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Table of Content

LOGIN PROBLEMS

Log in with your NICE user name to The DCS FSM and alarm screen The Atlas electronic logbook If there is any login problem, please ask the shift leader for advice and/or refer to the muon shift phone

Log in to the Muon Desk: user crmuon - no password - Muon:Shifter profile

Screen/Desk frozen: Attempt to restart the X-server via Ctrl + Alt + Backspace. If a screen stays blank after this, turn it off and back on

Screen + keyboard frozen: Ask the run control shifter/shift leader for help.

Single DEAD graphics windows (e.g. DCS FSM): you can kill such with ‘xkill’ from a terminal command line

ATLAS Elog: When and How to make entries

Beam Information

As a shifter you must be aware at any given time if there is beam in the machine and what the beam status is.

Muon Desk and ACR Environment. Common and Muon Specific Applications.

Trouble Shooting and Utilities

Taking Screenshots

You can use the tool ksnapshot which can be opened from the General menu to take a snap shot of any graphics panel in order to attach it eg to elog.

Killing individual unresponsive panels/UIs on the muon desk

You can kill a panel/ graphical UI with the command xkill from a opened terminal window, then clicking on the window to kill.

Muon desk is frozen

In case the muon desk becomes frozen attempt to kill the X Server with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. If this does not help, ask the run control shifter or shift leader to reboot the machine via ipmi, they have instructions and the privileges to do so. Report it in elog ticking CSC+MDT+RPC+TGC+ SysAdmins as affected system. Please avoid calling the sysadmins on call outside normal working hours if possible, if needed use one of the other muon desks in the meantime.

Muon menu is missing on the muon desk

This is usually since somebody has started the X-session not with the muon profile. Log out of the session (from the button in the bottom left of the desktop), when the login screen appears re-login as user crmuon, no password and select Muon:Shifter as profile when asked ....

Muon desk shows the login screen

This can happen after a user logged out or after a reboot. Login as crmuon - not your personal account! - , no password and select Muon:Shifter as profile when asked

What to do in case of a DCS Alarm: General Procedures (Muons)

In case of a DCS alarm, stick to the following rules

• Check for 1 or 2 minutes if the alarm disappears by itself; if yes, still mention it in your shift summary. If not,
• Check the severity of the alarm (WARNING, ERROR , FATAL ) and check if there are specific instructions for this particular alarm by right-clicking on the alarm entry in the alarm screen and selecting Alarm Help. If a alarm help exists, follow the instructions given there. If not
  • if it is a float type value or parameter, eg temperature, fan speed or similar, check the recent history by right-clicking on the alarm item in the alarm screen and selecting Trend. If the value just fluctuates around the limit, it's enough to make a note in elog/your shift summary.
  • if it is a WARNING during the day you can call the expert on call if in doubt. If it's during the night, make an elog entry.
  • if it is a ERROR or FATAL call the expert on call, then document the alarm in elog.
• Acknowledge any alarm in WENT state only when instructed by the expert, by clicking on the red exclamation mark in the alarm screen
• Mask and alarm to temporarily remove it from the alarm screen while under investigation when instructed to do so by the expert.

Common Synonyms and Abbreviations

Here is a list of common abbreviations and synonyms you will often encounter.

Common to all subdetectors

Synonym	Explanation	Comments
ACR	Atlas Control Room
CTP	Central Trigger Processor	handles overall trigger, luminiosity blocks, fianl trigger veto and Busy
DCS	Detector Control System	previously usually known as Slow Control
DDC	DAQ to DCS communication, a way by which data can be exchanged between DAQ and DCS
DSS	Detector Safety System, low level PLC based system independent from DCS which will react to certain alarm conditions (fire, smoke, cooling off etc.) and bring the detector into a safe state
IP	Interaction Point
IS	TDAQ Information Service, a process running as part of the DAQ providing information on counters, states, data flow of the ongoing run
MRS	TDAQ Message Reporting Service
MuCTPI	Muon Central Trigger Processor Interface
SCR	Satellite Control Room	Muon SCR is in barracks 3164, last door to the left
ROD	Read Out Driver, VME boards housed in USA15 responsible for event building for data from the chambers/modules/... connected to it
TTC	Trigger and Timing Control.
USA15	Service cavern underground housing most off-detector electronics.	Accessible during beam operations
US15	Service cavern underground housing muon 48V CAEN generators.	Not accessible during beam operations
UX15	The Atlas experiment cavern

MDT

Synonym	Explanation	Comments
AMT	The MDT TDC chip of the MDT front end cards, responsible for drift time measurement	There is one AMT per mezzanine card/24 tubes
ASD	Amplifier-Shaper-Discriminator chip of the MDT front end cards	There are 3 ASDs per mezzanine card, each having 8 channels
CSM	Chamber Service Module, the electronics card located on chamber which collects data from all mezzanines, builds events and handles trigger and clock distribution.	There is 1 CSM per chamber
Mezzanine	MDT front end electronics card, located on chamber and containing AMT and ASDs for 24 channels

RPC

Synonym	Explanation	Comments
SL	Sector Logic Board, part of the RPC trigger chain. RODs are connected to the SL.

TGC

Synonym	Explanation	Comments
SSW	Star Switch, part of the TGC Readout chain

Recovery from a Power Cut or DSS Action

CSC

After the RODs have been off for a few seconds, they will not boot up on the first attempt, but on the second. There are 2 ways to recover:

If you can log in to sbc.csc.rcc.03 and sbc.csc.rcc.07 then source the tdaq setup script under /det/muon/standalone and execute the command

rodDAQ <slot> ~schernau/runParams.txt

for these 8 slots: 6, 7, 9, 11, 15, 17, 19, 20. The first time you run it, it gets stuck at waiting for state 3. Wait for 15 seconds, control-C and rerun a second time. The second time should get you to the waiting for events message.

You can also recover this by running the part_CSC_ped partition (calibration run) 9 times. Each time, you will recover one more ROD on each endcap. Check the progress by subscribing to information in MRS. Terminate when you get a timeout error and re-configure 9 times until you reach the running state.