Speaker
Mr
Marco Meoni
(CERN)
Description
The ALICE experiment at CERN LHC is intensively using a PROOF cluster for fast analysis and reconstruction. The current system (CAF - CERN Analysis Facility) consists of some 120 CPU cores and about 45 TB of local space. One of the most important aspects of the data analysis on the CAF is the speed with which it can be carried out. Fast feedback on the collected data can be obtained, which allows quasi-online quality assurance of the data as well as fast analysis that is essential for the success of the experiment. CAF aims to provide fast response in prototyping code for users needing many development iterations. PROOF allows the interactive parallel processing of data distributed on a local cluster via the xrootd protocol. Subsets of selected data can be automatically staged in CAF from the Grid storage systems.
The talk will present the current setup, performance tests and comparison with a previous cluster and usage statistics. The possibility to use a PROOF setup for parallel data reconstruction is discussed using as example ALICE software framework AliRoot. Furthermore, needed developments, plans and the future scenario of PROOF on a Grid environment are addressed.
Authors
Jan Fiete Grosse-Oetringhaus
(Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster)
Mr
Marco Meoni
(CERN)
