There are many Dell storage platform options for each storage tier. The Live DB can be direct-attached storage (DAS), such as FC or iSCSI block storage. The Archive DB can be DAS if the storage requirement is minimal, and network-attached storage (NAS), FC, or iSCSI for virtualized server implementations and more substantial video storage requirements.
The following figure illustrates the video flow using NAS, DAS, and storage-area network (SAN).
Video is initiated at the camera and XProtect initially places that video in the Live DB. Milestone recommends a retention period of from 2 to 24 hours for video in the Live DB, as outlined in Retention periods.
XProtect moves video files at rest from the Live DB storage tier to the Archive DB storage tier at regular intervals. The Archive DB stores each video file until that file’s full retention time has expired.