SCOPE
Enstore is a system to provide mass storage for large Run II data sets. As
such it is not a general purpose mass storage system, but optimized to
allow access to large datasets made of many files. The system supports
random access of files, but also streaming, the sequential access of
successive files on tape. The system treats robot's shelves as a scarce
commodity.
Enstore has been designed to provide logging of data directly from the
experiment's data acquisition systems. The writing and reading of tapes
must therefore be reliable and efficient, and the system must be robust
enough to support this critical application without compromising data
taking. Enstore's goal is to provide a system that can be extended as
needed for the experiments actual data taking needs, as well as be easily
maintainable for the duration of several data taking runs.
Enstore provides the following features:
The Enstore system provides a generic interface for end users to
efficiently use mass storage systems as easily as if they were native file
systems. It is based on a client-server model that allows hot swapping of
hardware components and dynamic software configuration, is platform
independent, runs on heterogeneous environments and is easily extendable.
Most of the operations are transparent to the user. System performance is
monitored and fine tunable. A great deal of care has been taken to ensure
that it is able to prevent or to recover from a worst case scenario. The
system has layers around it to customize and address problems as they
occur. When possible, these layers are expected to use already existing
components (e.g. ftt, pnfs).