[en] CERN employs a large number of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) to implement industrial processes. These PLCs provide critical functions and must be placed under permanent monitoring. However, owing to their proprietary architecture, it is difficult to both monitor the status of these automates using vendor-provided software packages and integrate the resulting data with the CERN accelerator infrastructure, which itself relies on CERN-specific protocols and configuration facilities. This paper exposes the architecture of a stand-alone ^PLC diagnostics monitoring Linux daemon, which provides live diagnostics information through standard means and protocols, namely file logging, CERN protocols, and Java Management Extensions. Such information is currently consumed by the EN-ICE MOON supervision software used by the EN-ICE Standby Service to monitor the status of critical industrial applications used in the LHC and the CERN DIAMoN monitoring console used by the LHC operators. Both applications are used daily to monitor and diagnose critical PLC hardware running all over CERN. (author)

[en] The development and maintenance of the control systems of the four LHC experiments will require a non-negligible amount of resources and effort. The Joint COntrols Project (JCOP)[1] has been set-up as a collaboration between CERN and the four LHC experiments to find common solutions for the LHC experiments' control systems. Although the JCOP general principle is to promote the use of industrial solutions wherever possible, custom solutions are still required when non-standard devices or very large numbers of devices have to be controlled. Furthermore, to ease the development and integration of both standard and non-standard device into the control system a number of software Frameworks are under development. The authors will describe the various solutions being proposed by JCOP including the Supervisory and Front-End frameworks as well as the various industrial and custom components. In addition, they will also describe where these fit into the foreseen JCOP controls architecture. The authors will then highlight in more detail the Front-End Framework

[en] The Industrial Controls and Engineering (EN-ICE) group of the Engineering Department at CERN has produced, and is responsible for the operation of around 60 applications, which control critical processes in the domains of cryogenics, quench protection systems, power interlocks for the Large Hadron Collider and other subsystems of the accelerator complex. These applications require 24/7 operation and a quick reaction to problems. For this reason the EN-ICE group is presently developing the Monitoring Operation of controls Networks (MOON) tool to detect, anticipate and inform of possible anomalies in the integrity of the applications. The tool builds on top of Simatic WinCC Open Architecture (WinCC OA) SCADA and makes usage of the Joint Controls Project (JCOP) and the Unified Industrial Control System (UNICOS) Frameworks developed at CERN. The tool provides centralized monitoring and software management of the different elements integrating the control systems like Windows and Linux servers, PLCs, applications, etc. Although the primary aim of the monitoring tool is to assist the members of the EN-ICE Standby Service, the tool may offer different levels of detail, which also enables experts to diagnose and troubleshoot problems. In this paper, the scope, functionality and architecture of the tool are presented and some initial results on its performance are summarized. (authors)

[en] The power supply system for the magnets of the CERN PS (Proton Synchrotron) has been recently upgraded to a new system called POPS (Power for PS). The old mechanical machine has been replaced by a system based on capacitors. The equipment as well as the low level controls have been provided by an external company (CONVERTEAM). The supervision application has been developed at CERN reusing the technologies and tools used for the LHC Accelerator and Experiments (UNICOS and JCOP frameworks, SIMATIC WinCC Open Architecture SCADA tool). The POPS control system architecture is a 3 layer control system. The first layer is the field layer with remote input/output module connected to the control layer. This layer is composed of WAGO modules interfaced with the control layer via the PROFIBUS field-bus. The second layer is the control layer with CONVERTEAM hardware and software based on VME cards, holding the closed control loops and the voltage and capacitors control. The CONVERTEAM control system is distributed over four CPUs and remote IO modules. Each CPU is monitoring the link with the Supervision layer; the interruption of the communication stops the powering of the system. The third layer is the supervision layer. In this layer, process views are provided for the monitoring and the control/command interface of the control system. Other typical functions (e.g. archiving, trending, alarm handling) are also provided by this layer. The paper describes the full architecture of the control application, and the challenges faced for the integration with an out-sourced system. The benefits of reusing the CERN industrial control frameworks and the required adaptations will be discussed. Finally, the initial operational experience will be presented

[en] With the widespread adoption of asynchronous web communication, thanks to WebSockets and WebRTC, it has now become possible to distribute industrial controls data (such as coming from devices or SCADA software) in a scalable and event-based manner to a large number of web clients in the form of rich, interactive visualizations. There is yet, however, no simple, secure and performant way to query large amounts of aggregated historical data. This paper presents an implementation of such an architecture, which is able to make massive quantities of pre-indexed historical data stored in ElasticSearch available to a large number of web-based consumers through asynchronous web protocols. It also presents a simple, Opensocial-based dashboard architecture that allows users to configure and organize rich data visualizations (based on Highcharts Javascript libraries) and create navigation flows in a responsive, mobile-friendly user interface. Such techniques are used at CERN to display interactive reports about the status of the LHC infrastructure (e.g., Vacuum and Cryogenics installations) and give access to fine-grained historical data (such as stored in the LHC Logging database) in a matter of seconds. (author)

[en] Most of the large slow control systems in the LEP collider experiments are distributed heterogeneous and multi-standard. But in spite of the appearances, they have a lot in common. From our direct experience on the L-3 slow control system and from the informations we obtained on the 3 other LEP experiments control systems we have come to the conclusion that it should be possible to build a Generic Control Package from which any control system could be derived. This software package is entirely based on relational databases and is intended to provide all the necessary tools to build a modular, coherent, easy to update and to maintain control system. Among other things this package should include user friendly interfaces, expert systems, and powerful graphic monitoring and control tools. This paper will present our general ideas about the realization of such a package. (author)

[en] The detector control system for the NA62 experiment at CERN is going to be built based on control technologies recommended by the CERN Engineering group. In particular two approaches to building controls application need to play in harmony: the use of the high-level application framework called UNICOS, and a bottom-up approach of development based on the components of the JCOP Framework. The aim of combining the features provided by the two frameworks is to avoid duplication of functionality and minimize the maintenance and development effort for future controls applications. In the paper the result of the integration efforts obtained so far are presented; namely the control applications developed for beam-testing of NA62 detector prototypes. Even though the delivered applications are simple, significant conceptual and development work was required to bring about the smooth inter-play between the two frameworks, while assuring the possibility of unleashing their full power. A discussion of current open issues is presented, including the viability of the approach for larger-scale applications of high complexity, such as the complete detector control system for the NA62 detector. (authors)