Automating WLCG Job Accounting Validation

Project Specification

The WLCG infrastructure provides resources to store, distribute and analyse the data generated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC data is analysed at multiple computing facilities at the geographically dispersed LHC Grid sites. Accounting data are produced for each job executed on the Grid and collected to a central accounting repository through APEL. One of the goals of the WLCG accounting project is to prove the trustworthiness of the data presented on the new accounting portal. This entails performing automated, frequent comparisons against the data from the experiment-specific accounting systems and visualising the results. The student will work on an existing implementation with the goal of completing the necessary features, providing improvements and creating an infrastructure for its automated execution.

Abstract

The WLCG Accounting Task Force is overseeing the creation of a new accounting portal. One of the areas of work is to check the trustworthiness of the provided data. This is accomplished by making comparisons against the data from the accounting systems used by the LHC experiments. To that end, a script was created to perform these checks and publish the results online. Addition-al emphasis was given on making sure it is fully automated and on improving the visualisation of the results. The initial outcome has been positive and some accounting issues were discovered and fixed.