THE BEST EVER ALARM SYSTEM TOOLKIT
Kay Kasemir, Xihui Chen, Katia Danilova · 2009
Learning from our experience with the standard Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) handler (ALH) as well as a similar intermediate approach based on script-generated operator screens, we developed the Best Ever Alarm System Toolkit (BEAST). It is based on Java and Eclipse on the Control System Studio (CSS) platform, using a relational database (RDB) to store the configuration and log actions. It employs a Java Message Service (JMS) for communication between the modular pieces of the toolkit, which include an Alarm Server to maintain the current state, an arbitrary number of Alarm Client user interfaces (GUI), and tools to annunciate alarms or log related actions. Web reports allow us to monitor the system performance and spot deficiencies in the configuration. The Alarm Client GUI not only gives the end users various ways to view alarms in tree and table, but also makes it easy to access the guidance information, the related operator displays and other CSS tools. It also allows online configuration to be simply modified from the GUI. Coupled with a good alarm philosophy on how to provide useful alarms, we can finally improve the configuration to achieve an effective system.