User Categories

The ATCS employs the same terminology defined by the VLT Software to identify user categories, which are thoroughly described in VLT Software Concept Specification [AD03], § 2.1. The system grants each user category a set of privileges, depending on the assigned operation levels.

Three different operation levels are defined [AD04], § 2.2.2:

This mechanism reinforces the protection against indiscriminate access to crucial resources, like configuration database values, calibration parameters and hardware addresses, allowing a smooth and safe operation of the Auxiliary Telescopes.

Table 1 in this chapter lists the user categories, summarizing their privileges and characterizing their interaction with the system.

User Operation level Privileges User interface
Observing astronomers Observing level
  • No direct control
  • Monitoring of subsystems possible on request
  • Simple and secure
  • Minimum status information
  • More detailed status information displayed on request
Operations staff Observing and
Maintenance levels
  • Access to direct commands and maintenance procedures
  • Monitoring of every subsystem
  • Interactive command mode for complete monitoring and testing
Software development and Maintenance staff Observing, Maintenance and Test levels
  • Access to command mode with the highest privileges
  • Installation and test procedures, but without interfering with other users' work
  • Engineering and maintenance panels and status forms
  • Installation, testing and debugging tools must be available

Table 1. AT user categories

 

Besides human users, external software packages (ATCS clients) also require to access the ATCS functions by means of specific programmatic interfaces.