MANAGING ALARMS AND (LOG) MESSAGES - THE CSS WAY

The alarm system receives alarm messages from the control system and presents this information in a convenient way to the operators. Each function of the alarm system is handled by a separated component. At the beginning are applications collecting status changes from EPICS front end controllers through a persistent store, archive and filters to client applications with user interfaces. All applications are based on the platform Control System Studio that provides common interfaces and remote management for headless applications. Most applications are redundant to ensure a high reliability. The communication is managed by Java Message Service a specification by Sun. Because the message system is based on a common service it can also handle any kind of messages.