Grass Valley K2 Storage System Instruction Manual v.3.1 - Manual (Page 256)

256 K2 Storage System Instruction Manual September 6, 2006
Chapter 7 Installing the Nearline Storage System
Nearline system description
The purpose of the Nearline storage system is to provide a large pool of storage to
which files can be saved. The Nearline system is considered an “offline” system,
which means the system stores files only, such GXF files or MXF files, with no ability
to record or play those files directly on the system. This is because the Nearline
system has no media database to support “movies” or “clips”, such as there is on an
“online” K2 Level 1, 2, 3, or 4 storage system. However, the files on a Nearline
system can be readily available to an online K2 system via FTP transfer.
Typically, SATA drives provide the primary storage on a Nearline system. While
these drives do not provide the high bandwidth of the Fibre Channel drives required
by an online K2 storage system, they offer larger capacity and lower cost. This makes
SATA drives ideal for the Nearline storage system. However, if desired, Fibre
Channel drives can be used throughout the Nearline system.
The Nearline storage system has one to four K2 media servers. The media servers are
identical in that they all take the same two roles, as follows:
• FTP server — In this role all servers are active simultaneously. To provide FTP
redundancy in the event of a server failure, your facility’s FTP system must be able
to access alternate FTP servers.
• Media file system server — In this role only one media server is active at any one
time, and the media file system itself provides redundancy. If a fault occurs on the
active server, one of the other media servers automatically takes over as the active
media file system server.
In the Nearline system no media servers take the role of iSCSI bridge or media
database server.
No K2 Media Clients or any other generic client are part of the Nearline system.
L3R RAID chassis (FC drives)
L3R RAID Expansion
chassis (SATA drives)
K2 media
servers
Gigabit Ethernet
switches
Fibre Channel
connections
Control
FTP
Control
FTP
FTP to/from online system
Control
FTP
Control
POWER SERVICE K2 RAID STORAGE !
POWER SERVICE K2 RAID STORAGE !
POWER SERVICE K2 RAID STORAGE !
POWER SERVICE K2 RAID STORAGE !
FTP
Control point PC
Control
ISLs
Control Control