CDF way to the GRID

Abstract

The improvements of the peak instantaneous luminosity of the Tevatron Collider require large increases in computing requirements for the CDF experiment which has to be able to increase proportionally the amount of Monte Carlo data it produces and to satisfy the computing needs for future data analysis. This is, in turn, forcing the CDF Collaboration to move beyond the used dedicated resources and start exploiting Grid resources.CDF has been running a set of CDF Analysis Farm (CAFs), which are submission portals to dedicated pools. In this paper will be presented the CDF strategy to access Grid resources.GlideCAF, a new CAF implementation based on Condor Glide-in technology, has been developed to access resources in specific Grid Sites and is currently in production status at CNAF Tier-1 in Italy. Recently have been configured GlideCAFs also in San Diego (US), Fermilab and Lyon Tier-1 Center (France).GlideCAF model has been used also to implement OsgCAF, which is a Fermilab project to exploit OSG resources in US.LcgCAF is basically a reimplementation of the CAF model in order to access Grid resources by using the LCG/EGEE Middleware components in a total standard Grid way. LcgCAF is constituted by a set of services each of them responsible for accepting, submitting and monitoring CDF user jobs during theirs lifetimes in the Grid environment.An overview of the Grid Environment and of the specific Middleware services used will be presented; GlideCAF and LcgCAF implementations will be discussed in detail. Some details on OsgCAF project will be also given.