The thin gap chambers database experience in test beam and preparations for ATLAS

Thin gap chambers (TGCs) are used for the muon trigger system in the forward region of the LHC experiment ATLAS. The TGCs are expected to provide a trigger signal within 25 ns of the bunch spacing. About 3,600 ATLAS TGCs have been produced in Israel, Japan and China. The chambers go through a vigorous quality control program before installation. An extensive system test of the ATLAS muon spectrometer has been performed in the H8 beam line at the CERN SPS during the last few years. Three TGC stations were employed there for triggering muons in the endcap. A relational database was used for storing the conditions of the tests as well as the configuration of the system. This database has provided the detector control system with the information needed for its operation and configuration. The database is used to assist the online operation and maintenance. The same database is storing the non event condition and configuration parameters needed later for the offline and reconstruction software. A larger scale of the database has been produced to support the whole TGC system. It integrates all the production, tests and assembly information. A 1/12th model of the whole TGC system is currently in use for testing the performance of this database in configuring and condition tracking of the system. A mockup of the database was first implemented during the H8 test beams. This paper describes the database structure, its interface to other systems and its operational performance