Processor Newspaper Volume 35 Number 03

2013·19.9 MB·English

by  Sandhills Publishing

P.O. Box 82545
Lincoln, NE 68501-2545
ELECTRONIC SERVICE REQUESTED
February 8, 2013
Volume 35 Number 3
www.processor.com
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Products, News & Information Data Centers Can Trust. Since 1979
Committed To Solving
Enterprise Storage Challenges
Aberdeen LLC Helps Sony Build A High-Powered Network Capable Of Handling Its Unique Storage Needs
On any given Thursday you’ll find direc- right glue pieces, the switches and the fiber
tors, cinematographers, and other film and cables and a lot of the other pieces that make
television production professionals partic- it a system and in brokering the relationships
ipating in workshops at the Sony Digital to acquire the pieces,” he says. “From there,”
Motion Picture Center (DMPC) on Stage 7 at he says, “it was a matter of tweaking both
Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, Calif. the hardware and some of the glue pieces to
Since early June 2012, the DMPC has pro- make it [the network] fast enough to where we
vided hands-on training of Sony Super 35mm could use it in an effective endeavor.”
cameras, including its pioneering F65 digital
A Future In Entertainment
motion picture camera, which supports true
4K resolution with super-sampling 8K image “Response from the DMPC has been a lot
capture. Attendees also learn about production what would be considered a real-world facility not an island. This 4K technology and these of gratitude that we are able to bring some-
and post-production workflows related to 4K where we are able to move and exchange files large 4K files [12-15MB per frame com- thing like this to the community because
technologies by training on nine individual between the different workstations.” pressed; about 50MB per frame expanded] it’s something that’s needed. As the indus-
workstations that each run a different third- can exist within the current workflows of try moves toward digital, the DMPC enables
Smoke & Mirrors
party industry application capable of handling motion pictures, and that these workstations learning the processes involved in a lab setting
the large RAW 4K files the cameras acquire. “Prior to Aberdeen’s involvement,” says that are already working within motion pic- before going to a production site and trying to
Initially, the workstations operated inde- Steven Cohen, Aberdeen senior account exec- tures can easily utilize these files.” attempt it there,” Perry says.
pendently with the files loaded to each work- utive and media and entertainment industry An average feature film may shoot 2TB of “Overall, the connectivity and real-world
station’s own DAS or internal RAID storage. veteran, “the DMPC demonstrated production content a day off a single F65 camera. That aspect that Aberdeen helped facilitate took the
To produce the real-world, post-production and post-production workflows in a kind of data needs to be copied three times on differ- DMPC to the next level. Everybody on the
environment Sony desired, however, the ‘smoke and mirrors’ approach, as the worksta- ent media for security, demosaiced to create Aberdeen side has been very professional, and
workstations needed to move and exchange tions functioned independently and files didn’t viewable files, transcoded to enable post-pro- the idea that they do what they say and hit the
the RAW 4K files with one another while actually move through the processes in a real- duction workstations to edit it, and provided dates they commit to is good,” Perry says.
simultaneously performing real-time trans- istic manner.” Aberdeen’s solution involved at lower bit rate files to creative. These copies “Moving forward,” Cohen says, “Aberdeen
coding, editing, and color-correcting duties. connecting the workstations via a high-speed and transfers could total more than 500TB. has a lab setting where it can demonstrate to
DMPC Director Dan Perry says that as operating system independent network that For final conform, VFX creation/compositing, software vendors that it is capable of building
the industry moves from film and tape into supported the PC, Mac, and Linux systems in and color grading, the original RAW camera hardware, not only for storage but also serv-
a file-based world, Sony wanted a facil- use, and that could handle simultaneous reads/ files or 4K .dpx files will be sourced. ers for applications, GPU, etc. Additionally,
ity where people could learn to use the 4K writes of 400MBps. Aberdeen can supply vendors with the best
Incredible Performance
equipment and the related workflows asso- The result was a unique configuration fea- tools for their software to run on.”
