Table of Contents


IRMIS Overview

"IRMIS is a collaborative effort between several EPICS sites to build a common Relational DataBase schema and a set of tools to populate and search an RDB that contains information about the operational EPICS IOCs installed at that site." IRMIS (the schema, crawler programs and UI) was developed by Don Dohan and Claude Saunders at APS. For general information and distributions see the IRMIS home page.


IRMIS @ SLAC

IRMIS is used at SLAC for the following purposes, from several different interfaces:

Elements of the IRMIS database that have been adopted and modified for the controls software group at SLAC:

Elements modified or created at SLAC:


UI and DATABASE QUERYING

IRMIS GUI
This is a java UI for the IRMIS Oracle database, developed by Claude Saunders of the EPICS collaboration, can be invoked in 3 ways:

  1. from the lclshome edm display:
    click the “IRMIS…” button
  2. from a Solaris or Linux workstation:
    run this script:
    irmisUI

The gui paradigm is a set of “document types”; click the File/New Document menu for the list. Right now there are only 2 available for use at SLAC:

  1. idt::pv – Search for lists of PVs and IOCs. This is the most useful interface, and it comes up upon application startup.
  2. idt::pvClient – Search for PV Client lists (alarm handler, archiver, channel watcher)

Query results can be saved to an ascii file for further processing.

IOC Parameters APEX application
This is an APEX application showing IOC configuration data, and various operational parameter snapshots (obtained live nightly using caget).
https://seal.slac.stanford.edu/apex/mccqa/f?p=104:8

IOC Info query application
This is a jsp web application containing data about IOCs and applications, and their configurations.
https://seal.slac.stanford.edu/IRMISQueries/

EPICS camdmp APEX application
Various reports listing PVs and their module and channel connections.
https://seal.slac.stanford.edu/apex/mccqa/f?p=103:4

Archiver PV query APEX application
Lists of archived PVs by IOC application, IOC.
https://seal.slac.stanford.edu/apex/mccqa/f?p=259:8

IOC list report (run nightly)
This html report is created nightly by the LCLS PV Crawler
http://mccas0.slac.stanford.edu/crawler/ioc_report.html

PV Crawler logs (which include the duplicate PV lists)
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/lcls/controls/sysGroup/report/
a subset here: http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/lwgate/CONTROLS-SOFTWARE-REPORTS/archives

SQL querying
A view has been created to ease sql querying for PV lists. This view combines data from the IOC_BOOT, IOC, REC and REC_TYPE tables. It selects currently loaded PVs, where IOC_BOOT.CURRENT_LOAD = 1, with the latest IOC boot date captured.


OPERATIONAL and SUPPORT DETAILS

At SLAC, in a nutshell the PV and PV client crawlers update:

Oracle schemas and accounts
The IRMIS database schema is installed in 4 SLAC Oracle instances:

Other Oracle accounts

For passwords see Judy Rock or Poonam Pandey or Elie Grunhaus.

As of September 15, all crawler-related shell scripts and perl scripts use the getPwd script (Greg White) to get the latest Oracle password. Oracle passwords must be changed every 6 months; new passwords will be given to Ken Brobeck to update the secure master password files at password change time.

** The IRMIS GUI and the JSP application still use hardcoded passwords. These must be changed “manually” at every password change cycle.

Database structure: see schema diagram below. (this diagram excludes the EPICS camdmp structure, which is documented separately here: <url will be supplied>)

Crawler scripts
The PV crawler is run once for each IOC boot directory structure. The LCLS PV crawler (runLCLSPVCrawlerLx.bash) runs the crawler only once. It is separate to enable it to be run on a different schedule and different host which can see the LCLS IOC directories. Also, the crawler code has been modified to be LCLS-specific; it is a different version than the SLAC PV crawler.

