Page 121 - DCAP303_MULTIMEDIA_SYSTEMS

Unit 6: Hardware

notes
washing machine and only had 500 Gigabytes of capacity. Approximately 15 to 16 five and a
quarter inch disk drives were used in each RAID system to read and write data. These data
were then manipulated with custom algorithms and passed on to oil and gas customers to
help them pinpoint oil reserves with accuracy.”

But as the technology evolved, the SCSI disks reached the end of their lifecycle and Fairfield
had no vendor support. “We had to move away from that system and on to newer technologies
to keep abreast of client backlog and to remain competitive,” said Rowbatham.
the Challenge
In building a custom HPC production environment, Fairfield also designed and built a custom
NFS-based storage system. As more powerful computing hardware and software applications
were added to the infrastructure, older end-of-life storage was replaced with newer and faster
storage technologies. But the switchover began to uncover cracks in the previously robust
production system. Problems surfaced in overall stability, management, and serviceability.
In addition, Fairfield experienced challenges obtaining vendor management support for the
company’s HPC infrastructure. With no single point of management and support, Fairfield’s
production system sputtered and struggled to keep pace with mounting seismic processing
demands.

“Our applications were becoming increasingly more complex, so we had to make sure the
storage technology was bullet-proof and capable of withstanding the processing demands that
we knew would continue to grow. We had already designed our cluster to be 100% efficient,
so reliability was becoming a critical issue. It was clear we needed enhanced reliability and
management features in our data storage solution. The search was on,” said Rowbatham.
the solution
Fairfield Industries has replaced its older NFS-based storage with Panasas ActiveStor™
scale-out NAS systems running in conjunction with existing storage that has not reached
its end-of-life cycle. Unlike the existing storage systems, Panasas ActiveStor scale-out NAS
systems have taken charge of the heavy-duty, processing operations that demand long-term
reliability and stability. Fairfield evaluated Panasas ActiveStor scale-out NAS systems during
a month long evaluation period running it non-stop with benchmark data to test its reliability
and performance. Although performance was not the driving factor, the company experienced
improved I/O performance in addition to enhanced ease of use, manageability, and improved
vendor service with a dedicated service contact.
In addition, the Panasas storage has replaced two racks of previous storage systems with
a much smaller storage footprint. This will enable Fairfield to add more compute capacity
when needed, without requiring more data center real estate or cooling requirements. “Before
installing Panasas storage we had racks and racks of storage that we had to design a specific
way to maintain an acceptable performance ratio. Now, we have replaced two racks of existing
storage with a half of a rack of Panasas storage, and the performance is even better although it
is more than we need at this time. We have been able to fit a lot more storage within a smaller
space and will be able to accommodate all of the storage capacity needed as more customer
jobs come online,” said Rowbatham.

the result
After a rigorous month-long evaluation program, Panasas ActiveStor was immediately
deployed into Fairfield’s production system. Not only did the Panasas ActiveStor deliver
enhanced reliability and ease of management, the storage solution was also backed by a
superior team of Panasas service experts who came in and brought the Panasas system
online in less than one day. The Panasas team also provided a one-stop shop for keeping the
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