Easing the control system application development for cms detector control system with automatic production environment reproduction

The Detector Control System (DCS) [1], [2] is one of the main pieces involved in the operation of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the LHC. The system is built using WinCC Open Architecture (WinCC OA) and the Joint Controls Project (JCOP) framework [3] which was developed on top of WinCC at CERN. Following the JCOP paradigm, CMS has developed its own framework which is structured as a collection of more than 200 individual installable components each providing a different feature. Every one of the systems that CMS DCS consists of, is created by targeting and installing a different set of these components. By automating this process, we are able to quickly and efficiently recreate systems both in production, but also, to create development environments identical to the production ones. This latter one results in smoother development and integration processes, as the new/reworked components are developed and tested in production-like environments. Moreover, it allows the central DCS support team to easily reproduce systems that the users/developers report as being problematic, reducing the response time for bug fixing and improving the support quality.