ciated with the third parties that play a role turing Aberdeen’s own Linux NAS, a 96TB Aberdeen’s engineers faced several challeng- Beyond building application servers and
in production and post-production. AberNAS N51L device fine-tuned for the envi- es, including integrating support for NFS, AFP, storage systems for media and entertainment
To make the facility a reality, Sony called ronment, and enterprise-level hard drives. A CIFS, and other storage access. “The tweaks needs, Cohen sees Aberdeen expanding in the
on Aberdeen LLC, which configured a storage 10GbE and fiber network infrastructure con- had to work for all of the different worksta- media and entertainment industry in terms of
network to handle the feat. “The idea was that nects the third-party workstations, which hit a tions,” Cohen says. “They had to work for PCs, archiving, digital asset management, and distri-
we could have a piece that we brought in and single 10GbE switch that aggregates 40GbE Macs, and Linux systems because there’s a bution, including the rapidly growing sector of
not only tell people that it [the system] works bandwidth into the AberNAS storage device. whole mix of them in place at the DMPC.” Internet-based content distribution. P
but actually show people that it works,” Perry Aberdeen’s mission, Cohen says, “was In addition, some workstations had lim-
says. “With Aberdeen, we were able to bring in always about showing that the camera is ited processing power, RAM, and hard Contact:
drive speed that hindered streaming content. [phone] | www.aberdeeninc.com
Aberdeen collaborated with the third-party
“Everybody on the Aberdeen side has
companies to initiate changes that resulted in
incredible performance. “The workstations
been very professional, and the idea can now stream the content directly off the FEATURINGINTEL®
Aberdeen storage at 2K and 4K, when before XEON® SERIES
that they do what they say and hit the they couldn’t. They could only play back PROCESSORS
locally off their drives,” Cohen says.
“Sony was confident based on what they
dates they commit to is good.” [Aberdeen] had done with other Sony com- INTEL, INTELLOGO, INTEL INSIDE, INTEL INSIDELOGO, PENTIUM, XEON,
AND XEON INSIDEARETRADEMARKSORREGISTEREDTRADEMARKSOF
panies that they’d be a good fit,” Perry says. INTEL CORPORATIONORITSSUBSIDIARIESINTHEUNITEDSTATESAND
-Dan Perry, director, Sony Digital Motion Picture Center “Aberdeen played a major role in finding the OTHERCOUNTRIES. TRADEMARKSARETHEPROPERTYOFTHEIRRESPEC-
TIVEOWNERS. ALLRIGHTSRESERVED. FORTERMSANDCONDITIONS,
PLEASESEEWWW.ABERDEENINC.COM/ABPOLY/ABTERMS.HTM
Page 2 Processor.com February 8,2013
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February 8, 2013 Processor.com Page 3
C A S E S T U D Y
Answering The Call For which is something that other cloud provid-
ers sometimes try to hide.
ScaleMatrix was also able to offer the
tiered cloud services it previously envisioned.
Instead of having a one-size-fits-all approach,
High-Availability Storage
companies can choose to have a spinning disk,
hybrid, or full SSD storage solution for their
cloud environment. This ability to scale up or
down is due to the flexibility of the solution
offered by Area Data Systems.
Area Data Systems Helps ScaleMatrix Reach Its Cloud Offering Goals
The partnership between ScaleMatrix and
Area Data Systems didn’t end with the ini-
Cloud service provider ScaleMatrix it had the right combination of compo- is the DataON OS-agnostic JBODs that tial 400 to 500TB installation. The installa-
works to bridge the performance gap nents to put together a 99.999% reliable provide the mass storage. The system also tion is now at more than a petabyte between
between customer expectations and techno- HA massive tiered storage solution, all at takes advantage of the DataON Disk Shelf ScaleMatrix’s onsite solution at its San
logical realities. One of its goals is to lower a price point that would help ScaleMatrix Management (DSM) 3.1 monitoring solution Diego location and one at its backup facility.
the cost of its solutions to be able to better aggressively price its cloud offerings. that helps the user spot hard drive failures If ScaleMatrix needs more capacity or
meet the needs of its customers. ScaleMatrix wanted to use NexentaStor and detect the drive’s location within the wants to retool its solution, it knows that
Investing in storage solutions with high as the basis of the dual-clustered node stor- array. With these three separate products Area Data Systems can help. “Area Data
availability, fast read/write times, and large age system, which was one of the reasons it combined, Area Data Systems was qualified Systems has definitely been helpful through
capacities is one way ScaleMatrix has been chose Area Data Systems. “We saw the rela- to help ScaleMatrix implement the solution. the entire process of getting our storage plat-
able to attain this goal. The company recently tionship that Area Data Systems had already form up and running and bringing it to a pro-
Immediate Benefits
partnered with Area Data Systems to build the fostered with Nexenta in that they were a pre- duction-ready environment,” Heller says. P
perfect storage solution comprised of three ferred partner,” says James Heller, marketing After putting the solution in place,
separate products that work together to give director at ScaleMatrix. “They already had ScaleMatrix noticed immediate benefits.
