Introduction to Optical Archiving Library Solution for Long-term Data Retention CUC Solutions & Hitachi-LG Data Storage 0
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction... 2 1.1 Background and Underlying Requirements for Archiving... 2 1.2 Why Optical Technology for Archiving?... 3 2. Optical Archiving Library System: OmniLib/500H... 4 2.1 OmniLib/500H System Introduction... 4 2.2 Features of OmniLib/500H for long-term data retention... 7 3. Conclusion... 9 4. OmniLib/500H Specifications... 9 1
1. Introduction 1.1 Background and Underlying Requirements for Archiving Today s companies face a wide variety of laws and regulatory compliance relating to the retention, deletion, authenticity, accessibility and confidentiality of data. The goal of archiving is to preserve data for long periods of time. With the increasing digitalization of information and data, digital archiving has become very important. Individuals desire to preserve digital photos, music and films for following generations. Companies are obligated to archive business documents for years, decades or even longer in order to fulfill regulatory requirements. The following are key growth factors for archiving. The key growth factor for archiving is compliance. The table below shows the data retention requirement for each market. Table 1: Compliance Data Retention Requirements Cost efficiency is another key growth factor for archiving. For example, if all historical data on business transactions were directly kept in a production system to provide a large database for data mining in the future, there would be a tremendous accumulation of data in production databases. The existence of large quantities of data in a production database system can in turn have a negative impact on performance. Furthermore, the performance and availability requirements for production data are frequently higher than for archived data, thus usually making storage in production systems more expensive than in archive systems. Archiving allows data that will not be changed again to be transferred from a production system to an archive system, thereby freeing up the load on the production system. The reuse of information for the long haul is a further important reason for archiving data. Companies want to preserve the knowledge they have accumulated to secure intellectual property and competitive advantage. Saving information for future generations is an equally important social obligation for archiving. This also pertains to the general public. Many people archive their digital photos and films to keep them for future generations or, of course, just for themselves. Social services and government offices also retain information such as birth certificates and family trees. 2
1.2 Why Optical Technology for Archiving? Longevity and survivability without media migration Optical Archiving Library System uses enterprise quality Blu-ray media, which by itself claims 50 years of data longevity. This enables customers to preserve media for decades without migrating data between media, unlike the need of periodic media refresh in the case of hard disk or magnetic tape media. Long-term media compatibility, proven through more than 30 years of maintaining the compatibility of media form factor since the first generation of CDs in the 1980 s, also adds a sense of reassurance for the continuity of media technology and compatibility for several tens of years of the data preservation period. The proven survivability of the media is an important consideration for long-term archiving. Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, caused the destruction of all magnetically-stored information, while nearly all of the optically-stored information survived. Energy-efficient Storage By design, The Optical Archiving Library System uses an energy passive technology. This means that power is only consumed when it reads or writes on the media. Compared with the power required to maintain HDD RAID arrays and magnetic tape, Blu-ray optical media requires only a small amount of energy, resulting in increased energy efficiency. 3
The overall power and cooling infrastructure supporting higher density data center equipment accounts for over 50 percent of data center operational costs today. Increasing power requirements also equate to a corresponding increase in CO2 emissions from the power plant. Enterprise RAID arrays require upwards of 6 kilowatts/hr (kwh) to operate. Tape systems require stringent environmental conditions, adding to data center cooling costs. The Blu-ray disc, with a durable protective layer and non-magnetic based data medium, requires much less restrictive environmental conditions to maintain data integrity and no power once the data is written to the disc. Therefore it reduces the overall operating cost and helps utilize the existing infrastructure to continue to meet cooling and power needs, hence mitigating costly investments in data center expansions. *Source: Report of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency *Source: Japanese Gov. MIC report 08 Figure 1: Environmental Comparison per Media type 2. Optical Archiving Library System: OmniLib/500H 2.1 OmniLib/500H System Introduction CUC's OmniLib/500H is a scalable Optical archiving library system designed for the long-term data preservation market claiming 50 + years of data longevity and survivability. Built from HLDS optical technology, together with market leading BD Archival Media manufacturers, the OmniLib/500H Optical archiving library system is targeting at : - Long-term archiving, where the data longevity exceeds useful magnetic storage implementations - Extremely low operational costs (electricity and high storage density) - Durability against high temperature and humidity - Survivability of data in the face of natural disasters 1) Operation Specification & Key Technology 4U Rack Mount Form Factor (housing 2 media cartridges) 500 Discs: 100TB in raw capacity (BD-TL+ 200GB media/250 Discs per cartridge) Scalable up to 1PB* per 42U Rack (Max. 10 Libraries per 42U Rack) High throughput by 12 BD-drives at Full throttle Easy Cartridge Replacement Architecture Eliminates Human Intervention of media Independent Cartridge Control Architecture Redundant Robotic Components Power Consumption of only 90 Watts(Idle) Energy Passive Off-line Storage for low-opex 4
