The Evolution of the ALICE Detector Control System

Abstract

The ALICE Detector Control System has provided its service since 2007. Its operation in the past years proved that the initial design of the system fulfilled all expectations and allowed the evolution of the detectors and operational requirements to follow. In order to minimize the impact of the human factor, many procedures have been optimized and new tools have been introduced in order to allow the operator to supervise about 1 000 000 parameters from a single console. In parallel with the preparation for new runs after the LHC shutdown a prototyping for system extensions which shall be ready in 2018 has started. New detectors will require new approaches to their control and configuration. The conditions data, currently collected after each run, will be provided continuously to a farm containing 100 000 CPU cores and tens of PB of storage. In this paper the DCS design, deployed technologies, and experience gained during the 7 years of operation will be described and the initial assumptions with the current setup will be compared. The current status of the developments for the upgraded system, which will be put into operation in less than 3 years from now, will also be described