Modernizing the monitoring of Mass Storage systems

The monitoring of a system is essential to ensure its efficiency. On a computer system, this monitoring is partly done via the analysis of log messages. The monitoring of CASTOR, a mass-storage system responsible for the storage of 150Pb of scientific data at CERN, was being done with tools developed by the IT-ST-FDO section. Those tools recently encountered some performance limitations due to the increase in the quantity of data produced by CERN's experiments. In this paper, I will describe how I managed to modernize CASTOR's monitoring tools by leveraging services centrally managed by CERN's IT department.