File-Metadata Management System for the LHCb Experiment

The LHCb experiment needs to store all the information about the datasets and their processing history of recorded data resulting from particle collisions at the LHC collider at CERN as well as of simulated data. To achieve this functionality a design based on data warehousing techniques was chosen, where several user-services can be implemented and optimized individually without losing functionality nor performance. This approach results in an experiment- independent and flexible system. It allows fast access to the catalogue of available data, to detailed history information and to the catalogue of data replicas. Queries can be made based on these three sets of information. A flexible underlying database schema allows the implementation and evolution of these services without the need to change the basic database schema. The consequent implementation of interfaces based on XML-RPC allows to access and to modify the stored information using a well defined encapsulating API