Milestone Server And Storage Best Practice

Milestone Systems - Confidential

Surveillance Server and StorageBest Practices

Mike SherwoodSolutions Engineer

Milestone Systems Confidential 2

What is IP Video Management

Core Functions Capture live video

from IP cameras and IP video encoders

Perform basic videoprocessing

Record video to database

Facilitate remote access for live viewwith camera controland playback

Search video and export evidence material

Integrate third partysystems


System Planning

Choices in a surveillance system will affect server and storage requirements Cameras – resolution, frame rate, codec (MJPEG, MPEG-

4, h.264) Retention Period Estimated percent of motion

Affected by camera location, lighting, masking capabilities, etc…


System Planning Cont’d

Involve Systems Integrators, Manufacturers and Consultants

Design the system with overhead to accommodate spikes in daily requirements and future growth requirements

Parameters will help in determining bandwidth and server processing requirements

Details should be ironed out prior to bid process Example


Understanding the Architecture

System Topology How Data is written to

disk Motion detection

methodology and effects on system performance


XProtect Corporate Architecture Support for multiple servers, sites and clients allows you to design the system to fit your

organization.

Core Management Server for initialclient logon and system-wideconfiguration of recording servers,devices and users.

Unlimited Number of Recording Servers sup-porting unlimited devices per server.

Unlimited Number of Failover Servers supportingunlimited devices per server.

Unlimited Number of Smart Clients accessing live view and playback from unlimited devices from multiple Recording Servers at the same time.

System Topology


Writing Data to Disk

Sequential I/O

Random I/O

Average File Sizes 50 – 64KB

56

12

93

32

0102030405060708090100

RAID 10 Optimal Writes - 4 Drive Array - 10K SAS

MB/Second Throughput

100% Sequential 64K

100% Random 64K

100% Sequential 2MB

100% Random 2MB


Motion Detection Parameters

Effects on Disk Throughput and Storage Recording Server Detection Camera Detection

Effects on Processor Recording Server Detection

Optimized Key Frame Only

Camera Detection Detection Regions

Exclude Regions


System Availability

Defining the Requirements Down Time Data Loss Recovery Objective

Component Level Redundancy Power Supplies Fans Memory

Disk Redundancy


Defining Availability Requirements

Server Layer Down Time – Recover Time Objective Data Loss – Recovery Point Objective

Recovery TimeRecovery Point

SecsMinsHoursDaysWks Secs Mins Hours Days Wks

Archiving

Replication

Tape Backup

ClusteringFailover

Manual Restore

Determining Recovery Needs


Disk Redundancy

RAID 0 – Highest Performance, Low Cost, No Redundancy Data Striping Only Recovery requires little overhead and recovery time is fast (assuming

there is a drive on-hand) Single drive failure results in complete loss of data

RAID 1 / 1+0 – High Performance, High Cost, High Redundancy Data Mirroring (RAID 1) and Mirroring + Stripping (RAID 1+0) It is possible to sustain multiple drive failures in a RAID 1+0

configuration Affects of running in a degraded state are minimal Small write “penalty” when compared to RAID 0


Disk Redundancy

RAID 5, 6, 50 – Low Performance, Low Cost, Mid to High Level of Redundancy Able to sustain (RAID5) and multiple (RAID 6/50) drive

failures Significant write penalty due to parity calculation

requirement – highly dependent on array or storage controller

System performance can be significantly affected when running in a degraded state or during disk re-build processes (70% performance degradation is common)


RAID 5 vs RAID 10

56

30

12

3.6

93

35

32

29

0 20 40 60 80 100

RAID 10

RAID 5

MB/Second

Random 2MBSequential 2MBRandom 64KSequential 64K

RAID Level Throughput Comparison

Video Data

*Using 10k SAS Drives – 3 Drive RAID 5 vs 4 Drive RAID 10


Drive Technologies

SATA – Serial ATA Originally designed for applications requiring less than

20% read/write Optimal for sequential read operations Speeds up to 7200 RPM in higher capacities Enterprise class and Video rated drives are now available

with higher reliability Relatively slow in comparison to SAS and Fibre Channel Low cost / high density storage with drive capacities up to

2 TB


Drive Technologies

SAS – Serial Attached SCSI Designed for data center applications requiring 100%

read / write Optimal for high usage random write operations Speeds up to 15,000 RPM Higher reliability (compared to SATA) for demanding

applications Higher cost and lower density with good reliability and

performance – drive sizes up to 450GB


Drive Technologies

Fibre Channel Similar attributes as SAS drives with higher speed connectivity to

each drive individually Rarely required for Video applications due to the density required for

video retention – could be used for primary database recording

Solid State Drives Early tests have indicated as much as 100% improvement over 15K

SAS drives in high random I/O environments Drives are not standardized and drive features are not consistent

across manufacturers – feature can have a significant impact on performance


Disk Sub Systems

Internal / Direct Attached Easy to configure with many options for internal and storage

enclosures More cost effective for systems with fewer cameras Variety of drive options that can be intermixed on the same controller

– supporting best practice drive configurations I/O processes are controlled by the Array controller in the server –

capabilities are limited in some cases Expansion capabilities are limited and usually less functional (on-line

capacity expansion, etc…) Fewer and less robust management tools


Disk Sub Systems

iSCSI SAN Disk I/O operations are offloaded from array controller to SAN

controller – typically equals better performance Video Optimized Options available Write directly to RAID 5 recommended in some cases Enhanced management utilities and extended expansion capabilities

(On-Line Capacity Expansion, RAID Re-Configure, etc.) Better management of RAID re-build process after drive failure Limited by network bandwidth Limitations exist on the SAN controller – caution must be taken

during the buying cycle Choose a solution that is scalable – upgradeable controllers, etc… iSCSI SAN is typically dedicated to video operations and not shared

by other business applications


Disk Sub Systems

Fibre Channel SAN Similar attributes as iSCSI SAN regarding management capabilities,

capacity expansion and resource allocation. Robust management applications Write directly to RAID 5 in some instances Support for a variety of drives Already existing in some installations with excess controller capacity High IOPS ratings per SAN controller Typically not limited by system bandwidth Higher cost but existing / shared infrastructure can be used and

shared with other business applications


Recommended Recording Architecture

Primary Database Should house 4 hour to 3 days of recording High performance storage drives and arrays (ex: SAS drives

configured for RAID 10) Archive process should run with frequencies from once per hour to

once per day 2 to 3 times the usable capacity of what is required for the live

database Archive Database

Total capacity defined by video retention requirements Lower performance high density drives and configurations for long

term storage and lower cost (ex: SATA drives configured for RAID 5) % of motion in the environment will affect archive design


Recommended Recording Architecture

GRAPHIC DEPICTING ARCHIVE PROCESS


Disk Tuning Parameters

Array Stripe Size Disk Segment Size Array Controller Cache Configurations Write Cache Read Cache Cache Allocation for Read / Write operations


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Technology

Milestone Server And Storage Best Practice