Olivier Callot
5 June 2007
Electronic Logbooks
 Why
moving away from Atlog ?
 Proposed improved configuration
 Release schedule
Why moving away from Atlog ?
Elog
is the original software
Developed and maintained at PSI by Stefan Ritt
 Tested in summer 2005 by Tobias Lohe, summer student.

 Limitation
Atlog

is an Atlas modification of Elog
Use Oracle as storage for entries, instead of the file system
 Remove

if over 100,000 entries…
the performance limitation for big logbooks
It has been installed at the Pit with two servers, one for inside the
LHCb pit network, one for outside access
 Many
logbooks pre-installed
 Some already used, with few (<<100) entries
Olivier Callot
Electronic Logbooks
5 June 2007
2
But
Atlog has several limitations
Can not import/export logbooks → impossible to merge Velo old
logbooks used in ACDC and in construction
 Can not delete or modify an item
 Crash when an unknown command is sent

 Doesn’t
react properly to port scans, …
Attachments still as files, not in Oracle.
 Doesn’t support accented characters
 And limited response from the maintainer…

Try

to go back to plain Elog
Learn how to configure it for the current use
 Commissioning
logbooks don’t have the same use as official logbook
of a running experiment, in particular in the number of entries per day,
the automatic insertion of entries and the automatic insertion of run
and fill numbers
Olivier Callot
Electronic Logbooks
5 June 2007
3
Proposed improved configuration
All
current (pit) and external (Velo, NIKHEF)
logbooks will be available together

I
I managed to have an ad-hoc modified Atlog service to give me
back the news in Oracle, and understood how to get the Velo
logbooks from both here and NIKHEF.
would like a simplified layout for the logbooks
Simply date, author, “system affected”, subject and text
 All pit logbooks with a similar structure

 Makes
Use
the maintenance easy
user registration
Needed only to post an item, not for reading
 Self registration:

 Need
a short name, typically your local account, your full name to
appear in the Author field, and a dedicated password
Olivier Callot
Electronic Logbooks
5 June 2007
4
Can

we avoid user registration ?
Yes, but then the author is free field, can contain unclear values
 Who

was “John” on 12 May 2005 ?
Entering your name + password once is not very different from
entering it (alone) with each posting
 Remember:

authentication is not needed for reading
The browser remembers your name for 8 hours (can be changed)
 Idea:
The shift console will run from a generic account, but the shift
crew entries should have a meaningful author field…
A

good way to have some command restricted
The concept of ‘administrators’ is implemented in Elog, they can
add/remove users, reset passwords, edit configurations, …
We
could also protect write actions from outside
the pit by password… But is it worth?
Olivier Callot
Electronic Logbooks
5 June 2007
5
Proposed schedule
You

can play with the proposed layout
http://lbweb01.cern.ch:8081 is accessible only from inside CERN
 Not

from outside, due to the CERN firewall settings…
Check for unused logbooks and configuration
 RICH1
and RICH2 or a single RICH?
Need
to disable all logbooks (Pit + Velo + NIKHEF)
for conversion
The operation is still a bit tricky, adding new entries at the same
time would not make it easier
 Then restart the new service at the pit, and discontinue the Velo +
NIKEF ones.

Either
Olivier Callot
early next week, or from June 25
Electronic Logbooks
5 June 2007
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Future
Keep
Write, Edit, Delete access inside and outside
Except if you disagree for your logbook. Let me know
 This seems the most useful during the commissioning period

At
some point, allows only read access from outside
Write only possible from inside the LHCb Pit network
 What we want during running period, no interference with the shift
logbook!

Settings
and configuration of the Shift logbook
Want probably Fill and Run number in the entries
 Make sure the author name is correct for shift crew entries
 Automatic entries from LHC states, Run control, alarms,…

Olivier Callot
Electronic Logbooks
5 June 2007
7
Feed back needed
This
We

is a very important tool for an experiment
have (still) time to play with various settings
And try to implement improvements and new functionalities
A
shift logbook will probably look different from
the commissioning one
Several entries per hour, not one per (few) days as now
 Many short entries, now long reports of progress
 But the same tool can probably do it.

Thanks
Olivier Callot
for feed-back…
Electronic Logbooks
5 June 2007
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