minus80

Project Overview

Python program for monitoring Minus 80 freezers and sending alert notifications.

The program monitors a specific pin on a Raspberry Pi for a state change and alerts an alarm state or recovery based on the voltage applied to the pin. The alert sends an email to notify lab members of a potential problem with their minus80 freezer by parsing a CSV file for the correct recipient based on the Pi's IP address. If the pin is in an alarm state the program will email recipients every ten minutes for an hour or until a recovery state is reached which ever comes first.

The program uses the RPi.GPIO package to monitor pin input and detect edge changes.

The program has a configuration file called mail_data.py that allows one to configure a sender, IT group email, and other authentication data.

If the CSV file fails to be parsed for a recipient the IT team is emailed the error message to respond appropriately. If there is a network issue the program attempts to email the IT Team repeatedly every five minutes until the issue is resolved.

Status, error, and critical messages are logged to the console and to /var/log/syslog.

Installation

1. Download minus 80 program from GitHub: You will need to place a zip of the program in the home directory of bmbchem. This repo is currently private and does not support curl or wget commands.
2. Place minus80 directory in /usr/local/sbin/ : drwxr-xr-x 4 bmbchem bmbchem 4096 May 16 19:33 minus80
3. Install and create virtual environment in /usr/local/sbin/owned by bmbchem:

apt install python3-venv
mkdir /usr/local/sbin/venv && cd /usr/local/sbin/venv
python3 -m venv env

4. Change to minus80 directory: cd /usr/local/sbin/minus80/
5. Activate virtual environment: source /usr/local/sbin/venv/env/bin/activate
6. Install program requirements: pip3 install -r requirements.txt
7. Deactivate virtual environment: (env) $ deactivate

Configuration

mail_data

Configure mail data with the following info to successfully send email:

• IT Group email address
• Sender (the address from which the email will be sent)
• Password for the sender email account
• IMAP server
• Port

CSV file

COLUMNS: Freezer Number,Department,PI,Email,MFG,Model Number,Location,Jack Number,IP,Hostname,MAC,Comments

Operation

1. Activate virtual environment: source /usr/local/sbin/venv/env/bin/activate
2. Run: python3 /usr/local/sbin/minus80/minus80_main.py

Note: Runs forever; Keyboard interrupt is not processed as RPi.GPIO.wait_for_edge function blocks interrupt signal. Use systemctl to manage minus80.service.

File List

├── app
│   ├── Board.py
│   ├── Email.py
│   ├── Event.py
│   ├── FreezerData.py
│   ├── freezer_info.csv
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── mail_data.py
├── __init__.py
├── LICENSE
├── minus80_main.py
├── README.md
├── requirements.txt
├── setup.py
└── tests
    ├── ErrorAfterCall.py
    ├── freezer_test.csv
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── test_board.py
    ├── test_email.py
    ├── test_event.py
    ├── test_freezer_data.py
    └── test_integration.py

Test

Tests are contained in tests/ and are discoverable by unittest:

1. Activate virtual environment: source /usr/local/sbin/venv/env/bin/activate
2. cd /usr/local/sbin/minus80/
3. Run: python3 -m unittest discover
4. Deactivate virtual environment: (env) $ deactivate

To test email functionality you can run the Email class:

1. Activate virtual environment: source /usr/local/sbin/venv/env/bin/activate
2. Run: python3 /usr/local/sbin/minus80/app/Email.py [email address to send test to]
3. Deactivate virtual environment: (env) $ deactivate

Contact information

Developer: Nikki Tebaldi

Contact: ntebaldi@umass.edu

Changelog

Version 2.0: Revamp of minus80 script using object-oriented programming.