User documentation for CASTOR at the RAL Tier-1
CASTOR (CERN Advanced STORage manager) is a software technology used to manage a large tape-based storage system. It was developed at CERN, but it has been customised for the environment at RAL. This page has a brief explanation of the system and some guidance for uses, with pointers to more detailed information. The information is especially aimed at non-LHC VOs.
CASTOR components
CASTOR is a complex system with a number of more-or-less separate components. General information about CASTOR can be found on the CERN web site:
CASTOR home page at CERN CASTOR User GuideHowever, the configuration at RAL is somewhat different, so this page explains some of the RAL-specific details, as illustrated in this schematic diagram.
The Name Server
The CASTOR name server maintains a single namespace for all files stored in the system at RAL. This is a unix-like namespace with a root of /castor/ads.rl.ac.uk/. The namserver host is castorns.ads.rl.ac.uk; usually this will be used by default, but if necessary it can be defined using the CNS_HOST environment variable.
Nameserver commands are prefixed with ns. These are generally rather low-level commands which are unlikely to be needed by most users, but the nsls command may be useful to list files in a similar way to the unix ls. The environment variable CASTOR_HOME can be defined as a prefix used with relative path names.
Last modified Tue 9 December 2008
Switch to HTTPS . Website Help . Print View . Built with GridSite 1.4.3