/Experiment ODB tree
Links
Creating the /Experiment tree
The /Experiment ODB tree is created automatically when the ODB is first created.
Purpose
The /Experiment ODB tree contains information relevent to the experiment. Other optional keys are added by mhttpd or by the user to customize their experiment.
Examples
When initially created, the /Experiment tree contains the following keys:
[local:midas:S]/>ls -lrt /experiment
Key name Type #Val Size Last Opn Mode Value
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Experiment DIR
Name STRING 1 32 14s 0 RWD midas
Buffer sizes DIR
SYSMSG DWORD 1 4 11h 0 RWD 100000
The following example shows the /Experiment tree for a typical experiment :
[local:midas:R]/>ls -lrt /experiment
Key name Type #Val Size Last Opn Mode Value
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Experiment DIR
Name STRING 1 32 7s 0 RWD midas
Buffer sizes DIR
SYSMSG DWORD 1 4 23h 0 RWD 100000
SYSTEM DWORD 1 4 23h 0 RWD 640000000
BUF0 DWORD 1 4 23h 0 RWD 80000000
BUF1 DWORD 1 4 23h 0 RWD 80000000
....... other user-defined buffers not shown
CSS File STRING 1 1024 9h 0 RWD mhttpd.css
JS File STRING 1 1024 9h 0 RWD mhttpd.js
MAX_EVENT_SIZE DWORD 1 4 23h 0 RWD 4194304
Menu Buttons STRING 1 1000 9h 0 RWD Status, ODB, Messages, ELog, Alarms, Programs, History, Sequencer, Config, Help
Start-Stop Buttons BOOL 1 4 8h 0 RWD y
Pause-Resume Buttons BOOL 1 4 8h 0 RWD n
Transition debug flag INT 1 4 23h 0 RWD 0
Transition connect timeout INT 1 4 23h 0 RWD 10000
Transition timeout INT 1 4 23h 0 RWD 120000
edit on start DIR
experiment number DWORD 1 4 2h 0 RWD 9499
field STRING 1 32 2h 0 RWD 19000.2(0.0)G
comment-> /Experiment/run parameters/comment
STRING 1 80 2h 0 RWD Testing with low beam
Number of channels -> /Run Parameters/number of channels
DWORD 1 4 2h 0 RWD 20
Write Data -> /Logger/Write data
BOOL 1 4 2h 0 RWD n
Number of cycles -> /Equipment/FIFO_acq/frontend/hardware/num cycles
DWORD 1 4 2h 0 RWD 0
Parameter Comments DIR
field STRING 1 32 >99d 0 RWD Entered in Tesla unit
Num cycles STRING 1 80 >99d 0 RWD Stop run after num cycles is reached. Enter 0 to disable (free running)
Run Parameters DIR
Comment STRING 1 80 2h 0 RWD Testing with low beam
Run Description STRING 1 256 7h 0 RWD Sequencer Tests
Number of channels DWORD 1 4 2h 0 RWD 20
Lock when running DIR
Num channels -> /Run Parameters/number of channels
DWORD 1 4 2h 0 RWD 20
edit on sequence DIR
title STRING 1 128 2h 0 RWD none
experiment number DWORD 1 4 2h 0 RWD 9438
experimenter STRING 1 32 2h 0 RWD gls
sample STRING 1 36 2h 0 RWD NA
run description -> /Experiment/run parameters/run description
STRING 1 256 7h 0 RWD Sequencer Tests
Write Data -> /Logger/Write data
BOOL 1 4 2h 0 RWD n
Number of cycles -> /Equipment/FIFO_acq/frontend/hardware/num cycles
DWORD 1 4 2h 0 RWD 0
Prevent start on alarms BOOL 1 4 22h 0 RWD n
Prevent start on required BOOL 1 4 22h 0 RWD n
Status items DIR
Experiment Name -> /Experiment/Name
STRING 1 32 7s 0 RWD midas
Start-Stop Buttons BOOL 1 4 5h 0 RWD y
Pause-Resume Buttons BOOL 1 4 5h 0 RWD n
Keys in /Experiment tree
The keys in the ODB /Experiment tree are described in the following sections.
Name
- Type: STRING
- Default:
This key in the /Experiment tree contains the name of the experiment. Filled automatically when the ODB is created.
Buffer Sizes subtree
- Type: DIR
This key in the /Experiment tree is a subtree to contain the sizes of the
Midas Buffers for the experiment. Created with default values. The sizes can be changed to optimize the memory usage. See Event Buffer Size(s) for details. Other user-defined
buffers may be present (e.g. for event filtering).
