volttron-topic-watcher

The Topic Watcher Agent listens to a set of configured topics and publishes an alert if they are not published within some time limit. In addition to for individual messages or data points, the Topic Watcher Agent supports inspecting device "all" topics. This can be useful when a device contains volatile points that may not be published.

Requires

• python >= 3.10
• volttron >= 10.0

Installation

Before installing, VOLTTRON should be installed and running. Its virtual environment should be active. Information on how to install of the VOLTTRON platform can be found here.

Create a directory called config and use the change directory command to enter it.

mkdir config
cd config

After entering the config directory, create a file called topic_watcher.json. Use the instructions below to populate that file with the correct JSON.

Topics are organized by groups in a JSON structure with the group's identifier as the key. Any alerts raised will summarize all missing topics in the group.

There are two configuration options for watching topics. For single message topics (such as a single device point), configuration consists of a key value pair of the topic to its time limit.

{
    "groupname": {
        "devices/campus/building/point": 10
    }
}

For points published in an "all" style publish, configuration consts of a key mapping to an object as follows: A seconds key for the time limit in seconds, and a points key consisting of a list of individual points in the all publish.

The following is an example "all" publish configuration which configures the Topic Watcher to check for the temperature and PowerState points which are expected to be inside the "all" publishes.

{
    "groupname": {
            "devices/fakedriver1/all": {
            "seconds": 10,
            "points": ["temperature", "PowerState"]
        }
    }
}

It is possible to configure the Topic Watcher to handle both "all" topics and single point topics for the same group:

{
    "groupname": {
        "devices/fakedriver0/all": 10,
        "devices/fakedriver1/all": {
            "seconds": 10,
            "points": ["temperature", "PowerState"]
        }
    }
}

After populating your configuration file, install and start topic watcher in VOLTTRON.

vctl install volttron-topic-watcher --agent-config topic_watcher.json --vip-identity platform.topic_watcher --start

View the status of the installed agent

vctl status

Development

Please see the following for contributing guidelines contributing.

Please see the following helpful guide about developing modular VOLTTRON agents

Disclaimer Notice

This material was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the United States Department of Energy, nor Battelle, nor any of their employees, nor any jurisdiction or organization that has cooperated in the development of these materials, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness or any information, apparatus, product, software, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.

Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof, or Battelle Memorial Institute. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.