How to configure a new IPC¶

At XFEL, the IPC is usually patched directly to a dedicated ethernet interface of a defined control host. Hence it must be configured to use a fixed IP on that subnet. To configure it for the first time (or if you want to interface it to another control host), please use the following procedure:

boot the IPC with a keyboard and Monitor plugged
login with user ‘ops’ and password ‘Xfel12##’ [1]
IPCs are not updated on a regular basis, so different IPCs might run different operating systems.
1. On older operating systems (e.g. Ubuntu 16)
  
  Edit the Network Configuration file /etc/network/interfaces (e.g. with ‘sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces’) so that the section relative to the primary network interface reads something like (please replace XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX with the desired IP address for the IPC [2] and YYY.YYY.YYY.YYY with the appropriate subnet mask, e.g. address 10.253.10.226 and netmask 255.255.255.240):
```
auto enp0s31f6

#iface enp0s31f6 inet dhcp

iface enp0s31f6 inet static

address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

netmask YYY.YYY.YYY.YYY
```
2. On newer operating systems (e.g. Ubuntu 20 and following)
  
  Edit the Netplan Configuration file /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml (e.g. with ‘sudo nano /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml’) so that the section relative to the primary network interface reads something like (please replace XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX with the desired IP address and YY with the network bits defining the subnet, e.g. 10.253.10.226/28 IPC [2]):
```
network:
 ethernets:
   enp0s31f6:
       dhcp4: false
       addresses:
           - XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/YY
```

then reboot the machine, e.g. with sudo reboot.

After that is done, the NTP client on the IPC needs to be configured accordingly [See NTP client Configuration ]. However, this can be done remotely, logging on the IPC from the control host.

NOTE: of course, this procedure applies only to Linux IPC (e.g. Andor cameras).

Footnotes

[1]	User and password may vary: if that’s the case please ask vendor.

[2]	(1, 2) The IP address and subnet should be indicated by ITDM

NTP client Configuration¶

Camera images are timestamped on the RCS IPC, which need its NTP client to be configured to have access to a valid NTP server. In the typical deployment the industrial PC is patched to a specific control host. Thus an NTP server must be set up on the control host and the ntp client must be configured accordingly on the IPC:

On older operating systems (e.g. Ubuntu 16) Edit the file /etc/ntp.conf file on the industrial PC: it must contain an entry like
server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
On newer operating systems (e.g. Ubuntu 20 and following) Edit the file /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf: Edit the NTP line in the [Time] section (and uncomment it if needed), so that it looks like:
[Time]
NTP=10.253.15.225
(being xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx the IP address of the patched ethernet i/f on the control host).

Please refer to RCS User Manual for details about RCS IPC administration.