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Potent Storage

Jun 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Dan Ochiva

Technology and affordability meet at NAB.

NAB marked a breakthrough for potent storage systems — many of which handle HD — that price high-end arrays at near entry-level pricing. Here's a good example: the Harmony shared SAN, from 1 Beyond, brings leading-edge shared file system technology to a wider audience with its $35,000 tab. Although that's still pricey, understand that this setup not only delivers multiple streams of uncompressed 10-bit HD in realtime, but it can also deliver up to 32 streams in the full-up version. SAN software is key in delivering such a huge video stream, so 1 Beyond partnered with Sanbolic, which specializes in apps to control data.

A longtime storage provider to the post industry, Rorke Data also delivered a product offering high-end throughput, but cut down on cost by pairing it with drives that use the latest rave in storage: Serial ATA (SATA). SATA is a good choice because it employs the ubiquitous IDE drives — which continue to plummet in price — with a high-speed serial interface. While a SATA drive still won't beat a SCSI or Fibre Channel drive on a one-to-one throughput test, they gain comparable speed when used in a RAID array.

That's the thinking behind the new Galaxy-i series from Rorke, which won an award at the show from the DVPA as the top storage for its membership of DV producers. (This is the largest pro DV organization around; check them out at www.dvpa.com)

The Galaxy 65 model comes with either a 2Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) or SCSI-160 interface. (Don't be confused by that; the array's SATA drives interconnect to a FC or SCSI I/O, which lets it talk with the rest of the post world.) Although the model 65 can hold up to 35TB, full systems with a terabyte or more of storage price in the teens, which turns out to be a great price for a product that supports all the major operating systems right out of the box. For the paranoid, the Galaxy 65 can be configured as a dual active redundant RAID, with redundant hot-swappable power supplies, cooling systems, and disk drives that further enhance system reliability and uptime.

Long a respected name for its host adapters, hubs, and bridges, ATTO Technology introduced its Diamond Storage Array S-Class for HD at the show. With 6TB of capacity in a compact 3RU enclosure, the Diamond Array can store more than 14 hours of uncompressed HD video. Pinnacle Systems qualified the array with its CinéWave card for uncompressed HD and SD editing.

The array uses ATTO's ADXT (Aggregated Data Transfer Technology) to achieve high data-transfer rates, even though it employs standard ATA drives, not the usual SCSI and FC that other, more expensive arrays rely on. ADXT combines both hardware — including dual 2-Gigabit Fibre Channel Host Interface Cards (HICs) — embedded software and custom ASICs in a setup ATTO describes as the Intelligent Midplane. Using this technology, ATTO says it can offer a very favorable price/performance ratio that will allow video facilities to keep a high volume of HD media reliably online.

Ciprico introduced its first SATA storage products at the show: DiMeda 1700, a NAS device, and the FibreStore 2212A, designed for SAN use.

By going with SATA-based drives, Ciprico says it can price the FibreStore at up to half less. Because the array still packs a 2Gbps Fibre Channel RAID I/O, the company claims sustained data transfer rates that utilize 95 percent of that available speed (this is for apps running sequentially, not simultaneously).

Ciprico also looked out for the paranoid: the FibreStore 2212A employs a dual architecture throughout. That includes appliance nodes, power supplies, and RAID controllers. You can manage the SAN setup via its integrated web server, with support for SNMP, SMTP, and HTTP.

Dot Hill introduced the RIO Xtreme storage server, a high-bandwidth array pegged for data-intensive, rich-media environments. In an interesting twist, the product's use of inexpensive hardware also allows the company to pitch the product for low-cost nearline storage duties.

RIO Xtreme, demo'd with four video editing workstations running a variety of apps, delivered multiple stream capture and playback to demonstrate the “efficiency and cost-effectiveness of enabling multi-user shared access to data.” Alex Peacock, owner of New York-based 33 1/3 Productions, likes RIO “because it's completely scalable with relatively inexpensive modules and can use inexpensive drives.”

