Development of an ARM-wide maintenance reporting capability

Description

The various ARM Site Operations offices have historically developed and maintained their own site-specific database for documenting instrument and infrastructure maintenance activity. These “Maintenance Databases” have traditionally served as the collection point for near-real-time maintenance documentation, which may provide metadata for ARM data products. These various databases also contain information that should be referenced or detailed in other ARM databases such as DQPR, DQR, OSS, BCR, and IMMS. ARM has long needed to enable communication between Site Operations maintenance databases and other ARM databases and automate the creation of links or shared content between those databases. While the existing maintenance databases serve similar purposes, the chosen (often proprietary) database technologies, database content and structure, and type and level of accessibility vary widely. A single program-wide, near-real-time view of recent or future maintenance activity is not available, and the existing maintenance database implementation differences have prevented ARM database integration. ARM has approved a proposal to develop a Common ARM-Wide Maintenance Capability. This effort will build upon recent development work by ARM North Slope of Alaska (NSA) Operations adopting an easy-to-use maintenance entry system. A single database will be established to store all ARM maintenance reports. This will solve the existing program-wide access limitation and provide a flexible reporting and notification structure. The database architecture will allow the development of an offline reporting tool for use when Internet is limited or unavailable. A capability to enter future planned maintenance will be developed, providing an Operations planning tool and visibility to upcoming maintenance that could affect data flow or quality. Having a single common database and database access architecture will ease integration with other ARM databases.