Frontier: High Performance Database Access Using Standard Web Components in a Scalable Multi-Tier Architecture

A high performance system has been assembled using standard web components to deliver database information to a large number of broadly distributed clients. The CDF Experiment at Fermilab is establishing processing centers around the world imposing a high demand on their database repository. For delivering read-only data, such as calibrations, trigger information, and run conditions data, we have abstracted the interface that clients use to retrieve data objects. A middle tier is deployed that translates client requests into database specific queries and returns the data to the client as XML datagrams. The database connection management, request translation, and data encoding are accomplished in servlets running under Tomcat. Squid Proxy caching layers are deployed near the Tomcat servers, as well as close to the clients, to significantly reduce the load on the database and provide a scalable deployment model. Details the system's construction and use are presented, including its architecture, design, interfaces, administration, performance measurements, and deployment plan.