ScaleMatrix the performance, availability, and expertise building out this platform for other “For a lot of our customers, the biggest
cost-effectiveness its customers require. customers, so it only made sense for us to go performance requirement is IOPS,” Heller
down that path with a trusted source.” says. “With the Area solution, we were
A Three-Pronged Solution
NexentaStor is particularly proficient for able to blow those out of the water.” In
For more than 25 years, Area Data cloud-based offerings because of its scalabil- fact, ScaleMatrix was able to provide one Area Data Systems
Systems has been architecting storage solu- ity, overall efficiency largely due to the inclu- customer with a sustained 150,000 IOPS.
tions designed to meet the often lofty require- sion of ZFS technology, and built-in data pro- In addition to performance, through its
Provides tailored storage designs that take
ments of its customers. Area’s technical stor- tection capabilities. Plus, Area Data Systems focus on cost efficiency and its partnership
advantage of the NexentaStor unified storage
age experience, ability to provide an end- knew it could tune the NexentaStor software with Area Data Systems, ScaleMatrix was
management platform for scalability, high
to-end proof of concept, and thorough real- to work well with the STEC SAS solid-state also able to provide its services at a lower
performance, virtualization support, and
world testing allows the company to meet drives that would be used in the system, which cost. The company developed an industry-
bullet-proof data integrity.
most challenging storage design needs. the company chose for their quality and speed. first Transparent Pricing Tool for its cloud
When it came to building a solution for With the NexentaStor platform and the offerings. With this tool, customers are able
[phone] | www.areasys.com
ScaleMatrix, Area Data Systems knew that STEC SSDs, the third piece of the solution to see exactly where their money is going,
F E AT U R E D P R O D U C T
Products Prepared For Real-World Use
Server Technology & PDUs Direct Know The Importance Of Product Testing
Most companies perform some form of designed and have less of a chance to fail, The variety of tests performed on the prod- degree of testing that isn’t often seen in the
testing on their products to ensure that they according to Scherr. Server Technology’s ucts run the gamut from thermal, shock, and IT industry. Current customers notice this
are in good working condition before being major goal is to help keep their customers’ vibration testing to compliance with ATE because, according to Scherr, they “really
shipped to customers, but Server Technology, physical infrastructure up and running so (Automated Test Equipment) tests, as well. It appreciate the due diligence being done prior
experts at producing the highest standard of they can be as productive as possible. all leads to the final tests, which are designed to them getting the products.”
quality PDUs, goes above and beyond basic to test the product in real-world applications And Server Technology, along with PDUs
Testing From Beginning To End
testing with its 100% Product Performance and make sure they are ready for the custom- Direct, sees its relationship with customers
Testing. The process includes putting each With 100% Product Performance Testing, er once and for all. All tests are performed in as a mutual partnership, which is why 100%
product through a series of tests designed to it isn’t just a matter of testing a product after a state-of-the-art Power Lab. Product Performance Testing was put into
push it to its limits, which results in high- it’s completely built. In fact, these products “All products are tested at all stages, start- practice in the first place. These companies
quality products with low failure rates. are tested throughout the manufacturing ing from when the product is in its infancy strive to provide the best products available
The reason Server Technology to when it has become final- with the highest amount of testing and lowest
decided to perform these tests on ized,” Scherr says. “Just failure rates so that their customers can focus
every product for 27 years is much before it goes out the door on running their businesses instead of fixing
simpler than you may think. “The after the final modification, infrastructure issues.
worst thing for a customer is to we test it once again. We “The quality, reliability, and performance
open a box, plug a product in, and don’t just test it by plugging of our products are the most important ben-
it doesn’t work,” says Jim Scherr, director of it in and making sure the efits—to our customers and to us,” Scherr
sales and operations at PDUs Direct (www lights come on; we plug it in says. “It’s what we’ve built the company on
.pdusdirect.com), the master distributor of and we load every receptacle. and what we stand for every day.” P
Server Technology PDUs. “The overarching We just want to make sure
reason for doing the power testing is simple: process to make sure any possibly defects or that, functionally, the product fully works
Server Technology
to make sure that any product that leaves our other issues are caught early on to prevent under the conditions it will see in the future.”
