MetaCat - metadata catalog for data management systems

Abstract

Metadata management is one of three major areas and parts of functionality of scientific data management along with replica management and workflow management. Metadata is the information describing the data stored in a data item, a file or an object. It includes the data item provenance, recording conditions, format and other attributes. MetaCat is a metadata management database designed and developed for High Energy Physics experiments. As a component of a data management system, it’s main objectives are to provide efficient metadata storage and management and fast data items selection functionality. MetaCat is supposed to work on the scale of 100 million files (or objects) and beyond. The article will discuss the functionality of MetaCat and technological solutions used to implement the product.