SYSMSG
- Type: DWORD
- Default: 100000 Bytes
This key in the /Experiment/Buffer Sizes subtree contains the size of SYSMSG buffer. This buffer is used for MIDAS messages. The default value of this key is defined by MESSAGE_BUFFER_SIZE in $MIDASSYS/include/msystem.h .
SYSTEM
- Type: DWORD
- Default: 32MiBytes
This key in the /Experiment/Buffer Sizes subtree
contains the size of SYSTEM buffer. The default value of this key is
DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE = 32 MiBytes in midas.h.
The actual SYSTEM buffer size is set by this key. See Event Buffer for details.
MAX_EVENT_SIZE
- Type: DWORD
- Default: 4MiBytes
This key in the /Experiment tree specifies the maximum event size that can be acquired. The default value of this key is DEFAULT_MAX_EVENT_SIZE = 4 MiBytes in midas.h. The actual maximum event size is set by this key. (See also Event Buffer).
Mongoose listening_port
- Type: STRING
- Default: "8080r,8443s"
This key in the /Experiment tree is created when mhttpd is run for the first time. It contains the listening ports for the secure HTTPS/SSL server (Mongoose). The ports are the HTTP port (default 8080) which is to be redirected to the secure HTTPS port (default 8443). If ports are supplied with the "--mg" option when starting mhttpd, their values will overwrite the default values stored in this key. See mhttpd for details.
Mongoose access_control_list
- Type: STRING
- Default: ""
This key in the /Experiment tree is created when mhttpd is run for the first time. It contains the access control list (ACL) for the Mongoose web server. By default, this key is empty and there is no access control. The format of the ACL is described under access_control_list at Mongoose Configuration Options.
midas server port
- Type: DWORD
- Default: 1175
This key (added Aug 2015) will be for use with the mserver version (in git branch "feature/rpcsecurity" & still being tested as of Aug 2015) that aims to improve network security for the MIDAS experiment.
This key contains the default value of the port used by mserver. This is set to MIDAS_TCP_PORT (1175 in midas.h). A different port can be used by starting mserver with the -p argument.
CSS File
- Type: STRING
- Default: "mhttpd.css"
This key in the /Experiment tree contains the name of the MIDAS stylesheet file for the use of those writing Custom Web Pages.
JS File
- Type: STRING
- Default: "mhttpd.js"
This key in the /Experiment tree contains the name of the Javascript library file for the use of those writing Custom Web Pages.
Menu Buttons
- Type: STRING
- Default: "Status, ODB, Messages, ELog, Alarms, Programs, History, Sequencer, Chat, Config, Help"
This key in the /Experiment tree is added automatically by mhttpd to allow the Menu buttons that appear on the Main Status Page to be customized by removing unnecessary buttons or by changing their order.
The Start/Stop/Pause/Resume buttons are not now included in Menu Buttons.
- To suppress/display the Start/Stop buttons use key Start-Stop Buttons.
- To display/suppress the Pause/Resume buttons, use key Pause-Resume Buttons.
- Note
- If MSCB support is built into MIDAS, the default will also include the MSCB Menu button (see MSCB Page).
Start-Stop Buttons
- Type: BOOL
- Default: y
This key in the /Experiment tree is added automatically by mhttpd to allow the user to suppress the Start or Stop buttons from appearing on the Status Page. By default, Start/Stop buttons are shown.
Pause-Resume Buttons
- Type: BOOL
- Default: n
This key in the /Experiment tree is added automatically by mhttpd. By default the Pause/Resume menu buttons do not appear on the Status Page. The user can allow these buttons to appear during the run by setting this key to "y".
Transition debug flag
- Type: INT
- Default: 0
This key in the /Experiment tree contains a flag that, if set to 1, causes messages reporting transition progress to be output.
Transition connect timeout
- Type: INT
- Default: 10000
This key in the /Experiment tree contains the
value of timeout for remote rpc connect
Transition timeout
- Type: INT
- Default: 120000
This key in the /Experiment tree contains the
value of timeout for transition
Prevent start on alarms
- Type: BOOL
- Default: "n"
This key in the /Experiment tree if set true will prevent the run from starting if an alarm is true, i.e. the run start procedure will fail if an alarm has been Triggered for a client, provided a valid alarms class has been entered in the client's Alarm class key.
Prevent start on required program
- Type: BOOL
- Default: "n"
This key in the /Experiment tree if set true ("y")
will prevent the run from starting if one of the required clients is not running. A client is flagged as "required" by setting the ODB key
Required to "y".
Edit on Sequence subtree
- Type: DIR
This optional subdirectory in the /Experiment tree may contain user-defined parameters which will be displayed for editing at the start of each Sequence. See Edit-on-Sequence Parameters for details.
