Taking data from the Control Room

Taking data from the Control Room

  • Table of contents
  • [Taking data from the Control Room]
    • [Starting the Run Control GUI]
    • [Starting DAQInterface and a Run]
    • [Ending a Run and/or DAQInterface]
    • [What to do when the run is done or a restart "from scratch" is needed?]
    • [Posting to the ECL]

NOTE: if your run requires you to interface with the Trigger system, there is a Wiki page on interfacing with that from the DAQ VNC session.

This page walks a shifter through how to keep data flowing in for ICARUS, from the steps required to launch the daq, or to start/stop runs as may be needed at various points. While the SBN DAQ documentation linked from the main Wiki page has lots of documentation, the main purpose of this page describes how to get a run started assuming you have the DAQ VNC session up, but no instance of a running daq.

If the shifter is having trouble with starting or stopping a run, they should call the relevant DAQ expert to remedy the situation. The expert list lives in doc-db (https://sbn-docdb.fnal.gov/cgi-bin/private/ShowDocument?docid=15862) and a copy should be also be available on the DAQ VNC session (in the ExpertsOnCall folder on the Desktop area). When conducting in-person shifts, a printed copy should be available in ROC-West.

Make posts in the logbook (ECL) when runs are started or stopped, and the reason for such action and conditions related to the run (this is especially captured in the Run Start form. If a run has crashed, the shifter should note this in the logbook, and if there is some obvious message in the messages in the Run Control GUI or the shifter sees something interesting in Grafana, etc., they should note this in the logbook, and ideally post a screenshot.

Additional note while taking shift from ROC-West

This procedure will have you open terminals at points. To do this, click on Applications on the screen where that is an option. There is one for the CR machine at the very top of one of the monitors. For the VNC session, there is also an Applications bar inside of Firefox browser window. The terminal is opened from this location as in the screenshot below.

Location from which to launch a terminal session

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Starting the Run Control GUI

Additional note while taking shift from ROC-West

The first thing to understand is if the VNC session to the evb01 machine (where we will be taking data) is already up. If the VNC is there, skip the next few paragraphs to "Running the DAQ uses..".

If no VNC is up to the Event Builder machine (evb01), the first thing to check is: is the tunnel to the machine established? We do this via an ssh -L type command tunneling through the gateway01 machine. So, is there a terminal somewhere on the CR01 screens that is connecting to a port on gateway01?

If yes: simply open Firefox and type in the VNC password as your session password. See the Projects tab -> Configurations page in the ECL if you do not already know this information. You may have to expand the window to see the whole DAQ VNC screen.
If no: open a terminal and do the following\

cd ~/bin/
./setup_tunnel


Then open Firefox and type in the ICARUS doc-db password as your session password. You will likely have to expand the window to take up 2 screens (vertically).

Even if the VNC has been closed, it's possible the run is still going. If a run is still going and you weren't meant to restart a run, then congrats, you're ready to go! If a run is not going and there should be, then you will have to start a run. This wiki article just covers the DAQ running. Monitoring for run conditions and detector conditions are described at the moment with some information elsewhere.

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Away from ROC-West

If you are not in ROC-West then you likely already have the DAQ VNC session in a browser tab. See the Remote Connections page for more details on this connection.

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No matter where you are:

Running the DAQ uses the Run Control graphical user interface (GUI) which interfaces with the artdaq DAQInterface but which takes the place of using the command line, and as we move forward will be especially useful with configuration databases to run using large sets of components or specific subsets, etc. At the moment, we're using an intermediate solution which is better than terminal commands but perhaps a few more button presses than the configuration database. The basic procedure would be to open a terminal and change directory to the DAQ release area, set up the DAQInterface, and then run the GUI. This has been simplified into simply double-clicking an icon on the evb01 VNC session, which executes a shell script. The location of the icon in a steady state should be the Desktop folder.

The icon is called startRC and has the icon with the ship steering wheel. To figure out where the icon is, see the Shift Bulletin Board's "New and Permanent Conditions" section. This may be the desktop, or it may be a folder on the desktop.

icons to launch run control GUI and online monitoring processes on evb01

The other icon is for the online monitoring process, which is explained with some information elsewhere.

