The ALICE Grid Workflow for LHC Run 3

¹ CERN, Geneva, Switzerland e-mail: mstoretv@cern.ch
² Faculty of Engineering and Science, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway

Published online: 6 May 2024

Abstract

In preparation for LHC Run 3 and 4 the ALICE Collaboration has moved to a new Grid middleware, JAliEn, and workflow management system. The migration was dictated by the substantially higher requirements on the Grid infrastructure in terms of payload complexity, increased number of jobs and managed data volume, all of which required a complete rewrite of the middleware using modern software languages and technologies. Through containerisation, self-contained binaries, managed by the JAliEn middleware, we provide a uniform execution environment across sites and various architectures, including accelerators. The model and implementation have proven their scalability and can be easily deployed across sites with minimal intervention.

This contribution outlines the architecture of the new Grid workflow as deployed in production and the workflow process. Specifically shown is how core components are moved and bootstrapped through CVMFS, enabling the middleware to run anywhere fully independent of the host system. Furthermore, we examine how new middleware releases, containers and their runtimes are centrally maintained and easily deployed across the Grid, also by the means of a common build system.