The SLAC PV crawler (runSLACPVCrawler.csh) runs the crawler a couple of times to accommodate the various CD IOC directory structures.

cron jobs

PV crawler operation summary
For the location of the crawler scripts, see Source code directories below.
Basic steps as called by cron scripts are:

  1. run FACET pv crawler to populate MCCQA tables
  2. run LCLS pv crawlers to populate MCCQA tables
  3. run CD pv and pv client crawlers to populate MCCQA tables
  4. run Data Validation for PV data in MCCQA
  5. if Data Validation returns SUCCESS, run synchonization of MCCQA data to selected (3 only at the moment) MCCO tables.
  6. run caget4curr_ioc_device to populate caget columns of curr_ioc_device

** For PV Crawlers: the crawler group for any given IOC is determined by its row in the IOC table. The system column refers to the boot group for the IOC, as shown below.

* The PV client crawlers load all client directories in their config files; currently includes both CD and LCLS.

LOGFILES, Oracle audit table

Log filenames are created by appending a timestamp to the root name shown in the tables below.

The major steps in the crawler jobs write entries into the Oracle CONTROLS_GLOBAL.DATA_VALIDATION_AUDIT table. Each entry has these attributes:

Descriptions of the MAIN scripts (there other subsidiary scripts as well):

these are all ultimately invoked from the cron jobs shown above; the cron scripts call the others.

BLUE script names are on the CD side

GREEN script names are on the LCLS side

PURPLE script names are on the FACET side

{table:border=1}
{tr}
{th}script name{th}
{th}descr{th}
{tr}
{td}{color:#0000ff}runAllCDCrawlers.csh{color}\\
{color:#0000ff}{_}in /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/tools/irmis/cd_script{_}{color}{td}
{td}runs
* SLAC PV crawler
* all client crawlers
* rec client cleanup
* data validation for all current crawl data (LCLS and CD)
* sync to MCCO
\\
Logfile: /nfs/slac/g/cd/log/irmis/pv/ CDCrawlerAll.log
{td}
{tr}
{td}{color:#0000ff}runSLACPVCrawler.csh{color}
\\
{color:#0000ff}{_}in /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/tools/irmis/cd_script{_}{color}{td}
{td}run by runAllCDCrawlers.csh: crawls NLCTA IOCs (previously handled PEPII IOCs)
\\
The PV crawler is run 4 times within this script to accommodate the various boot directory structures:
|| system || IOCs crawled || log files ||
| NLCTA | IOCs booted from $CD_IOC on gtw00. \\
Boot dirs mirrored to /nfs/mccfs0/u1/pepii/mirror/cd/ioc for crawling | /nfs/slac/g/cd/log/irmis/pv/pv_crawlerLOG_ALL.\* \\
/tmp/pvCrawler.log |
| TR01 | TR01 only (old boot structure) | /nfs/slac/g/cd/log/irmis/pv/pv_crawlerLOG_TR01.\* \\
/tmp/pvCrawler.log |
{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}runLCLSPVCrawlerLx.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}crawls LCLS IOCs
|| system || IOCs crawled || log files ||
| LCLS | LCLS PRODUCTION IOCs. all IOC dirs in \\
$IOC /usr/local/lcls/epics/iocCommon | /u1/lcls/tools/crawler/pv/pv_crawlerLOG_LCLS.timestamp \\
/tmp/ LCLSPVCrawl.log |
{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#800080}runFACETPVCrawlerLx.bash{color}
\\
{color:#800080}{_}in /usr/local/facet/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}crawls FACET IOCs
|| system || IOCs crawled || log files ||
| FACET | FACET PRODUCTION IOCs. all IOC dirs in facet $IOC /usr/local/facet/epics/iocCommon | /u1/facettools/crawler/pv/pv_crawlerLOG_LCLS.timestamp \\
/tmp/FACETPVCrawl.log |
{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#0000ff}runClientCrawlers.csh{color}
\\
{color:#0000ff}{_}in /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/tools/irmis/cd_utils{_}{color}
\\
\\
{color:#0000ff}individual client crawler scripts are here{color}
\\
{color:#0000ff}{_}in /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/tools/irmis/cd_script{_}{color}{td}
{td}
Runs PV client crawlers in sequence. *LCLS client config files are all scp-ed to /nfs/slac/g/cd/crawler/lcls \*Configs for crawling*
|| Client crawler || config file with list of directories/files crawled || log files ||
| ALH | /afs/slac/g/cd/tools/irmis/cd_config/SLACALHDirs | /nfs/slac/g/cd/log/irmis/alh/alh_crawlerLOG.\* \\
/tmp/pvCrawler.log |
| Channel Watcher (CW) | /afs/slac/g/cd/tools/irmis/cd_config/SLACCWdirs.lst | /nfs/slac/g/cd/log/irmis/cw/cw_crawlerLOG.\* \\
/tmp/pvCrawler.log |
| Channel Archiver (CAR) | /afs/slac/g/cd/tools/irmis/cd_config/SLACCARfiles.lst \\
note: all CAR files for LCLS are scp-ed over from lcls-archsrv \\
to /nfs/slac/g/cd/crawler/lclsCARConfigs for crawling | /nfs/slac/g/cd/log/irmis/car/car_crawlerLOG.\* \\
/tmp/pvCrawler.log |
*Also runs* load_vuri_rec_client_type.pl for clients that don't handle vuri_rec_client_type records (sequence crawler only, at the moment)
{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#0000ff}runRecClientCleanup.csh{color}
\\
{color:#0000ff}{_}in in /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/tools/irmis/cd_script{_}{color}{td}
{td}deletes all non-current rec client, rec client flag and vuri rows. Logs to /nfs/slac/g/cd/log/irmis/client_cleanupLOG.\*{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}run_find_devices.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}for LCLS and FACET only, populate the devices_and_attributes table, a list of device names and attributes based on the LCLS PV naming convention. For PV DEV:AREA:UNIT:ATTRIBUTE, DEV:AREA:UNIT is the device, ATTRIBUTE is the attribute.{td}
{tr}

