NDTS Daemon Operation

Running and Monitoring the Daemon

This page explains how to control the data-transport-daemon service, verify connectivity, and interpret the daemon’s log and audit files on every spectrometer workstation.

Service Control

# Start the daemon
sudo /sbin/service data-transport-daemon start

# Stop the daemon
sudo /sbin/service data-transport-daemon stop

# Restart (reloads configuration)
sudo /sbin/service data-transport-daemon restart

# Check status
sudo /sbin/service data-transport-daemon status

• The daemon refuses to start if another instance is already running.*

Heartbeat and Connectivity

• The daemon sends a heartbeat to the Gateway every 10 minutes.
• The Gateway forwards that heartbeat to the NDTS Receiver; entries are visible in vNOC.

Slack Notifications

When heartbeats stop, the Receiver posts to the facility’s Slack channel.

Condition	Time-out	Receiver Action	Slack Message
First missed heartbeat	> 20 min	Mark workstation offline	offline
Still missing at next poll	+ 8 min	Repeat offline (max 3)	offline
Heartbeat resumes	–	Mark workstation online	online

Slack channels (one per facility):

• ccrc-ndts-notifications
• nmrfam-ndts-notifications
• uchc-ndts-notifications

Version Tracking

• On start-up the daemon writes its version to the log.
• A file named

/opt/nan-dtdaemon/running_workstation_version-X.Y.Z

 records the version and start time.

Experiment Transfer Audit

Each processed experiment appends a line to

/opt/nan-dtdaemon/logs/ndtd_audit.txt

Fields: timestamp • workstation user • NMRhub user (or unselected) • start/end • path • daemon version • action (sent • spooled • sent-spooled • skipped-trivial • skipped-disabled)

Daemon Log File

• Main log:

  /opt/nan-dtdaemon/logs/nan-dtdaemon.log

• Verbosity controlled by log_level in ndtd_configuration.dat

 (fatal < error < warning < info < debug < trace).

Example start-up excerpt (INFO):

Thu Sep 28 13:17:03 2023 LOG_START Started dtd logger.
Thu Sep 28 13:17:03 2023 INFO NDTD Workstation version is 1.0.15
Thu Sep 28 13:17:03 2023 INFO *** This is a Topspin Workstation ***
Thu Sep 28 13:17:03 2023 INFO Ndtd Control Processor listening.

Troubleshooting Checklist

Symptom	What to Check
No new data reaches NAN	• service data-transport-daemon status • Latest heartbeat in vNOC • Gateway log for incoming files
Repeated offline Slack alerts	Workstation powered off? Network drop? Firewall blocking port 60195?
Log grows rapidly	log_level left at trace – reset to info
Experiments remain spooled	Gateway unreachable → verify IP/port and gateway service status

Next Step

Return to NDTS Overview or continue to Accessing Collected Data.