Edit on Start subtree
- Type: DIR
This optional subdirectory in the /Experiment tree may contain user-defined parameters which will be displayed for editing at the beginning of each run. See Edit-on-start Parameters for details.
Lock when running subtree
- Type: DIR
This optional subdirectory in the /Experiment tree contains user-defined links to ODB parameters to prevent them being changed when the run is in progress. See Lock when running for details.
Parameter Comments subtree
- Type: DIR
This optional subdirectory in the /Experiment tree may contain user-defined parameter comments that give more information about the Edit-on-start Parameters.
Run Parameters subtree
- Type: DIR
This optional subdirectory in the /Experiment tree may contain user-defined parameters or parameter(s) with reserved names (i.e. Run Description).
Run Description
- Type: STRING
- Default:
This ODB key is used by the Sequencer RUNDESCRIPTION command to store the run description.
<parameter name>
- Type: STRING
- Default:
The user may define parameters here e.g. for linking as Edit-on-start or Edit-on-Sequence parameters.
Status items subtree
- Type: DIR
This key in the /Experiment tree is a subtree which by default contains a link to the experiment name. Any links or keys
created by the user in this optional subdirectory will be displayed on the mhttpd main status page.
Security subtree
- Type: DIR
This optional subtree in the /Experiment tree is created when the odbedit commands passwd or webpasswd are issued. It enables a user to set up security features. See Security.
Password
- Type: STRING
- Default:
This key in the /Experiment/Security subtree contains the encrypted password. This Key is created when the odbedit command passwd is issued. See security for details.
- Notes
- Do not set this key except through the odbedit command passwd. Setting an unencrypted password will lock you out of the ODB unless odbedit is listed as an allowed program.
- This security feature is not proof against malicious access. See Security for details.
Allowed hosts subtree
- Type: DIR
This subtree in the /Experiment/Security subtree is created when the odbedit command passwd is issued. When created, this subtree is empty. Optionally, it may contain user-defined names of remote hosts allowed to have free access (i.e. without password) to the current experiment. See allowed hosts.
- Note
- This security feature is not proof against malicious access. See Security for details.
Allowed programs subtree
- Type: DIR
This subtree in the /Experiment/Security subtree is created when the odbedit command passwd is issued. When created, this subtree is empty. Optionally, it may contain user-defined names of clients allowed to have free access (i.e. without password) to the current experiment. See allowed clients.
- Note
- This security feature is not proof against malicious access. See Security for details.
Web Password
- Type: STRING
- Default:
If web access restriction has been set up, this key in the /Experiment/Security subtree will contain an encrypted password for Web server access. This key is created by using the odbedit command webpasswd.
If this key is present, the user will be requested to provide the "Web Password" when accessing the requested experiment in "Write Access" mode. The "Read Only Access" mode is still available (without a password) to all users.
- Note
- This security feature is not proof against malicious access. See Security for details.
Disable RPC hosts check
- Type: BOOL
- Default: "n"
This key has been added for the use of the mserver version (in git branch "feature/rpcsecurity" & still being tested as of Aug 2015) that aims to improve network security for the MIDAS experiment.
If MIDAS clients have to connect from random hosts (i.e. dynamically assigned random DHCP addresses), one can disable the host name checks by setting this key to "yes". This configuration is insecure and should only be done on a private network behind a firewall. See [1].
Enable non-localhost RPC
- Type: BOOL
- Default: "n"
This key has been added for the use of the mserver version (in git branch "feature/rpcsecurity" & still being tested as of Aug 2015) that aims to improve network security for the MIDAS experiment. The default value of this key will be "n", denying access by external network connections. If running an experiment that requires external network connections, this key must be set to "y" and the key RPC hosts must be filled. See [2].
Rpc hosts
- Type: STRING
- Default:
This key has been added for the use of the mserver version (in git branch "feature/rpcsecurity" & still being tested as of Aug 2015) that aims to improve network security for the MIDAS experiment. Currently, the default access control list is empty, meaning that everybody is permitted access. The default will be changed to "localhost", which will reject all external connections, even when permitted by Enable external RPC connections. The user will be required to enter the names of all machines that will run midas clients in this key. See [3].
Rpc ports/<frontend-client-name>
- Type: STRING
- Default:
This key will be for use with the mserver version (in git branch "feature/rpcsecurity" & still being tested as of Aug 2015) that aims to improve network security for the MIDAS experiment. This key has been added to fix the TCP port numbers for MIDAS programs, e.g.
/Experiment/Security/Rpc ports/fename = (int)5555
Once a remote frontend is bound to a fixed port, appropriate openings can be made in the firewall, etc. Default port number value will be 0 meaning "use random port", same as now. See [4].