The IceProd framework: Distributed data processing for the IceCube neutrino observatory

• IceProd is a lightweight distributed workflow management framework.
• Uses existing middleware and protocols.
• Runs at user-level and is easily adaptable to other applications.
• It has been successful in managing 450k cores across 25 computing centers.
• Identified areas of improvement including scalability and load balancing.

IceCube is a one-gigaton instrument located at the geographic South Pole, designed to detect cosmic neutrinos, identify the particle nature of dark matter, and study high-energy neutrinos themselves. Simulation of the IceCube detector and processing of data require a significant amount of computational resources. This paper presents the first detailed description of IceProd, a lightweight distributed management system designed to meet these requirements. It is driven by a central database in order to manage mass production of simulations and analysis of data produced by the IceCube detector. IceProd runs as a separate layer on top of other middleware and can take advantage of a variety of computing resources, including grids and batch systems such as CREAM, HTCondor, and PBS. This is accomplished by a set of dedicated daemons that process job submission in a coordinated fashion through the use of middleware plugins that serve to abstract the details of job submission and job management from the framework.