GRASS VALLEY K2 BASECAMP EXPRESS, Installation And Service Manual

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K2 Storage types and terms
Grass Valley configures K2 storage to meet their customer’s workflow needs. This topic describes
some typical configurations and terminology.
Online – Online storage is considered “Tier 1” K2 storage in that it is suitable for both record and
play. The purpose of an online SAN is to record and play media for broadcast or other on-air
applications. Performance requirements are critical for online applications, so this type of SAN
features high performance, low latency storage. Online storage can be iSCSI or Fibre Channel.
Production – Production storage is considered “Tier 2” K2 storage in that it is suitable for record
(ingest) but not recommended for on-air playout. The purpose of production storage is to provide
cost effective storage for production and editing applications. These applications require high
performance but internal buffering in editing software puts less stress on the storage system, so
performance requirements are lower than for online storage. Therefore, production storage can use
low cost, high capacity drives, such as 7.2K SAS drives. In a typical workflow, production is finished
on the production storage and then the content is pushed to an online K2 system for playout.
Production storage is configured similar to Online storage, but with the 7.2K SAS RAID devices
and drives. Production storage can be iSCSI or Fibre Channel.
Nearline – Nearline storage is considered “Tier 3” K2 storage in that it is suitable for media file
transfer but does not support either record or play. The purpose of a nearline SAN is to provide a
large pool of storage to which files can be saved. The nearline system is considered an “offline”
system, which means the system stores files only, such GXF files or MXF files, with no ability to
record or play those files directly on the system. The files on a nearline system can be readily
available to an online K2 system via FTP or CIFS connections over Ethernet. Nearline storage has
Fibre Channel connections between the K2 Media Server and the RAID storage devices.
Workgroup – Workgroup storage is a Fibre-Channel-only type of production storage intended for
small workgroups. This type of storage is no longer recommended, as technology advances provide
better value with standard iSCSI Production storage.
Live Production – In K2Config you can create a Live Production K2 SAN. This mode can be
applied to online and production SANs. A K2 SAN with LIve Production mode has a shorter
minimum delay between start record and start playout and is ideal for use with K2 Dyno. To support
this mode, Grass Valley must design your K2 SAN for increased bandwidth.
Stand-alone – This is not shared storage. It is the local storage for a K2 Media Client, K2 Summit
Production Client, or K2 Solo Media Server. Stand-alone storage can be internal media drives or
direct-connect K2 RAID devices. Refer to the K2 System Guide.
K2 SAN descriptions
The following sections describe the standard, pre-defined structures of the K2 SAN. Refer to related
topics in this document for more information on custom K2 SAN systems.
Related Topics
About custom K2 SAN systems on page 342
32 K2 SAN Installation and Service Manual 02 February 2012
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