This will launch the Run Control GUI and a run State Diagram, as below

Run Control GUI upon start-up

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Starting DAQInterface and a Run

To start a run from here:

  1. To launch the DAQInterface, click on Start DAQInterface
  2. Some of the gray buttons will now show black font and allow interaction. You should now check the "Use database configuration" and press the button "Database configurations" to open the list of all the possible configurations available.
  3. Select the standardTPCWest configuration for standard shifter runs. You can type "standard" in the filter box to help find the right one. There will be a version number after the config name: usually, there should only be one valid configuration with that name that is visible, but if there are multiple ones use the latest-numbered one. Most times the components to be included for the run are pre-selected in the configuration, but crosscheck the Shift Bulletin Board in case some specific settings are required.
  4. Use the boot_split.txt boot file
  5. At this stage, the DAQ is ready to run. The situation will look something like the picture below. Click on RUN to undergo the booting, configuring, and starting the run all in one go.
    !(/redmine/attachments/download/63085/run_startup.png)
  6. While the system tries to start, keep an eye on the state diagram. You should see the current stage of the process highlighting. It will go through a BOOT sequence, a CONFIGURE sequence, and then starting the run followed by RUNNING. If for some reason it starts to do one step and then fall back to the previous step or STOPPED, something has gone wrong.
  7. During this sequence, a messaging service (Msg Viewer) will pop up. Put it somewhere where it is visible along with the other pieces. This will give you run info and print status, warning, and/or error messages as the case may be.

When the system is running, things should basically look like they do in the figure below.
Run Control GUI and related screens with a run in progress

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Ending a Run and/or DAQInterface

If you need to bring down a run for some reason, there is a STOP button, and you will see the status (in the state diagram) go to STOPPING RUN, followed either by READY (which allows for the possibility of restarting a run straight from there) or STOPPED. If you want to end the session, and it's in the READY state then you will have to TERMINATE to get back to the STOPPED state. To exit the DAQInterface session click on End Session in the bottom left of the GUI. You will be asked if you want to close the session, as in the picture below.
The pop up asking to end the DAQInterface session

Click yes. Once it's done closing out the session, you can click the X in the top right corner of the Run Control GUI, State Diagram, MsgViewer, and terminal to exit out.

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What to do when the run is done or a restart "from scratch" is needed?

When the run is done or a restart "from scratch" is needed (e.g. components are going to be changed), you should go through the procedure above using the TERMINATE button after STOP to get back to the STOPPED state. At this point, if you have to change components you can do that. When ready to start a new run, click RUN.

If Online Monitoring doesn't restart well on the next run, you may need to close the Online Monitoring terminal and double click on the Online Monitoring icon to restart the monitoring.

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Posting to the ECL

Remember to post to the ECL when runs are started, stopped, etc. to keep track of the run conditions!

If you are new to ECL, there is another wiki page describing that. :::

Files (8)

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RCGUI_1.png{.icon .icon-attachment} [(194 KB)]{.size} RCGUI_1.png{.icon-only .icon-download} Run Control GUI upon start-up [Bruce Howard, 01/28/2020 02:48 PM]{.author} Delete{.delete .icon-only .icon-del} RCGUI_3.png{.icon .icon-attachment} [(329 KB)]{.size} RCGUI_3.png{.icon-only .icon-download} Run Control GUI and State Diagram after selecting components and configurations [Bruce Howard, 01/28/2020 04:12 PM]{.author} Delete{.delete .icon-only .icon-del} RCGUI_5.png{.icon .icon-attachment} [(1.27 MB)]{.size} RCGUI_5.png{.icon-only .icon-download} Run Control GUI and related screens with a run in progress [Bruce Howard, 01/28/2020 04:16 PM]{.author} Delete{.delete .icon-only .icon-del} RCGUI_EndSession.png{.icon .icon-attachment} [(33.6 KB)]{.size} RCGUI_EndSession.png{.icon-only .icon-download} The pop up asking to end the DAQInterface session [Bruce Howard, 01/28/2020 04:21 PM]{.author} Delete{.delete .icon-only .icon-del} StartTerminal.png{.icon .icon-attachment} [(94.6 KB)]{.size} StartTerminal.png{.icon-only .icon-download} Location from which to launch a terminal session [Bruce Howard, 01/29/2020 12:08 PM]{.author} Delete{.delete .icon-only .icon-del} evb1-icons.png{.icon .icon-attachment} [(98.4 KB)]{.size} evb1-icons.png{.icon-only .icon-download} icons to launch run control GUI and online monitoring processes on evb01 [Bruce Howard, 02/04/2020 05:42 PM]{.author} Delete{.delete .icon-only .icon-del} ECL_for_Runs.png{.icon .icon-attachment} [(13.7 KB)]{.size} ECL_for_Runs.png{.icon-only .icon-download} [Bruce Howard, 02/21/2020 07:37 PM]{.author} Delete{.delete .icon-only .icon-del} run_startup.png{.icon .icon-attachment} [(209 KB)]{.size} run_startup.png{.icon-only .icon-download} [Andrea Scarpelli, 02/26/2021 04:28 PM]{.author} Delete{.delete .icon-only .icon-del} ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- ——————————————————————————— ————————————————– —————————————————————————– :::

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