# Data preservation at the Fermilab Tevatron

## TL;DR

This paper discusses the preservation of Fermilab Tevatron data, detailing infrastructure, strategies, and lessons learned to ensure long-term access and scientific utility beyond 2011.

## Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive data preservation system using virtualization, validation, and migration to sustain analysis capabilities through 2020 and beyond.

## Key findings

- Successful implementation of virtualization and migration techniques
- Enhanced long-term data access and analysis capabilities
- Lessons learned applicable to other long-term scientific data projects

## Abstract

The Fermilab Tevatron collider's data-taking run ended in September 2011, yielding a dataset with rich scientific potential. The CDF and D0 experiments each have approximately 9 PB of collider and simulated data stored on tape. A large computing infrastructure consisting of tape storage, disk cache, and distributed grid computing for physics analysis with the Tevatron data is present at Fermilab. The Fermilab Run II data preservation project intends to keep this analysis capability sustained through the year 2020 and beyond. To achieve this goal, we have implemented a system that utilizes virtualization, automated validation, and migration to new standards in both software and data storage technology and leverages resources available from currently-running experiments at Fermilab. These efforts have also provided useful lessons in ensuring long-term data access for numerous experiments, and enable high-quality scientific output for years to come.