Testing XxxMonTools Packages

Introduction

It is the responsibility of subsystem personnel to test and install the various components in the fast monitoring system. As a general rule, these components should be tested before they are installed in the active production system. This document outlines some of the methods available for testing.

There are three kinds of file installed in the LiveFastMon self-service area (/nfs/bbr-srv02/bfdist/MonitoringData):

• HTML and XML files that control the JAS display. These files are found in the XxxMonTools/FastMonHTML directory (and sometimes subdirectories). The install procedure (LiveFastMon-html-install) copies them to the top-level doc directory, and modifies them by replacing the string @NAVIGATIONBAR@ with header and footer html sequences for navigating among the subsystems.

• Reference hbook files for both LiveFastMon and IR2LiveL3. These are stored in the References subdirectory, and installed by the LiveFastMon-hbook-install script, which merges the hbook files from individual subsystems into a single reference for LiveFastMon.

• Automated monitoring (.cri) files. These are found in the FastMonAuto subdirectory of the XxxMonTools package. They do not have to be installed, but are used directly from the package. You should therefore be aware that checking out a new tag or modifying one of these files in place will affect automated monitoring the next time it is restarted.

Adding, Modifying and Testing LiveFastMon Histograms

If you need to modify or add histograms to fast monitoring, you must modify the code in the fast monitoring executable (or in the L3 trigger executable in the case of L3T histograms). This code should be tested or validated prior to use in production. Most of the subsystems have special applications that are used for testing their fast monitoring code. It is also possible to run the fast monitoring code in playback mode on xtc files using the application FmcFastMonPlaybackApp. A small script to simplify running this application is under development.

These test applications normally store their histograms in hbook files. You can examine these hbook files using paw, or any other tools you may have. If you want to see how they look in JAS, you can use HbkServerJas.

Testing HTML and XML

Before you install new html and xml files, you can test them against the live histograms using the regular jas client with the -s option giving the pathname of your new files. Just create a test build containing your modified XxxMonTools package and then run:

RemoteBabarJas3 -s <build-dir>/XxxMonTools/FastMonHTML/index.html

where <build-dir> is the full pathname of your test build.

This will look slightly different than the normal fast monitoring display in that the navigation bars at the top and bottom of your main page will show “@NAVIGATIONBAR@” since they have not been replaced by the install procedure. But otherwise the plots and text on the pages should look normal.

Once you have tested your html and xml files, you should install them using either the self-service area maintenance GUI or the manual installation tool. Before you do this, you should advise the DQM shifter that you are about to install new jas html. Ideally you should be present in the control room and join the DQM shifter in examining the resulting pages. Once the install is complete, the new pages should be visible immediately in jas, although you have to refresh the current page if that is what you want to see.

Preparing Reference HBOOK files

Reference histograms are prepared by selecting a good, typical recent run and extracting the histograms for your subsystem from the appropriate hbook file for that run. You can find these files at

/nfs/bbr-nfs102/pubfastmon/MonitoringData/OutputArchive/YYYY/MM/LiveFastMon

or the corresponding IR2LiveL3 in the case of L3T. The various subsystems have scripts available for extracting their histograms and preparing the references.

Naturally you will examine the histograms in the original file in order to select which run to use as the reference source. You can also examine the extracted file prior to merging. For this you can use paw, or any other tools you have If you want to see them as they would appear in jas, you can also use HbkServerJas.

When your references are ready, you merge them with the histograms from the other subsystems using either the self-service area maintenance GUI or the manual installation tool. After doing this, you should advise the DQM shifter to restart the reference servers. This is done using the Fast Monitoring Control GUI. You click on either the LiveFastMon-ref or IR2LiveL3-ref button, and select “Restart”. If you are not sure which one to restart, just do them both. Once you have done this, the new references will show up immediately in jas. There is no need to restart jas.

Testing Automated Monitoring Files

The configuration files for automated fast monitoring are found in the FastMonAuto subdirectory of the XxxMonTools package. They are named *.cri. They do not have to be installed, as they are found directly in the package itself.

There are two test programs available for .cri files. They are found in the DhpToken package. You will have to check out this package and build it. One program simply parses the .cri file for correctness. This is testDhpTokenFile, which takes the .cri file as its single argument.

The other test program will run a single comparison on two hbook files, driven by a .cri file. This is testOprComparison, whichis run like this:

testOprComparison <test hbook> <ref hbook> <.cri file>

When you are ready to put your .cri files into production, you simple check out the desired tag of the package, and then restart automated monitoring, by clicking on the “Restart Fast Mon Auto” icon on bfo-con05.