Performance and operations of the ATLAS RPC system in LHC Run-1

The barrel region of the ATLAS muon spectrometer is instrumented with an RPC system covering the pseudo-rapidity range |eta|<1.05 with a detector surface of more than 4000 m2. The RPCs, providing the first level trigger signal and the track coordinate in the non-bending plane for the candidate muons, have played a fundamental role in the physics studies carried out by ATLAS, culminated with the discovery of the Higgs boson. During the LHC Run-1 the RPCs have shown excellent performances up to the maximum instantaneous luminosity of 6.7 x 10^34 cm-2 s-1, corresponding approximately to 70% of the design value. The detector operation in the challenging background and pileup conditions of the LHC environment will be presented together with the problems encountered and their corresponding solutions. The plans for the maintenance and consolidation of the ATLAS RPC system during the current LHC shutdown, in view of the increased luminosity expected in Run-2, will be also presented.