1. Milestone Systems - Confidential
Surveillance Server and Storage
Best Practices
Mike Sherwood
Solutions Engineer

2. Milestone Systems Confidential 2
What is IP Video Management
 Core Functions
 Capture live video
from IP cameras
and IP video encoders
 Perform basic video
processing
 Record video to
database
 Facilitate remote
access for live view
with camera control
and playback
 Search video and
export evidence
material
 Integrate third party
systems

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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…

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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

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Understanding the Architecture
 System Topology
 How Data is written to
disk
 Motion detection
methodology and
effects on system
performance

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 XProtect Corporate Architecture
 Support for multiple servers, sites and clients allows you to design the system to fit your
organization.
 Core Management Server for initial
client logon and system-wide
configuration of recording servers,
devices and users.
 Unlimited Number of
Recording Servers sup-
porting unlimited devices
per server.
 Unlimited Number of
Failover Servers supporting
unlimited 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

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Writing Data to Disk
 Sequential I/O
 Random I/O
 Average File Sizes
 50 – 64KB
56
12
93
32
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
RAID 10 Optimal Writes - 4 Drive Array - 10K
SAS
MB/Second Throughput
100% Sequential 64K
100% Random 64K
100% Sequential 2MB
100% Random 2MB

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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

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System Availability
 Defining the Requirements
 Down Time
 Data Loss
 Recovery Objective
 Component Level
Redundancy
 Power Supplies
 Fans
 Memory
 Disk Redundancy

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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
Clustering
Failover
Manual Restore
Determining Recovery Needs

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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

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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)

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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 2MB
Sequential 2MB
Random 64K
Sequential 64K
RAID Level Throughput Comparison
Video Data
*Using 10k SAS Drives – 3 Drive RAID 5 vs 4 Drive RAID 10

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Recommended Recording Architecture
 GRAPHIC DEPICTING ARCHIVE PROCESS

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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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Milestone White Paper
www.milestonesys.com/Resources/White_Papers

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Thank
You!