The document discusses challenges with archival storage and proposes a solution called nTier Verde. It notes that archival storage requires affordability for large volumes of data stored long-term, standard interfaces for mixed workflows, high reliability, and ensuring data integrity. nTier Verde is presented as a simply affordable file storage solution that costs half as much as traditional storage, never loses data through advanced checksums and parity options, and has rock solid hardware to meet archival requirements. Testing showed the nTier Verde delivered throughput near line rates for backup and archive workloads.

1. Meeting the Challenges of
Archival Storage

2. Your not so Humble Speaker
• 25+ years of consulting and
writing for trade press
• Columnist/blogger at
NetworkComputing .com
• Chief Scientist DeepStorage, LLC.
• Independent test lab and
analysts
• @DeepStorageNet on Twitter
• Hmarks@DeepStorage.Net

3. The Data We’re Drowning In is
Archival
• Long-Tail data
– Richer and richer media
• Media and entertainment
• Video surveillance
• Medical imaging
– New paths to value
• Big data analytics
• Instrumentation data

4. The Storage Market Today
• Performance storage
– Designed for high IOPS/low latency
– High cost/GB
• Storage for backups
– Deduplication driven
– Cost very data dependent
• Object Storage
– Economical at scale
– Requires application support

5. What Do We Mean By “Archival”
• Many sources
– Video and other media repositories
– Medical imaging
– Instrumentation and log files
– Email or business archives
• Large file storage repositories
– 100MB
– Written and read sequentially or even get/put
• Low access frequency
– But sub-second latency

6. Archives & Most Storage Don’t
Fit
• Primary storage is too
expensive
– Bandwidth more important that
IOPS
• Dedupeing appliances are
for backups
– Archives already single
instanced
– Media files don’t dedupe
• Object storage needs new
applications

7. Archive Storage Requirements
• Affordability
– Large quantities * long retention = many TB
– Storage efficiency is key
• Standard interfaces
– Many mixed application workflows
• High reliability
– RAID-6 at a minimum
• Ensure data Integrity

8. The Data Integrity
• RAID only insures against drive failures
– Drive reliability 1014 to 1015 bits
– 8TB disk=6.4x1013
– Error expected rebuilding 12+2 array
• Undetected corruption on about 3% of
drives*
– Error rate increases over time
* http://research.cs.wisc.edu/wind/Publications/latent-sigmetrics07.pdf

9. The Solution
• Calculate a hash with each block written
• Store hash separately from data
– Drives sometimes just write the wrong sector
• Verify via hash on reads
– Reconstitute data from parity data on failure
• Scrub and rebuild all data periodically

10. nTier Verde –
Simply Affordable File Storage
• No previous storage experience required
• Half the cost of traditional file storage
• Never lose your data

11. • Effortless Setup
– 30 minutes from box
to production!
– Dashboard style
management with
single screen view
– Manage/monitor
Verde remotely with
smart phone interface
No Previous Storage Experience
Required

12. • Store More, Spend Less
– List price as low as 35¢ per GB
– No software fees
• Compression, Snapshots and Replication* included
• Quick Installation
– PS dollars focus on solution, not install
• PriceLock Support Pricing
– Avoid the support hockey stick
– Will not increase LIST price more than Consumer Price
Index
Half The Cost Of Traditional File
Storage
* Future Release

13. • Software Eliminates Data Corruption and Loss
– Advanced checksums and multiple parity options
– All writes committed instantaneously
• Rock Solid Hardware
– Highest quality & capacity SAS drives made
• 4TB ~ (6TB)Future
• 7200 RPM
• SAS 6Gb/s
• 24x7 Duty Cycle
• Few Affordable Arrays Offer This Caliber of Drive
Never Lose Your Data

14. nTier Verde 2U nTier Verde 4U
Supported Hard Drives 4 TB, 7200 RPM, SAS Hard Drives
Master Node Capacity* 6 to 11 Drives
24 TB to 44 TB RAW
10 to 35 Drives
40 TB to 140 TB RAW
Expansion Node Support 1 Expansion Node 9 Expansion Nodes
Max Capacity* 220 TB RAW Max 1.7 PB RAW Max
Parity Options Mirroring, Single Parity, Double Parity, Triple Parity
Software Compression, Thin Provisioning, Snapshots
Hot Spares Unlimited
Supported Protocols NFS, CIFS
3 x 1 GigE Data Ports Standard Standard
2 x 10 GigE Data Ports Optional Standard
nTier Verde

15. Testing the Verde
• nTier Verde 4u
– 35x 4TB drives
• 10Gbps CIFS and
NFS
• Tested with
– Commvault Simpana
– Veeam B&R
– IOmeter
12UUID
RESETR OM
Virtual Server Hosts
UPERMICRS
UPERMICRS
B
POWER
UID
POWER
UID
A
Veeam/CommVault Server
T540
12UUID
RESETR OM
12UUID
RESETR OM
12UUID
RESETR OM
Supermicro
6016T-NTRF
Brocade 8000
10Gbps Ethernet Switch
Spectra nTier Verde Tintri T540
(VM Storage)

16. IOmeter Results
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Backup Writer Backup Reader 8K OLTP 2MB Read 2MB Write
Miror RAID-5 Z2 Z3 Z3 w/compression

17. Multiple Stream File Transfers
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
80000
1 2 4 8 16
Write Read

18. Wrapping Up
• Spectra’s nTier Verde meets the archival
test
– High reliability and efficiency via triple parity
RAID
– High capacity nearline disks
– Hashes to ensure data integrity
– Optional compression
– Simple web administration
– Throughput at near line rate