ASAP Distributed Analysis

The Grid offers physicists far more resources than have previously been available by combining elements in computing centers around the world into a globally accessible resource. However, in order to harness this computing power many steps need to be performed for job creation and management and data discovery. ASAP (ARDA support for CMS analysis process) was developed to make this step as simple and straightforward as possible for physicists working on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN. ASAP transfers a local application to the Grid by packaging the application, discovering the location of input data then creating, submitting and monitoring jobs. One of the main components of the system is that users can delegate responsibility for their tasks to the ASAP server which can take actions on behalf of the user to ensure that tasks are completed successfully. The system can operate in the traditional push model but can also be used by agents executing on the Grid to pull jobs to the worker node for execution.