Figure 2: OmniLib/500H Optical Archiving Library System 2) Operation Environment Figure 3 shows the operational environment of the OmniLib/500H Library System. The primary storage system performs data storage management policies like ILM (Information Lifecycle Management) or HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management), in which low frequently accessed data are moved to the optical archiving storage that are controlled by the policies. It provides file interface and middleware to control the flow of archiving data. Figure 3: Operation Environment of OmniLib/500H system As a comprehensive extension of HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management), being the optical archiving system by integrating of HDD-arrays and optical archiving libraries, it brings in all of the advantages of data retention and speed of access while utilizing space efficiently. Now, data that is commonly needed resides in the cache (HDD) and is readily available and automatically backed-up. The vast majority of data, which is infrequently or never used but must remain available due to 5
regulation, is stored on the media that has a long shelf life, can reliably retain data in ambient conditions and is not continually requiring power to be accessible later. By using a software interface that is made for basic users, access to any and all data, regardless of date, becomes seamlessly easy. On top of the system, the software interface should be easily manageable and compliant to standard file protocols. The solution must diminish the need for constant data migration, which substantially lowers the total cost of ownership. When data are moved to the optical archiving system, they enter into the HDD Cache area via standard file interface like NFS/CIFS. After some period of time has passed in the HDD-cache, these data are moved to the OmniLib/500H. The middleware of the server controls the relevant data management. Therefore, it is easy to deploy an OmniLib/500H to various customers environment. Figure 4: Overall Usage Cases for Optical Archive BD discs are stored inside the cartridge. There are 2 cartridges in one library, 250 discs in each cartridge, giving 500 discs in each library. Once the cartridge is filled with recorded media, it can be removed from the optical archiving library system as off-line management. The cartridge can be detached from the optical archiving system and moved to offline or remote sites. Figure 5: Cartridge-based Off-line management of OmniLib/500H system 6
2.2 OmniLib/500H for long-term data retention 1) Media Longevit y One of the most important factors affecting long-term storage stability is the initial recording signal quality. HLDS has collaborated with relevant media vendors to secure enterprise grade archiving media in optimal conditions. Long-term storage of more than 50 years at 25deg., 80% RH Figure 6: Longevity Evaluation of BD Archive Media (Source: experiment of HLDS & Media supplier) As for BD media longevity, some organizations, like ISO, have been studying & trying to establish standard regulations. Until then, HLDS & media suppliers have experimented the BD media longevity based on Arrhenius method & Eyring method from ISO/IEC 10995, 16963. 2) Media Reliabilit y Conforming to the Blu-ray standard ECC architecture, extra redundant ECC can be added to the logical format of the archiving media. The logical format is based on UDF v2.5, which supports the BD-R recording function. Figure 7 is a structure of the RRC (Redundant Recovery Codes) band and parity in a disc. A stripe in a Short Band is a block of file data divided by interleave, with the stripe size being the same as the parity length. A Long Band is a unit of RRC block, containing a parity block and a file data protected by this parity block. Sizes of the band and Parity are designed to satisfy the tolerance definition of Burst Error from occupancy User Data. Figure 7: Structure of RRC and Recovery Capability against Burst Errors 7
Blu-ray drives are required by specification to implement error correction with an index of 1.0x10-12 to ensure the integrity of recorded data at the SER degradation index of 4.2x10-3. But this may not be enough for the enterprise applications, which require an index of 1.0x10-15 or more. By applying additional parities of RRC, e.g. utilizing 3% of User Data, it enhances the ECC capability to be above 8.1x10-23, i.e. enterprise system target error rate. Data verification can be accomplished by using both of two separate verification phases during the authoring and writing process of the Blu-ray drive. During the burn or write process, in-line verification is applied. The data is, therefore, carefully verified at a time close to the data being generated. Figure 8: Improved Reliability by adding Redundant Recovery Codes 3) Scalable Capacity: Standard Rack configuration + Off-line management The capacity can be expanded by adding new libraries or exchanging cartridges filled with fully recorded media with new ones. The exported cartridge can be stored at remote areas for off-line management. Figure 9: Scalable Capacity by adding libraries 8
Figure 10: Scalable Capacity by on-line & off-line management 3. Conclusion In comparison to traditional systems, the OmniLib/500H Optical Archiving Library Systems offer: Longevity without media migration Survivability and Durability against harsh environments or natural disasters Ease of integration via standard file I/F Energy efficient storage by energy passive technology Superior Long-term TCO to traditional Tape & HDD Long-term data retention agencies requiring secure, dependable and cost effective digital asset management solutions should consider a optical based archiving system. It offers IT managers increased efficiency of data management and productivity when it comes with the hybrid data management system that offers significant data integrity. This package also features automated data transfer from hard drive to the optical disc. Optical Archiving Library System provides both cost effectiveness and energy efficiency for long-term retention purpose storage systems. 4. OmniLib/500H Optical Archiving Library System Specification: 9