1. STAR C OMPUTING Introduction Torre Wenaus BNL May ‘99 STAR Computing Meeting BNL May 24, 1999

2. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 Recent & Expected Arrivals New member of the core BNL computing team:  Mei-Li Chen, online developer l From U Maryland (Super-K, Milagro) l Very experienced online/DAQ expert l Has online event pool interface to DAQ working for full events over socket connection Systems support hire (online systems; general computing infrastructure) expected soon (…?)

3. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 Status Infrastructure stabilized!  The train has pulled into the station, so people can catch up!  Core group now in ‘consolidation’ mode and focusing on commissioning run essentials l Bug fixing, documentation, examples, help with online integration, online monitoring needs, developing and responding to QA Online system pre-production release  Run control; subsystem control,configuration, slow control  Essential components of the system now in place Near term production plan  StMcEvent tests, peripheral signal and backgd, strangeness AuAu steady production, spectra AuAu  Ongoing production with simu data to l meet PWG needs; exercise and debug codes; perform QA; keep CRS well oiled (CRS became functional again Friday)  of course second priority to real data when it comes!

4. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 Working with StEvent: doEvents.C doEvents.C  Standard means of reading DST files and feeding them to StEvent based analysis  Has handled XDF files OK, but hasn’t handled ROOT files properly up to now  Needs to transparently handle all filetypes; shield distinctions from user. Victor now has this implemented.  On Linux, all filetypes (MDC1 XDF, MDC2 XDF, MDC2 ROOT, post-MDC2 ROOT) work transparently. Still a problem on Solaris that Victor is working on  Multiple files handled

5. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 Using Persistent StEvent StAnalysisMaker changes:  Remove ‘title’ (second parameter) from constructor  #include StEvent/XXX.hh -> XXX.h  Change method of event pointer retrieval: Former: StEventReaderMaker* evMaker = (StEventReaderMaker*) gStChain->Maker("events"); if (! evMaker->event()) return kStOK; // If no event, we're done StEvent& ev = *(evMaker->event()); New: StEvent* mEvent = (StEvent *) GetInputDS("StEvent"); if (! mEvent) return kStOK; // If no event, we're done StEvent& ev = *mEvent;

6. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 This Meeting Joint online/offline focusing on real data readiness and the immediate needs of the commissioning run  Data flow from DAQ to online, offline  Online system status  Processing of DAQ data in offline  Event I/O, data cataloguing  Conditions database  Online monitoring  Subsystem and global reconstruction for year 1 detectors  RCF and production Current offline software in production, with people doing analysis QA on the results  In this and subsequent weeks try to reproduce some of the very productive environment of MDC2

7. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 Goals for Commissioning run environment - stable offline environment as seen by users - Maker structure and interface stable. Changes affecting the user beyond those already made post-MDC2 are not foreseen. - StEvent as used by analysis codes has been stable; some functionality additions - adding persistency to StEvent while keeping it unchanged as seen by analysis codes has (subject to wider testing) been successful and so can serve as a basis for uDST development and StEvent extension to reconstruction (something we hoped to achieve but did not promise) - needs discussion at this meeting - macros/Makers provided to transparently handle all data file types (XDF, MDC2 root files, new root files)

8. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 Commissioning environment (2) - capability to process raw DAQ data - stably functional data storage - post-MDC2 ROOT I/O improvements implemented in STAR address deficiencies in standard ROOT I/O: robustness against partially completed jobs, forward and backward read compatibility for data files, robust management of multiple event components on different files - schema evolution approach of Victor has to be (if at all possible) fitted into overall ROOT I/O; long discussions hopefully converging - capabilities satisfy commissioning and year 1 needs - populated conditions database in use via stable interface

9. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 RCF Issues CRS working again, as of yesterday, after long absence Manpower: supposed to plateau at 34 in ‘99. Actual: 23 (1 offer is out)  CCD: 4 of 8; Experiments: 4 of 8 MDC2 experience  HPSS: similar level of problems to MDC1 l Stabler after fixes towards end of MDC, but still we see instability l Latest version (4.1) installed; stress testing today.  Disk: major access problems. NFS, AFS translator (Linux) l Move to real AFS 3.5; supported on current Linux  New CRS mgmt software: Major rewrite l Better monitoring and user interaction, improved HPSS interaction; worked well. Adequate for year 1. LSF not needed in CRS.  STAR program size! l Linux 2.2 kernel installed; swap increased to ~2GB l STAR CRS machines will all be 512MB (all CAS machines are 512)

10. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 RCF Issues (2) STAR Executable size 512MB with all makers (tfs), 587MB (trs) Security issues  RCF switched off STAR machine access to RCF disks for new machines l Switching increasingly to AFS l Have partial agreement with RCF to allow us access to data disks; needs to be made official by RCF and implemented Procurements  New Linux (CRS,CAS), Sun (CAS), disk (all RAID), and MDS (drives, processors) procurements underway ADSM batch system June 8  Validate migrated OSM data by then  Will need people with data in OSM to do spot checks  Details due from RCF

11. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 Post Commissioning - extending data management tools (mysql DB + disk file management + HPSS file management + multi-component ROOT files) - complete schema evolution, in collaboration with ROOT team - management of CAS processing and data distribution both for mining and individual physicist level analysis - completion of the DB: integration of slow control as data source, completion of online integration, implementation of DB as Geant geometry data source, populating the DB for detectors other than the TPC - extend and apply OO data model (StEvent) to reconstruction, so new reconstruction development can work with StEvent - completion of online and the online processing farm for monitoring - improving QA tools and procedures - improving and better integrating visualization tools

12. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 Post Commissioning (2) - reconstruction and analysis code development directed at addressing QA results and year 1 code completeness and quality  following the priorities emerging from this meeting  responding to the real-data outcomes of the commissioning run

13. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 New Package Creation It is important to check in your code; submit your Makers as packages in the repository  When bugs or changes affect existing code, we can identify the affected code  Code sharing, collaboration, example for others, integration into QA, etc. etc. When HyperNews email is working again, will set up a forum for requesting and creating new packages  Awareness and consultation on new package proposals

14. STAR C OMPUTING Torre Wenaus, BNL STAR Computing Meeting 5/99 Tutorials Wed (and Thurs?) am: presentation/discussion sessions as a group Followed by individuals or workgroups trying things out, with core computing people and experienced users sitting in and roaming the halls to help Wed am:  Kathy on bfcread.C, histogram integration, general usage  Writing analysis code and using StEvent l Gene (and others..? Torre? Victor? Thomas? Craig Ogilvie?) Wed or Thurs am:  Pavel on using GSTAR Fri am:  Thomas on using UML and Rational Rose Fri pm:  Issues that come up in the week?