Production of BABAR skimmed analysis datasets using the grid

Abstract

The BABAR Collaboration, based at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Stanford, US, has been performing physics reconstruction, simulation studies and data analysis for 8 years using a number of compute farms around the world. Recent developments in Grid technologies could provide a way to manage the distributed resources in a single coherent structure. We describe enhancements to the BABAR experiment's distributed skimmed dataset production system to make use of European Grid resources and present the results with regard to B ABAR's latest cycle of skimmed dataset production. We compare the benefits of a local and Grid-based systems, the ease with which the system is managed and the challenges of integrating the Grid with legacy software. We compare job success rates and manageability issues between Grid and non-Grid production. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd.