Dell EMC storage considerations for Milestone XProtect Corporate
To successfully design and implement a Milestone XProtect Corporate system, you need to consider many aspects of the system, including networks, cameras, storage, and more. This section presents storage considerations and recommendations you should take into account when deploying a Milestone XProtect Corporate system on Dell EMC storage platforms.
Video Flow
There are many Dell EMC 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.
Live DB
XProtect ’s Live DB write algorithm is optimized for block storage. Therefore, the Live DB works best with the server’s internal DAS, or with external FC or iSCSI storage such as Unity or SC series arrays. Milestone enables video to be kept in the Live DB storage indefinitely.
Internal DAS storage is ideal for small implementations with a few servers. As an installation grows, the need to optimize storage for reliability, scalability, manageability, and rack space increases. In larger environments, and in virtualized server environments, Unity or SC series arrays in a SAN (FC or iSCSI) configuration are more practical for the Live DB.
Archive DB
The Archive DB is a long-term storage option for XProtect and typically constitutes the majority of the storage capacity requirement. Moving video from the Live DB to the Archive DB involves many activities, including optimizing index files for the larger video repository, and moving the files.
Storage considerations for Live DB and Archive DB
The Live DB can be a storage array in a SAN configuration. The Archive DB can be a Unity or SC series storage array in a SAN configuration , or an Isilon scale-out cluster in a NAS configuration .
With the Unity or SC series , both the Live DB and Archive DB can use either FC or iSCSI protocols. For iSCSI, you can use GigE or 10 GbE NICs.
When using smaller Unity or SC series arrays with iSCSI, we recommend that the Live DB and Archive DB reside on different volumes.
When using FC, Live DB and an FC Archive DB can co-exist on the same Unity array.
Arrays such as the Unity 600 can be used with iSCSI for both the Live DB and Archive DB.
Unity or SC series storage can be used for:
LiveDB only
LiveDB as the first tier in a tiered implementation
Archive DB as the second tier in a tiered implementation
For Isilon scale-out storage, NAS can be used with Isilon OneFS 7.0 or higher. Use the default Isilon protection scheme unless the customer needs additional protection.
You can use GigE or 10 GbE network interface cards (NICs). Test results for this solution are based on both GigE and 10 GbE interfaces on the Isilon cluster. By default, XProtect moves video from the Live DB to the Archive DB using a single thread. With NAS, you can increase the Archive DB thread count to allow parallel video file moves within the archive process.
When using Isilon storage, we recommend using it as the Archive DB storage tier.
Although it is possible to use the NFS datastores for the Milestone boot drive in a VMware environment, this configuration with Milestone XProtect has not been tested in the Dell Technologies Safety & Security Lab .
Retention periods
Milestone recommends a minimum retention period of two hours for the Live DB, although one hour is the minimum supported. There is no limitation on the maximum retention time for Live DB.
The Archive DB retention period depends on business requirements and can range from a few weeks to many months.
Summary of Dell EMC storage and network protocols
Live DB and Archive DB are two distinct repositories with different write characteristics.
They were evaluated on individual storage platforms and on a single platform in the following configurations:
For the Live DB we tested various Unity and SC series arrays with both FC and iSCSI storage protocols.
For the Archive DB we tested an Isilon scale-out cluster , Unity arrays , and SC series arrays with iSCSI.
The following table lists the Dell EMC storage platforms and network protocols determined to be suitable for each XProtect video database storage tier.
Table 1. Storage and protocols for XProtect database tiers