Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

"Luchini, Kristi" <[email protected]> · Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:23:09 -0700

Hi,

You may want to consider the Elma VME crates. We've used the following VME 64X crates, each has their issues...most were eventually resolved.

Weiner 7-slot(problems w/7-slot backplane)
Weiner 21-slot
Dawn 5-slot (problems with power, manufacture would not agree to fix)
Dawn 2-slot (works fine, used ethernet power strip for remote reboot).
Elma 4-slot
Elma 8-slot
Hybricon 4-slot
Hybricon 8-slot

Here's the hybricon manual

http://www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/lcls/controls/global/hw/users_guides/vme/crates/22844_Arrow_Stanford_Rev_B.doc

I've attached Elma crates infor...

- Kristi

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dalesio, Leo
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 6:08 AM
To: Ralph Lange; Emmanuel Mayssat
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Remote IOC reboot [was: EPICS for implementation of RemoteProcedure Call]

Most crate manufacturers now offer an Ethernet or serial interface to a state of health board that supports remote reboot. We are looking at Rittel and Weiner. The Dawn crates also provided this.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] on behalf of Ralph Lange
Sent: Thu 4/16/2009 4:57 AM
To: Emmanuel Mayssat
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Remote IOC reboot [was: EPICS for implementation of RemoteProcedure Call]

Hi Emmanuel,

as Stephanie points out, a simple sub record allows for CA based reset on most IOC platforms. (No special device support necessary.)

Remember, though, there are cases when this will or might not work: IOC hangs (so the IOC doesn't work), IOC gets CPU saturated (so that CA doesn't work), IOC gets memory saturated (so that CA doesn't allow new connections). In those cases, you will probably have to get to the console of the IOC and do whatever necessary (e.g. type ^X). Workaround: 
it is relatively easy to create a shell script that connects to the console and echoes a ^X to it, so you can still create a GUI button that calls the shell script that connects to the console and reboots the IOC.
Less elegant than CA to a sub record, still more efficient than walking over.

Also, for VME based systems, there are situations that need a VME reset rather than just a reboot of the CPU.
Some VME crates (e.g. those by Wiener) are remotely controllable, so that the whole VME crate can be switched on/off or reset remotely (plus a bucket load of other functionality).
For other (aka less expensive) crates some labs have developed VME cards that can be remotely accessed and are able to pull the VME reset line (plus more functionality). That is not free: A separate card always uses an extra slot.

Cheers,
Ralph

On 15.04.2009 20:42 Allison, Stephanie wrote:
> Hi Emmanuel,
>
> There are some device support packages that provide for rebooting/restarting an IOC via record.  For instance, devIocStats:
> http://www.slac.stanford.edu/comp/unix/package/epics/site/devIocStats/
> provides a sub record that calls epicsExit for soft iocs, reboot for vxWorks iocs, and bsp_reset/rtemsReboot for RTEMS iocs.  
>
> Stephanie Allison
>
>   
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: [email protected]
>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Emmanuel Mayssat
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 11:26 AM
>> To: [email protected]
>> Cc: Mahajan Kirti; [email protected]
>> Subject: Remote IOC reboot Was(EPICS for implementation of Remote 
>> Procedurecall)
>>
>> S,
>>
>> Could you describe your interface (from a user/operator
>> perspective) to
>> your IOC reboot interface? I may actually be interested with that.
>>
>> In short I want to know:
>> Can you reboot/control a remote IOC with the push of a GUI button?
>>
>> --
>> Emmanuel

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System