High Energy Physics and the Power and Risks of Web Based Monitoring

William Badgett
FNAL / CMS

With the growth in size and complexity of High Energy Physics experiments,
and the accompanying increase in the number of collaborators spread
across the globe, the importance of widely relaying timely monitoring and
status information grows exponentially.   To this end, we present online
web based monitoring solutions from the CDF experiment at the Tevatron of
Fermilab and the CMS experiment at the LHC of CERN.  Challenges include
technical, security, political and sociological issues.  The web tools
developed present data to the user from many underlying heterogeneous
sources, from real time messaging system to relational databases.  We
provide the power to combine and correlate data in both graphical
and tabular formats of interest to the experimentalist, with
data such as beam conditions, luminosity, trigger rates, detector
conditions, and many others; all the while allowing for flexibility
on the user side to handle unforeseen uses.   Particular attention
will be given to security and safety issues encountered when dealing
with sensitive experimental systems.  Real life case studies of what
happens when things go wrong will be presented.