, D. Rogind, S. Allison

March 9-11 IRMIS          Ron Chestnut
                             SLAC
                   History of attempts
• Old SLC system
     – Controls database is a collection of flat files
     – Cabling and maintenance databases not complete
• PEP-II (mid ’90s)
     – Started late
     – Some EPICS (first at SLAC)
     – Odd collection with duct tape and wire
• SPEAR
     – Small project; limited goals
• LCLS
     – The chance to do it right; mostly EPICS

March 9-11 IRMIS            Ron Chestnut
                               SLAC
                   SPEAR’s Way
•   DEC RDB (not ORACLE or MySQL)
•   IOCs report PV information on boot
•   PV information includes INP/OUT
•   Used to resolve mix ups




March 9-11 IRMIS      Ron Chestnut
                         SLAC
                   LCLS Future
• Looking for an RDB person
• Naming convention meeting as we speak
     – Steve Lewis has joined from LLNL
• Looking to do as much as possible
• Central PV help just a beginning
• Interested in our outcome


March 9-11 IRMIS       Ron Chestnut
                          SLAC
           ESD Software (our part)
• Need good up-to-date list of PVs
• Needs to include “other” system
• Management of secondary data important
     – Archiver data
     – Channel Watcher data (save/restore)
     – Alarm Handler data



March 9-11 IRMIS       Ron Chestnut
                          SLAC
                   Other System
• Has EPICS version of name
• Code to generate list worked once
• Fairly static now




March 9-11 IRMIS       Ron Chestnut
                          SLAC
                   Secondary Systems
• Not just record names, but fields
     – Save/Restore might want .LOPR, for example
• Ease of choosing names
     – Singly
     – In groups by pattern
• Ease of setting parameters
     – Singly
     – In groups by pattern
March 9-11 IRMIS         Ron Chestnut
                            SLAC
                   Notes from Judy
     – The UI we need:
          • Is convenient, easy to use, intuitive.
          • Is probably web-based.
          • Allows mass import of data
          • Allows field-by-field editing
          • Allows update of groups of things, with as many
            cut/paste/filldown/automatic options as possible
          • Has plenty of reports so we can easily see and communicate
            what we have in the db structure.
          • Maps easily into our normal view of the data (i.e. we need to
            easily identify and manipulate an epics .db or template, an
            alarm tree, a channel list.)
          • Has security (one or more levels)


March 9-11 IRMIS                Ron Chestnut
                                   SLAC
                   ESD RDB Use
•   Startup file crawling to produce
•   Old method for old system data
•   Tools to get secondary data right
•   Generation of secondary data files
•   LCLS may want .db generation too

• We also have cable databases and, in
  principle, power drawings
March 9-11 IRMIS      Ron Chestnut
                         SLAC
                       Tools
• I like to talk about
     – Functionality
     – Tables
     – Reports
     – Generating configuration files
• Task groups end up talking about
     – Which web tools?
     – Formal Oracle or ad-hoc generation

March 9-11 IRMIS        Ron Chestnut
                           SLAC