GRASS VALLEY K2 SAN, Installation And Service Manual

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Configuring clients on the K2 SAN
About iSCSI bandwidth
When you purchase a K2 SAN to provide the shared storage for your K2 clients, your Grass Valley
representative sizes the storage system and recommends the appropriate license level and QOS level
based on your bandwidth requirements. These bandwidth requirements are based on how you intend
to use the channels of your K2 clients. The bit rates, media formats, and ratio of record channels to
play channels all effect your bandwidth requirements.
As you add your K2 clients to the K2 SAN, you must assign a bandwidth value to each K2 client.
This value is based on your intended use of the channels of that K2 client. There is a page in the
K2Config application on which you enter parameters such as channel count, bit rate, and track count
per channel to calculate the bandwidth value for a K2 client. The K2Config application takes that
bandwidth value and assigns it to the total bandwidth available, so that the K2 client has adequate
bandwidth for its intended media access operations. When the bandwidth values you enter in the
K2Config application match the overall bandwidth requirements upon which your K2 shared storage
is sized and licensed, you have sufficient bandwidth for all your K2 clients.
The K2 SAN uses a mechanism called a TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) as a bridge across which
all media must travel between the iSCSI/Ethernet world and the SCSI/Fibre Channel world. A TOE
is hosted by the iSCSI interface board, which also provides the connection to the Ethernet switch.
In addition, the K2Config application restricts the amount of bandwidth available based on the level
at which you have licensed your K2 SAN.
As you configure your K2 SAN, the K2Config application assigns a K2 client to a TOE and keeps
track of the bandwidth so subscribed to each TOE. A single K2 client can only subscribe to a single
TOE. However, a single TOE can have multiple K2 clients subscribed to it. It is important to realize
that this does not adjust itself dynamically. If you change your intended use of a K2 client and
increase its bandwidth requirements, you risk oversubscribing the TOE to which that K2 client is
assigned.
The K2Config application provides a report of iSCSI assignments, which lists for each TOE the
iSCSI clients assigned and their bandwidth subscription.
Determining K2 client bandwidth requirements
The K2Config application provides a page in the Configure K2 Client wizard that calculates the
bandwidth requirement for a K2 client. On this page you enter information regarding the channel
count, bit rate, and tracks per channel for your intended use of the K2 client. The page then calculates
the bandwidth requirement and make it available for load balancing.
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