The purpose of the box status module is to allow an EPICS IOC to check if any network capable box (device) is connected/online, essentially by pinging the box. Any box that can respond to a ping is suitable, e.g. EPICS IOC hosts, MOXA terminal servers, network switchs, motion controllers, etc.
This module provides an device driver to support pinging a remote host and collecting the result of the ping. The ping itself is performed by forking a child process which execvp's (executes) ping, as:
ping -c 1 -W 3 <remote_hostname>
The module waits for the child process to complete, and the exit code of the ping child process determines the value assigned to the associated mbbi record. Ping exit codes and meanings:
0 okay 1 no reply and 2 invalid/unknown hostname.
The module kills the child process if it does not complete within 4 seconds.
The mbbi records may scan or I/O interrupt. The ping management functionality is run aynchronessly using an internal thread. An I/O interrupt is issued at the end of each ping cycle for the remote host. The read process mearly access the latest known status - it does not instigate any processing per se.
Note: this unit developed on and for executing on Linux.
Note: ping must be on the PATH (/usr/bin/ping on CentOS 7) and have the run as root "sticky" bit set. If needs be, this can be set as follows:
sudo chmod a+s /usr/bin/ping
The module includes Box_Status.template which can be used as is, or as a guide to creating your template file. As well as the box (device) status itself, the template also includes device function and device location stringin records.
The mbbi status record reflects the status of the ping. The status are:
| State | Severity | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | INVALID | Undefined |
| Ok | NO_ALARM | ping exit code 0 |
| No reply | MAJOR | ping exit code 1 |
| Invalid | MAJOR | ping exit code 2 |
| Timeout | MAJOR | ping timeout |
Note: In the template the BOX macro paramters is used for both the record name and the device to be pinged defined in thr INP field. This must be a basic host name, not an IP address nor a fully qualified domain name (record names can contain dots ('.')).
Within the EPICS IOC's configure/RELEASE file (or an included file such as RELEASE.local) add:
BOXSTATUS=**the location of the boxStatus module in your environment**
Within the EPICS IOC's make file (<top>/IOC_Name_App/src/Makefile), add:
IOC_Name_DBD += devBoxStatus.dbd
IOC_Name_LIBS += devBoxStatus
And within the IOC's st.cmd file (example):
dbLoadRecords ("$(BOXSTATUS)/Box_Status.template", "BOX=SR16MB03DEV01, FUNCTION=Primary Widget, LOCATION=Sever Room 2")
dbLoadRecords ("$(BOXSTATUS)/Box_Status.template", "BOX=SR16MB03DEV02, FUNCTION=Secondary Widget, LOCATION=Tunnel Roof")
Note: It is probably better to use a substitution file if more than a limited number of devices need to be specified.
As above, except add the following to the EPICS IOC's configure/RELEASE file:
BOXSTATUS=$(BUNDLE)/epics/boxStatus
Within the EPICS IOC's build_instructions file add:
comp=/tec/epics/boxStatus/trunk/BoxStatusSup
Within the EPICS IOC's make file (<top>/IOC_Name_App/src/Makefile), as above.
And within the IOC's st.cmd file (example):
dbLoadRecords ("db/Box_Status.template", "BOX=SR16MB03DEV01, FUNCTION=Primary Widget, LOCATION=Sever Room 2")
dbLoadRecords ("db/Box_Status.template", "BOX=SR16MB03DEV02, FUNCTION=Secondary Widget, LOCATION=Tunnel Roof")
Documentation and licence update for sharing on GitHub. Removed obsolete archive meta comments.
Fixed typo in BoxStatusSup/opi/Makefile
Added EPICS Qt box_status.ui file.
Updated top Makefile file.
Added perforce key words to configure/RELEASE.
Initial delivery
Last updated: Sat May 13 14:32:50 2023