Speaker
Mihaela Gheata
(ISS - Institute of Space Science (RO))
Description
Open access is one of the prerequisites for long term data preservation for a HEP experiment. To guarantee the usability of data analysis tools over long periods of time it is crucial that third party users from the scientific community have access to the data and associated software. The ALICE Collaboration has developed a layer of lightweight components built on top of virtualisation technology to hide the complexity and details of the experiment-specific software. Users can perform basic analysis tasks within CernVM, a lightweight generic virtual machine, paired with an ALICE specific contextualisation. Once the virtual machine is launched, a graphics user interface is automatically started without any additional configuration. This interface allows to download the base ALICE analysis software and run a set of ALICE analysis modules. Currently the available tools include fully documented tutorials for ALICE analysis, such as the measurement of strange particle production or the nuclear modification factor in Pb-Pb collisions. The interface can be easily extended to include an arbitrary number of additional analysis modules. We will present the current status of the tools used by ALICE through the CERN open access portal, our first user experience and the plans for future extensions of this system.
Primary author
Mihaela Gheata
(ISS - Institute of Space Science (RO))
Co-authors
Predrag Buncic
(CERN)
Yves Schutz
(IN2P3 (FR) and CERN)