{tr}\\
{td}{color:#008000}run_load_bsa_root_names.bash{color}\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}{td}
loads bsa_root_names table by running stored procedure LOAD_BSA_ROOT_NAMES. LCLS and FACET names.{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}ioc_report.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}
{color:#800080}ioc_report-facet.bash{color}
\\
{color:#800080}{_}in /usr/local/facet/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}runs at the end of the LCLS PV crawl, which is last, creates the web ioc report:
\\
[http://www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/cd/soft/database/reports/ioc_report.html]{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#0000ff}updateMaterializedViews.csh{color}
\\
{color:#0000ff}{_}in /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/tools/irmis/cd_script{_}{color}{td}
{td}refreshes materialized view from curr_pvs{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}findDupePVs.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}
{color:#800080}findDupePVs-all.bash{color}
\\
{color:#800080}{_}in /usr/local/facet/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}finds duplicate PVs for reporting to e-mail
\\
(the \--all version takes system as a parameter){td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}copyClientConfigs.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}
{color:#800080}copyClientConfigs-facet.bash{color}
\\
{color:#800080}{_}in /usr/local/facet/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}copies alh, cw and car config files to /nfs for crawling by the client crawler job{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}copyClientConfigs.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}
{color:#800080}copyClientConfigs-facet.bash{color}
\\
{color:#800080}{_}in /usr/local/facet/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}copies alh, cw and car config files to /nfs for crawling by the client crawler job{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}refresh_curr_ioc_device.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}refreshes the curr_ioc_device table with currently booted info from ioc_device (speeds up query in the Archiver PV APEX app).
\\
Also see caget4curr_ioc_device.bash below.{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}find_LCLSpv_count_changes.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}
{color:#800080}find_pv_count_changes-all.bash{color}
\\
{color:#800080}{_}in /usr/local/facet/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}finds the IOCs with PV counts that changed in the last LCLS crawler run. This is reported in the logfile, and in the daily e-mail.
\\
(the \--all version takes system as a parameter){td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}populate_dtyp_io_tab.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}populate_io_curr_pvs_and_fields.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}run_load_hw_dev_pvs.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}run_parse_camac_io.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}set of script to populate various tables for the EPICS camdmp APEX application.{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}write_data_validation_row.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}
{color:#0000ff}write_data_validation_row.csh{color}
\\
{color:#0000ff}{_}in /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/tools/irmis/cd_script{_}{color}
{color:#800080}write_data_validation_row-facet.bash{color}
\\
{color:#800080}{_}in /usr/local/facet/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}writes a row to the controls_global.data_validation_audit table (all environments){td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}runDataValidation.csh
\\
runDataValidation-facet.csh
\\
_in /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/tools/irmis/cd_script{_}{td}
{td}runs IRMISDataValidation.pl -- CD and LCLS PV data validation{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#b00e00}runSync.csh{color}
\\
{color:#b00e00}{_}in /afs/slac/g/cd/soft/tools/irmis/cd_script{_}{color}{td}
{td}runs data replication to MCCO, currently these objects ONLY:
* curr_pvs
* bsa_root_names
* devices_and_attributes{td}
{tr}
{tr}
{td}{color:#008000}caget4curr_ioc_device.bash{color}
\\
{color:#008000}{_}in /usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis/script/_{color}{td}
{td}does cagets to obtain IOC parameters for the curr_ioc_device table. Run as a separate cron job from the crawlers because cagets
\\
can hang unexpectedly -- they are best done in an isolated script\!{td}
{tr}
{table}

