Grid Storage
Contents
Grid Storage
WLCG moves and stores hundreds of petabytes of data - much of it replicas of other data, to ensure high availability and resilience. GridPP provides storage in WLCG via the Tier 1 at RAL and via its Tier 2 sites. The grid storage is based on the so-called "storage elements" (or SEs), which provide a grid interface to quite diverse storage systems. SEs include control interfaces like SRM, information interfaces based on LDAP (more or less), and interfaces for data transfer and data access.
GridPP includes a Storage and Data Management group, a group of which provides support for the SEs, data transfer protocols, performance and resilience. And interoperation. And is generally the fount of all knowledge, at least as regards grid storage and its use.
Information about data storage and management in GridPP
Information for users (or potential users)
Users of GridPP resources tend to be grouped together in collaborations (known as Virtual Organisations, or VOs), with a common research purpose. VOs can range in size from several thousand down to in principle a single person. The Main Page has more information about "joining the grid" as a new VO or new members of VOs.
As regards the data storage, sites can often at their discretion allocate resources as long as, say, only a few tens of terabytes are required. Experience has shown, however, that even small VOs can suddenly grow and will need stricter data management.
Information for sites
Information for everybody else
GridPP expertise
Technology
Support
This page is a Key Document, and is the responsibility of Jens Jensen. It was last reviewed on 2014-03-18 when it was considered to be 10% complete. It was last judged to be accurate on (never).
