ALMA operation support software and infrastructure

Abstract

The Atacama Large Millimeter /submillimeter Array (ALMA) will be a unique research instrument composed of at least 66 reconfigurable high-precision antennas, located at the Chajnantor plain in the Chilean Andes at an elevation of 5000 m. Each antenna contains instruments capable of receiving radio signals from 31.3 GHz up to 950 GHz. These signals are correlated inside a Correlator and the spectral data are finally saved into the Archive system together with the observation metadata. This paper describes the progress in the development of the ALMA operation support software, which aims to increase the efficiency of the testing, distribution, deployment and operation of the core observing software. This infrastructure has become critical as the main array software evolves during the construction phase. In order to support and maintain the core observing software, it is essential to have a mechanism to align and distribute the same version of software packages across all systems. This is achieved rigorously with weekly based regression tests and strict configuration control. A build farm to provide continuous integration and testing in simulation has been established as well. Given the large amount of antennas, it is imperative to have also a monitoring system to allow trend analysis of each component in order to trigger preventive maintenance activities. A challenge for which we are preparing this year consists in testing the whole ALMA software performing complete end-to-end operation, from proposal submission to data distribution to the ALMA Regional Centers. The experience gained during deployment, testing and operation support will be presented.