The RIO Xtreme storage server comes in a compact 1RU form factor and offers mixed storage connectivity to Fibre Channel, SATA, and SBOD disk subsystems. RIO Xtreme was developed using Chaparral technology; Dot Hill acquired Chaparral Network Storage earlier this year, which enabled the enterprise vendor to move into the video and streaming-media markets.

Fast Forward Video attracted documentary creators and local networks with Covert DVR, a miniature, standalone DVR that builds from the company's ultra-compact Recon DVR. While the Recon DVR comes in close to the Covert's petite 5.7"×1.0"×3.55" dimensions, the company says that the Covert really does provide “exceptional” image quality via its scalable Motion-JPEG (MJPEG) compression. With its 720×486 resolution, Covert offers very usable still images courtesy of MJPEG, as each frame is a standard JPEG image. User-selectable compression ratios range from 4:1 to 20:1, with recording times averaging between 4 to 20 minutes per GB.

There are some nice touches. Covert DVR uses a standard USB 2.0 port, which allows instant downloading. Two versions, meanwhile, allow you to choose between one fitted with two compact flash card slots (that's the Covert DVR cf) or one with an ATAPI-type hard drive or a solid-state flash drive (Covert DVR ide).

Over the years, Huge Systems developed a rep for delivering low-priced drive arrays that spec out exactly as stated in its literature. Not a small matter when contending claims make every product sound like a winner in the throughput race. The company is innovative. Mike Anderson, CTO, is one reason Huge's gear garners respect. Anderson's résumé includes development of the first commercial RAID-5 system, the first A/V-optimized disk drives, and the first commercially available video server.

With the move toward editing uncompressed HD on the desktop, what's Anderson's opinion of current technology, such as the proliferation of arrays sporting 2Gbps Fibre Channel ports?

“I think (UltraSCSI) 320 is the fastest interface now available,” says Anderson. “2Gb fiber is about 60 percent slower, while U320 has a theoretical rate of 320MBps. …We have reports from 1 Beyond (1 Beyond uses Huge's U320 array) of moving 450MBps plus, by just using two channels of U320. We're going to be feeding gigabyte per second here soon.”

At the show, Huge Systems debuted the MediaVault U320-R Max and U320-S Dual Max, along with the next-generation SANstream disk array. The MediaVault U320-R Max is claimed as the first and only redundant disk storage product capable of sustaining uncompressed 10-bit, 1080i HD content or up to six uncompressed SD video streams from a single SCSI channel, five-disk drive array. The RAID array offers removable disk modules for ease of service and upgrading.

Studio Network Solutions (SNS) is another company coming up with less expensive but highly capable storage systems that make use of the latest technology. In this case it's iSCSI. SNS's GlobalSAN is one of the first storage products in the post video and audio markets to use the recently ratified iSCSI protocol. The “i” means Internet; iSCSI devices break the chains of the usual short-range SCSI cabling to allow storage to work, well, anywhere the Internet goes. Moving anything over a TCP/IP network might seem pokey, but new algorithms and chip designs can speed those links up to production speeds.

The company pegs the product for those who want improved networked storage but don't want to invest in a full Fibre Channel SAN or point-to-point WAN (wide area network) connectivity. GlobalSAN arrays transport block-level I/O data over high-speed Ethernet links. It works with both Windows and Mac OS X systems, making it the first such product available to Mac users.

Medéa, another leader in the fast-and-cheaper storage race, won a smile from many a Mac user with its compact, stylish G-RAID. Like Huge Systems' MediaVault, the G-RAID looks like something made from a spare G5 case. In this version, though, it's small, not much bigger than the proverbial cigar box. The drive handles multi-stream, uncompressed SD, HDV, and DV nonlinear video editing via its FireWire 800 I/O. Seems a steal: G-RAIDs start at $399 for 160GB.