100% Product
building functions as per designed and meets a potential domino effect later down the
A Partnership Between Manufacturer Performance Testing
all the criteria of the customer. We’re commit- line. And if a product fails at any step along
& Customer
ted to always providing the quality and value the way, changes are made and the testing
that our customers expect.” process at that level starts all over again. PDUs Direct sells a wide variety of Server [phone]
The first and foremost benefit of Server “It’s good for us to know early on if there’s Technology products, including basic, www.servertech.com
Technology’s 100% Product Performance a problem because we can fix it here at our switched, and metered Rack PDUs, and
Tests products at every step, from inception
Testing is that customers can have peace manufacturing facility, which is so much all of them go through the 100% Product
to production to sale, to ensure the highest
of mind knowing that the products power- better and quicker than trying to fix issues Performance Testing process. It’s a combina-
quality and lowest failure rates possible.
ing their mission-critical devices work as or problems in the field,” Scherr says. tion of well-built, easy-to-use products and a
Page 4 Processor.com February 8, 2013
F E AT U R E D P R O D U C T
Cooling That’s Effective,
Mestex Aztec Evaporative
Cooling System
Affordable & Energy-Saving [phone]
www.mestex.com
Can be configured to provide indirect evapo-
Evaporative Cooling Completely Eliminates Need For Compressor-Based Systems rative, indirect/direct evaporative, or evapo-
rative cooling with DX (direct expansion) or
ChW (chilled water) supplemental cooling.
One of the big names in server manu- operate 87% of the year in Washington, remove 300 watts times 8,760 hours per
facturing recently released a new genera- D.C., using fresh air cooling alone. year or 2,628kWh of heat (8,961,480
tion of servers that will work very well BTU). That can be accomplished using
Energy-Saving Potential
under the new ASHRAE TC 9.9 guidelines mechanical cooling, fresh air cooling, or a
for data center design and operation. The energy-saving potential of raising combination of the two.
Even Greater Savings
This new generation of servers can handle the inlet temperatures that high can be A pretty efficient compressorized HVAC
temperature extremes of up to 45 degrees enormous. Instead of running chillers or system will remove about 4.5 watts of heat To make the savings even greater, you
Celsius, or 113 degrees Fahrenheit, for up compressors 8,760 hours a year, they are per watt of electrical energy used. So to cool could use the Aztec ASC indirect evapora-
to 90 hours per year. One of the rationales only operating 1,138 hours per year. the new server using mechanical cooling will tive cooling system. Using the Aztec system
behind marketing the server at those condi- It’s difficult to put that into numbers, require 2,628,000 watts of heat divided by completely eliminates the compressor-based
tions was to allow fresh air cooling in virtual- but here’s a little example: 4.5, or 584kWh of compressor power. cooling, adding another $3.50 per server
ly the entire continental United States. Other If the server power consumption is To cool that same server using fresh air per year of savings. That would add another
research has indicated that the servers can 300 watts, then the cooling system must for 87% of the year will only require 75.8 $11,620 per year in savings for a total annu-
kWh of compressor power. Of course, the al savings of $87,620 in this example.
fan energy stays the same in both cases, Of course each climate and data center is
but the compressor savings of 508.2kWh different, and Aztec analyzes each case. But
per server can really start to add up. the reduction in operating costs are signifi-
At an aggressive electric rate of 4.5 cents cant in every case that Aztec has studied.
per kWh, that amounts to $22.87 per server Aztec and its sister company, Alton, have
per year. At modest densities of, say, 40 serv- been in the evaporative cooling business for
ers per rack, the savings amounts to $915 per 66 years. Many of the evaporative cooling
rack per year. Now consider how many racks technologies that are just now being intro-
are in the typical server room or data center. If duced to the market were developed more
the data center has a server load of 1mW, then than 20 years ago by Aztec. Our experience,
a density of 40, 300-watt servers per rack will combined with our state-of-the-art controls,
translate into 83 racks. So the annual savings can assure you of the most efficient evapora-
would be almost $76,000 in this example. tive cooling solution available. P
T C S RLE T HM C
OTAL ABLE OLUTIONS ECHNOLOGIES RAGG
UNIVERSAL PATCH™ FMS-FACILITIESMONITORINGSYSTEM EATONePDU
Universal PATCH™ makes your job easier. With smart numbering, The FMS is a feature-rich environmental monitoring system Designed for high-density, mission-critical server applications,
high density modules and an extreme modular design, the PATCH™ offered at a very competitive price point. Commonly used the Eaton Advanced Monitored ePDU available through HM
is the answer to your data center’s most nagging questions. to monitor equipment status and summary alarms as well Cragg provides maximum power for both standard and blade
as sensors for temperature, humidity, current, voltage, and servers. Employing multiple configurations, the Easy-Read
(cid:114)(cid:1) Modular design features more, the FMS hosts its own web pages – access the FMS LCD screen and remote power management with distinctly
interchangeable brackets through a web browser to view data and configure the sys- colored circuits, the ePDU ensures easy management and
to accomodate most tem. The device has no internal moving parts – no hard monitoring down to the outlet level.
