[somehow solved] groups in astor

# 3 years ago
philippeg	Hello, we would like to gather devices in groups to start and stop them. One solution would be to script that, but we would prefer to find a way which is more easy to use for operators, i.e. they should be able to create group themselves. Astor defines 5 levels, which allows to start and stop all devices in a level. This is however a bypass and is only possible for 5 groups. However, Astor is not mandatory, and another tool could do it. If you have encountered this use case, how do you solve it? Regards - Philippe Edited 2 years ago

# 3 years ago

Hello,
we would like to gather devices in groups to start and stop them.

One solution would be to script that, but we would prefer to find a way which is more easy to use for operators, i.e. they should be able to create group themselves.

Astor defines 5 levels, which allows to start and stop all devices in a level. This is however a bypass and is only possible for 5 groups.
However, Astor is not mandatory, and another tool could do it.

If you have encountered this use case, how do you solve it?

Regards

- Philippe

Edited 2 years ago

# 3 years ago
Leonard	Hi Philippe, maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but a working solution nonetheless: You can nest Starters, i.e. have the main Starter on your server (controlled e.g. by systemd) control several Starter processes, which in turn start a number of device servers. I have seen this work in a live system. You can then either StartAll/StopAll or just Stop/Kill/Restart the specific Starter. Would that suit your needs? Best, Lenny

# 3 years ago

Leonard

Hi Philippe,

maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but a working solution nonetheless:
You can nest Starters, i.e. have the main Starter on your server (controlled e.g. by systemd) control several Starter processes, which in turn start a number of device servers.

I have seen this work in a live system. You can then either StartAll/StopAll or just Stop/Kill/Restart the specific Starter.

Would that suit your needs?

Best, Lenny

# 3 years ago
Amato	You can also change the number of groups Starter and Astor can control well beyond 5. Play with the NbStartupLevels property. There's some more things over here: https://www.tango-controls.org/developers/dsc/ds/423/ Please be aware that I'll be putting in a pull request to enable optional faster device startup for small database applications. In our topology we got tired of waiting tens of minutes for all devices to start and have shaved that significantly.

# 3 years ago

Amato

You can also change the number of groups Starter and Astor can control well beyond 5. Play with the NbStartupLevels property. There's some more things over here:

https://www.tango-controls.org/developers/dsc/ds/423/

Please be aware that I'll be putting in a pull request to enable optional faster device startup for small database applications. In our topology we got tired of waiting tens of minutes for all devices to start and have shaved that significantly.

# 2 years ago
philippeg	Thank you for your answers. @Amato, I think this walktrough solves my issue, thank you ! - Philippe Edited 2 years ago

# 2 years ago
Amato	no problem, this also reminds me to actually do the pull request. this whole shipping product to customers really gets in the way of upstreaming.