Software Tools for Operations and Maintenance Planning

Theo Larrieu, Steve Suhring

Obligatory aerial photo• Tunnel ~ 1.4 km long

• Electrical Distribution – 40 MW

• Low Conductivity Water ~ 400,000L

• 7 km Beamlines at 10-6 - 10-13 torr

• 2 Polarized Photocathode Electron Guns

• 42 Cryomodules with eight 5 cell Superconducting Niobium Cavities each

• 2 Kelvin Helium Refrigeration Plant

• 338 5kW klystrons each with independent controls

• ~2100 Magnets and Power Supplies

Accelerator Support

• Operators

• Electrical Engineering Support (EES)

• Accelerator Engineering Department

• CASA (Accelerator Physics Group)

• Institute for Superconducting RF

• Plant Engineering

• Polarized Gun Group

• Radiation Control Group

• Safety Systems Group

• Software Group

• EH&S Group

Something somewhere always needs to be installed, tested, upgraded, reconfigured, repaired, replaced, or removed.

Scheduling & Planning

• Operability Manager

• Software Controls Group

• Program Deputy/Operations Group

• Scheduling and coordination of accelerator hardware maintenance work.

• Installing, upgrading, maintaining control system software.

• Scheduling and performing beam studies in conjunction with experimental program.

Operability Manager

Software Group

Program Deputy

Weaknesses

• Ambiguous approval status leading to unapproved configuration changes.

• Lack of coordination among groups

– Hardware installed before software ready or vice-versa.

• Safety & Radiation Control personnel not always informed of latest changes to plans.

• Not sufficiently nimble for “Opportunistic” maintenance.

Avenues for Improvement

• Devise a common, consistent task approval process

• Improve communication among groups

• Make approval status unambiguous

• Keep an online history of completed work

• Integrate with other web-based tools used by Ops

Accelerator Task List

Group by Area

Group by Project

Beam Test Plans by Termination Point

Create Task - Summary

Create Task – Areas & Systems

Create Task - Description

Hazard Identification

Beam Testplan - Specifications

Beam Testplan

Software Testplan

Software Testplan Templates

File Attachments

Unified Task Approval

Operability Manager is main task Approver, but

• Awaits Controls Group sign-off on Software Tasks

• Awaits Operations Group sign-off on Beam Testplans

• Defers final scheduling of Beam Testplans to the Program Deputy

Better Communication

• System Owners, Area Designees, others automatically receive email notification

• Concerns and status updates become part of task via comments

Emailed Task

Unambiguous Status

ATLis Logbook

ATLis Shift Plans

History of completed work

Widespread acceptance

• 169 distinct individuals have written 3846 work plans since January 2003.

• 145 distinct individuals have added 8826 comments on those tasks.

Adoption by other Groups

Installing ATLis for a new group

• Unzip files on web server

• Create new database user

• Run database creation script(s)

• Define Areas, Systems

• Identify Operability Manager(s) (Task Approvers)

• Review/Modify settings in app.php

• Setup authentication

• Configure email cron job

Useful to other sites?

• Requirements

– Oracle (Free XE version is fine)

– PHP 5.2.0+

– Web Server (we use Apache 1.3.x)

– ATLis (http://www.jlab.org/~theo/atlis/)

– WYSIWYGPRO (optional)

• Detailed install guide should be available at the URL above within a few weeks of the end of this workshop.

Accelerator Task List