Also new: VideoRaid FCR2 and FCR2X Fibre Channel arrays. They solve setup and management problems because they come with built-in 4- or 8-port FC hubs with 2Gb FC interfaces. With its five drives, the FCR2 supports up to seven streams of uncompressed SD video. Meanwhile, the two-channel FCR2X employs 10 FC drives to deliver two streams of 10-bit 1080i HD.

Thomson expanded its Grass Valley brand M-Series intelligent video digital recorder (iVDR) line with two new models that offer digital audio and support higher-quality (50 Mbps) SD production. The M-Series is another example of computer hardware delivering many more capabilities than a VTR ever could, even while keeping the price down.

The M-Series iVDR acts both as a very flexible VTR and — with its digital storage, networking, and software tools — a DDR that can trim and create video clips and subclips, build playlists, and exchange clips with news, graphics, and other apps.

The new iVDRs — the M-222D and M-322D — support four audio tracks (AES/EBU digital audio), embedded digital audio, and simultaneous analog and digital video outputs. The M-322D also offers record and playback of 50Mbps DV and MPEG-2. The upgrade also lets users integrate an iVDR with Grass Valley Digital News Production (DNP) products and the Grass Valley NetCentral SNMP-based (Simple Network Management) remote-monitoring application.

Xtore featured its new XD 2000 series Fibre Channel-SATA storage array. The XD 2000 series enables daisy-chain or cascading functionality in both JBOD and RAID configurations. With up to 200MBps per host channel, the array supports up to 56TB of capacity in a high-density 2RU, 12-bay or 3RU, 16-bay form factor. Its enterprise RAID features include full redundancy and failover.

Looking ahead

To wrap up, here's a look at one possible future for storage technology. In a hotel suite not far off the convention floor, Isilon Systems introduced the second generation of its Isilon IQ network storage system. Let's be realistic about the product. The company's basic models come in at a 1.44TB minimum, and most companies don't buy just one node. Right now, it's the big companies that are buying into this radical rethink of how to handle massive amounts of storage. Most of us don't have the bank account to match that of initial customers such as FotoKem and Technicolor. But Isilon's approach gives a glimpse into the innovative thinking that's needed, as producers and companies in the content-creation industries face the reality of storing and managing our quickly increasing amounts of video, audio, and data.

So what is it? The Isilon IQ system provides clustered storage that combines an “intelligent” distributed file system with modular, industry-standard hardware. So far, so good.

But next, Isilon sidestepped standard practice and created its own distributed file system — OneFS — which helps to build a single, shared global “namespace.” Making things simple is key. By combining the three layers of traditional storage architecture — file system, volume manager, and RAID — into a single, unified software layer, Isilon virtualizes all the many pieces of the underlying hardware and software. No matter how much storage is added, it all looks like one very big drive.

This makes today's continual back-and-forth claims about which is the best storage architecture less relevant. Users don't spend time worrying about SAN, NAS, and JBOD, nor the other problems inherent when focusing on how complex hardware and software combinations interact with video and data. Storing large files makes a good fit with Isilon's unified storage space. Management is easier; there's no need, for example, to track down files that were previously strewn around separate islands of storage.

The basic Isilon IQ module consists of 2RU servers that hold 1.44TB of ATA disk storage per node. Here's another benefit of the file system's structure: I/O bandwidth increases as more storage nodes are added. How does that work? First, as new nodes are added to an Isilon cluster, the iQ's Auto-Balance feature redistributes existing files across the cluster. This happens automatically, without any downtime, and without slowing the system down. Next, adding another node brings more capability to the whole system because each node includes a CPU, RAM, and Ethernet bandwidth.

The speed comes this way: Because the data on the system exists within a single storage space — even though each stored file is spread in small segments throughout the array — a request to read or write data enables the total system to devote all its CPUs complete capabilities. That enables, for example, the Isilon IQ 1440 and 2250 to deliver more than 20Gbps of total throughput from a single file system.

Isilon's approach might not be the final word in solving our growing storage dilemma, but it highlights the creative thinking that's going on to solve the frustrating problems involved in storing data.

For more on storage, see Steve Mullen's article on Apple's Xserve.

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