Adamserver

Adamserver is an RPC (remote procedure call) process, which runs on the ISFF base system. A remote procedure is a like a standard procedure or function in a computer language, except that it can be called from a separate process running on the same host or from a separate host on the network. This is the method that is used to transfer information between the ISFF base system and the data acquistion computers (ADAMS).

Remote Procedure Call Basics

Each RPC program is assigned a program number. This number uniquely identifies that RPC program on a given server. When an RPC process starts, it registers its program number with the system RPC process, rpcbind. Each RPC program may support one or more remote procedures.

A client process which wants to invoke a remote procedure of an RPC program on a server, must know the program's RPC number. The client contacts rpcbind on the server requesting a connection to a given program number. Once that connection is established, the client can invoke a procedure on the RPC program. Any necessary parameters are passed over a socket to server, which executes the function and passes the results back over the socket to the client.

RPC Errors

RPC: Port mapper failure - RPC: Timed out

The client cannot contact the system rpc program on the server. The network is probably down between the client and the server.

RPC: Program not registered

The requested RPC program is not running on the given server.

Adamserver Environment and Input Data Files

Many of adamserver's remote procedures return information that is contained in the ISFF configuration files. The location of these files is defined by the values of the ASTER, PROJECT and OPS environment variables, which must be defined when adamserver is started.

ASTER

Root of ASTER software tree on the server, usually something like /usr/local/aster, /net/aster or /home/aster.

PROJECT

Name of the current project. A directory called $ASTER/projects/$PROJECT must exist on the server.

OPS

Name of an "operations period". The file $ASTER/projects/$PROJECT/ops.config defines the operations periods for a given project. (Provide link)

Adamserver Remote Procedures

hosts Returns a list of hostnames and their internet addresses. Adamserver reads this data from a file called $ASTER/config/hosts, or, if that file is not found, from /etc/hosts. Usually an ADAM does not need to know any hostnames and internet addresses other than its own and the server's, which are set in its boot parameters, so the file $ASTER/config/hosts can usually be empty.
getsiocfg Returns a data structure detailing the serial port configuration of a given adam. The serial port configuration describes which serial ports on the ADAM should be enabled, along with the baud rates, parity, etc. Adamserver reads the serial port configuration from the files $ASTER/projects/$PROJECT/$OPS/channel_config, $ASTER/config/sio_converters and $ASTER/config/sio_msg_fmts.
configint The client passes a parameter name as as string. Adamserver searches the file $ASTER/config/adats_config for the given parameter and if found, and returns its integer value.
configstring Same as configint, except the parameter value is returned as a character string.
rdate The server returns the current date and time, as a 32 bit integer number of seconds, since Jan 1, 1970, 00:00 GMT. This is used to synchronize the clocks between the server and ADAM.
rgmtsecs The server returns the current time as a number of milliseconds since midnight, GMT. This provides a more accurate time of day synchronization.
getadamserverenv The server returns the value of a shell environment variable, as a string.
getanalogcfg Returns a data structure detailing the analog sampling configuration of a given adam, indicating which ports and sampling rates. This information is read from $ASTER/projects/$PROJECT/$OPS/channel_config.
startblazingtape, stopblazingtape, startblazingdisk, stopblazingtape, getblazingstatus These routines cause adamserver to make an RPC call to the adamstatus program on the ADAM, requesting that it start or stop the "blazing" (up to 20KHz) analog sampling process.
get_ttl_output_cfg This procedure returns the ttl output configuration for a given ADAM. Three output ports are available on each adam, which can be programmed to generate ttl-level voltages on a given time schedule. This ttl information is also read from $ASTER/projects/$PROJECT/$OPS/channel_config.