Crawler cron schedule and error reporting

time

script

cron owner/host

8 pm

runFACETPVCrawlerLx.bash

flaci/facet-daemon1

9 pm

runLCLSPVCrawlerLx.bash

laci/lcls-daemon2

1:30 am

runAllCDCrawlers.csh

cddev/slcs2

4 am

caget4curr_ioc_device.bash

laci/lcls-daemon2

Following the crawls, the calling scripts grep for errors and warnings, and send lists of these to Judy Rock, Bob Hall and Ernest Williams, Jingchen Zhou. The LCLS PV crawler and the Data Validation scripts send messages to controls-software-reports as well. To track down the error messages in the e-mail, refer to the logs file du jour, the cron job /tmp output files, and the Oracle CONTROLS_GLOBAL.DATA_VALIDATION_AUDIT (see below for details on how to query this)

Source directories

description

cvs root

production directory tree root

details

IRMIS software

SLAC code has diverged from the original collaboration version, and LCLS IRMIS code has diverged from the main SLAC code (i.e. we have 2 different version of the IRMIS PV crawler.)

CD: /afs/slac/package/epics/tools/irmisV2_SLAC
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/cvsweb/tools/irmisV2_SLAC/?cvsroot=SLAC-EPICS-Releases

LCLS:
Please note different CVS location: the production directory for the LCLS crawlers is /usr/local/lcls/package/irmis/irmisV2_SLAC/. the LCLS "package" dir structure is NOT in CVSed. So, to modify crawler code, you can cvs co the code, modify, test, copy the mods straight into production, then CVS them.
CVS location is in tools/irmis/crawler_code_CVS
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/cvsweb/tools/irmis/crawler_code_CVS/?cvsroot=LCLS

CD:
/afs/slac/package/epics/tools/irmisV2_SLAC
LCLS:
/usr/local/lcls/package/irmis/irmisV2_SLAC


  • db/src/crawlers contains crawler source code. SLAC-specific crawlers are in directories named *SLAC
  • apps/src contains UI source code.
  • apps/build.xml is the ant build file
  • README shows how to build the UI app using ant

CD scripts

For ease and clarity, the CD scripts are also in the LCLS CVS repository under
tools/irmis/cd_script, cd_utils, cd_config
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/cvsweb/tools/irmis/crawler_code_CVS/?cvsroot=LCLS

/afs/slac/g/cd/tools/irmis


  • cd_script contains most scripts
  • cd_utils has a few scripts
  • cd_config contains client crawler directory lists

LCLS scripts

/afs/slac/g/lcls/cvs
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/cvsweb/tools/irmis/?cvsroot=LCLS

/usr/local/lcls/tools/irmis


  • script contains the LCLS pv crawler run scripts, etc.
  • util has some subsidiary scripts

FACET scripts

These scripts share the LCLS repository (different names so they don’t collide with LCLS scripts)
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/cvsweb/tools/irmis/crawler_code_CVS/?cvsroot=LCLS

/usr/local/facet/tools/irmis


  • script contains the FACET pv crawler run scripts, etc.
  • util has some subsidiary scripts

PV Crawler: what gets crawled and how

TROUBLESHOOTING: post-crawl emails and data_validation_audit entries: what to worry about, how to bypass or fix for a few…

select * from controls_global.data_validation_audit where schema_nm=’IRMISDB’ order by tod desc;

This will show you (most recent first) the data validation entries, with any error messages.

