Abstract
The first production version of the CERN Tape Archive (CTA) software is planned to be released during 2019. CTA is designed to replace CASTOR as the CERN tape archive solution, to face the scalability and performance challenges arriving with LHC Run–3. In this paper, we describe the main commonalities and differences between CTA and CASTOR. We outline the functional enhancements and integration steps required to add the CTA tape back-end to an EOS disk storage system. We present and discuss the different deployment and migration scenarios for replacing the five CASTOR instances at CERN, including a description of how the File Transfer Service (FTS) will interface with EOS and CTA.
Highlights
The High Energy Physics experiments at CERN generate a deluge of data which must be efficiently archived for later retrieval and analysis
CERN Tape Archive (CTA) is implemented as the tape back-end to the EOS disk system [2], and all disk cache functions are delegated to EOS
It is planned that data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments will be migrated from CASTOR to CTA during LS2 in time for full operations to resume at the beginning of Run–3
Summary
The High Energy Physics experiments at CERN generate a deluge of data which must be efficiently archived for later retrieval and analysis. The CERN Tape Archive (CTA) is the new tape storage system for the custodial copy of the physics data. While CASTOR provides tape storage, a disk cache and staging functionality, CTA has a more simple design philosophy. CTA is implemented as the tape back-end to the EOS disk system [2], and all disk cache functions are delegated to EOS. As EOS is already the de facto storage system for physics analysis at CERN, CTA aims to provide the “best of both worlds”—EOS disk and CASTOR tape. The main goal of CTA is to make more efficient use of the tape drives, to handle the higher data rates anticipated during Run–3 and Run–4 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In our previous paper [3], we described how this was to be achieved, by introducing a pre-emptive drive scheduler which can keep tape drives running at full speed all of the time
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