major label (i.e. Corning) drives or fans – so it is highly reliable: no crashed hard drives
(cid:114)(cid:1) Vertical and horizontal mounting options
form factors. and no downtime! System integration is easy – the FMS is
(cid:114)(cid:1) Rugged industrial construction and design
(cid:114)(cid:1) Customized system matches up to most major label plates third partner savvy / vendor neutral, so integration options
(cid:114)(cid:1) EMI/RFI and Spike/Surge suppression available in
(i.e. Brocade, Cisco). are limitless. Contact RLE for an FMS demo today!
most models
(cid:114)(cid:1) Up to 64-Port duplex LC fits in a 1U design maximizing http://rletech.com/product/fms/ (cid:114)(cid:1) Products can be customized to fit your needs includ-
space savings. ing military COTS and data center applications
(cid:114)(cid:1) Saves rack space with no need for additional cable
management Best For: High-density, mission-critical server applications.
[phone] | www.TotalCableSolutions.com [phone] | www.rletech.com [phone] | www.hmcragg.com
February 8,2013 Processor.com Page 5
Page 6 Processor.com February 8,2013
Control and Circuit Metering-MRP
Unique Features Build Custom Power Solutions
with Standard Modular Product
All Circuit Breakers Monitored
Most metered power solutions only monitor input power. BayTech
monitors all circuit breakers and reports via SNMP when thresholds BayTech’s MRP Modular Rack Power system provides reliable power
are met. distribution with maximum flexibility for receptacle selectionand power input.
Optional Outlet Metering with Efficiency
BayTech offers three classes of the MRP system. Switched and monitored, sim-
Monitor individual outlets and receive current, watts, and volt-amps.
ply monitored and individual receptacle monitoring.
Continuously monitoring equipment for efficiency with power factor.
High Retention C13 Receptacle User friendly interface for controlling power to receptacles, monitoring
Reliable integrated locking clips assure power cord retention. Unique Current, Voltage, Watts, Temperature, Humidity, and KW Hour Meter.
to the industry and does away with nuisance wire clips.
Standard Features Unique Features
Reliable PCB Power Distribution (cid:116)(cid:1)High and Low Density Models (cid:116)(cid:1)Modular Design
ISD’s (Insulation Displacement) connectors are faulty and unreliable! All (cid:116)(cid:1)120/208/AC Single Phase (cid:116)(cid:1)All Circuit Breakers Monitored
BayTech power solutions use reliable PCB power distribution.
(cid:116)(cid:1)208/400VAC Three Phase (cid:116)(cid:1)KW Hour Meter
(cid:116)(cid:1)20,30,50,60 Amp Support (cid:116)(cid:1)Current, Voltage and Watt Meters
Integrated Sensor Inputs
(cid:116)(cid:1)On/Off Reboot Control (cid:116)(cid:1)Integrated Locking C13 Receptacle
Eliminate the need for extra environmental monitoring devices. All
(cid:116)(cid:1)HTTPS, SSH, SSL Access (Optional)
BayTech power solutions offer two ports for external temperature and
(cid:116)(cid:1)Radius, TACACS Authentication (cid:116)(cid:1)Reliable PCB Power Distribution
humidity probes.
(cid:116)(cid:1)Tool less Mounting
Bay Technical Assoc. Inc. 5239 A Avenue Long Beach, MS 39560 Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] [email protected]
February 8,2013 Processor.com Page 7
Mention promo code UC-April-12
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Page 8 Processor.com February 8,2013
February 8,2013 Processor.com Page 9
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