You can also see a complete listing of data_validation_audit entries in reverse chron order by using AIDA (but you will have to pick out the IRMISDB lines):

For a “good” set of IRMISDB entries, scroll down and see those from: 9/22 9 pm, continuing into 9/23, which completed successfully. The steps in ascending order are:

FACET PV Crawler

start

FACET PV Crawler

finish

ALL_DATA_UPDATE

start

LCLS PV Crawler

start

LCLS PV Crawler

finish

CD PV Crawler

start

CD PV Crawler

finish

PV Client Crawlers

start

PV Client Crawlers

finish

PV Client Cleanup

start

PV Client Cleanup

finish

DATA_VALIDATION

start

DATA_VALIDATION

finish

FACET DATA_VALIDATION

start

FACET DATA_VALIDATION

finish

ALL_DATA_UPDATE

finish

then there are multiple steps for the sync to MCCO, labelled REFRESH_MCCO_IRMIS_TABLES

REFRESH_MCCO_IRMIS_TABLES will not kick off unless ALL_DATA_UPDATE finishes with a status of SUCCESS.

If the drop intentional: You will need to update the database manually to enable the crawler to proceed: the count difference is discovered by comparing the row count of the newly populated curr_pvs view with the row count of the materialized view curr_pvs_mv, which was updated on the previous day. If the PV count has dropped > 5000 PVs, the synchronization is cautious - it prevents updating good data in MCCO until the reason for the drop is known.

The step to say "it's ok, the drop was intentional or at least non-destructive - synchronization is now ok" is to go ahead and updated the materialized view with current data. Then the next time the crawler runs, the counts will be closer (barring some other problem) and the synchronization can proceed
So, to enable the crawlers proceed, you need to update the materialized view with data in the current curr_pvs view, like this:
log in as cddev on slcs2 and run
/afs/slac/g/cd/tools/irmis/cd_script/updateMaterializedViews.csh

The next time the crawler runs (that night), the data validation will be making the comparison with correct current data, and you should be good to go.

If the drop is NOT intentional: Check the log for that IOC (search for “Processing iocname”) and/or ask the IOC engineer to check for changes in the IOC boot directories, and IOC boot files for:
– a syntax error in the boot file or directory

To bypass crawling specific IOC(s): update the IOC table and for the IOC(s) in question, set SYSTEM to something other than LCLS or NLCTA (e.g. LCLS-TEMP-NOCRAWL) so it/they will not be crawled next time.

In the event of an error that stops crawling, here are the affected end-users of IRMIS PVs:
(usually not an emergency, just decay of the accuracy of the lists over time.)

3 possible worst case workarounds:

  1. Synchronization to MCCO that bypasses error checking
    If you need to run the synchronization to MCCO even though IRMISDataValidation.pl failed (i.e. the LCLS crawler ran fine, but others failed), you can run a special version that bypasses the error checking, and runs the sync no matter what. It’s:
    /afs/slac/u/cd/jrock/jrock2/DBTEST/tools/irmis/cd_script/runSync-no-check.csh
  1. Comment out code in IRMISDataValidation.pl

If the data validation needs to bypass a step, you can edit IRMISDataValidation.pl (see above tables for location) to remove or change a data validation step and enable the crawler jobs to complete. For example, if a problem with the PV client crawlers causes the sync to MCCO not to run, you may want to simply remove the PV Client crawler check from the data validation step.

3) Really worst case! Edit the MCCO tables manually

If the PV crawlers will not complete with a sync of good data to MCCO, and you decide to wait til November for me to fix it (this is fine – the PV crawler parser is a complicated piece of code that needs tender loving care and testing!), AND accelerator operations are affected by missing PVs in one of these tables, the tables can be updated manually with names that are needed to operate the machine:

o aida_names (see Bob and Greg)

o bsa_root_names (see Elie)

o devices_and_attributes (see Elie)