C U STO M E R T E STIM O NIA L

Duke Physics
Storing Scientific Research at Duke Universitys Physics Department

JetStor RAID Arrays Support Cutting-Edge Physics Research at Duke University

THE ORGANIZATION
At the Duke University Physics Department in Durham, North Carolina, some 600 faculty, graduate students, postdocs, researchers, and visiting scholars work in such fields as nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, high energy physics, photon physics, and quantum optics. The department has 1,500 computers and workstations in facilities like the new 280,000 squarefoot French Family Science Center, which has laboratories for genomics, biological chemistry, materials science, nanoscience, physical biology, and bioinformatics.

Server farm

THE CHALLENGE
Dell iSCSI Powerconnect 5424 Switch

Gigabit Ethernet iSCSI links

Research at Dukes physics department, generates vast amounts of data that must be stored for analysis and peer review. Not all the data are quantitative, however. Research groups, such as the biophysics workgroup investigating the dynamics of cardiac muscles, often rely on high-speed cameras that produce huge quantities of images very rapidly. Just one research group can create a terabyte of data each month and the Duke Physics Department has over 12 such groups. Additionally, unlike at commercial enterprises that often produce somewhat consistent levels of data over the course of weeks, the data generated at the physics department is bursty. Sophisticated, often custom-built applications may rest dormant for periods and then rapidly churn out data for the duration of experiments. The Duke Physics Department initially met its substantial storage needs by using direct-attached storage (DAS), in which large hard drives were directly linked to computers without a network in between. Stored data, however, were accessible only from the attached computer and the amounts of data preserved were limited by the capacities of each hard drive. Although investigative science is highly collaborative, researchers were unable to easily share data, which impeded analyses and ensuing discoveries.

AC&NC JetStor SAS 516iS & 416iS iSCSI RAID Arrays

We required a more advanced storage strategy, one worthy of the science we conduct, said Jimmy Dorff, senior IT manager for the Duke University Physics Department. We needed solutions that are scalable and fast enough to ingest large troves of data very quickly.

C U STO M E R T E STIM O NIA L

THE SOLUTION
Ten JetStor SAS 516iS 16-bay iSCSI RAID Arrays and JetStor SATA 416iS 16-bay iSCSI RAID Arrays with 2 Tb disks from Advanced Computer & Network Corporation (AC&NC).

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
JetStor SAS 516iS iSCSI RAID Arrays with gigabit iSCSI links to a Dell Powerconnect 5424 switch JetStor SATA 416iS iSCSI RAID Arrays with gigabit iSCSI links to a Dell Powerconnect 5424 switch Dell iSCSI Powerconnect 5424 Optimized Switch

BENEFITS IMMEDIATELY REALIZED

By clustering ten JetStor RAID Arrays into an iSCSI storage area network (SAN), the Duke Physics Department gained a storage infrastructure that fully supports its ongoing scientific research. The theoretical nuclear physics group, for example, stores its experimental data on five JetStor platforms, and another group using high-speed cameras to investigate particle flows saves some 20,000 high-resolution images on JetStor solutions. Physicists working with national laboratories like Fermilab and Brookhaven deploy the devices to house large data sets locally to expedite analyses of research results. We built a robust SAN without the costs and complexities of Fibre Channel by using the iSCSI connectivity of the JetStors, said Dorff. Because data is striped across multiple disks in each array, the JetStors offer the throughput demanded by even the very bursty data production of our lab work. The physics department also relies on the JetStor arrays to back up Linux servers and a Mac OS server that uses Apples Time Machine application to mirror data on Mac laptops. Administrators even use the JetStor systems to support the departments web site. We can allocate storage to workgroups as needed and add capacity without disrupting the production environment, added Dorff. Our JetStors also ensure no data is lost, which is vital because repeating experiments to reacquire lost data is expensive and time consuming. Our physicists can now perform the most rigorous lab work with confidence that storage will never be a bottleneck or impediment.

The JetStor RAID Arrays used by the Theoretical Nuclear and Particle Physics groups at Duke Universitys Physics Department.

HOW WE DID IT
To build its storage environment, the Duke Physics Department attached its JetStor RAID Arrays to a Dell iSCSI Powerconnect 5424 Optimized Switch using iSCSI Gigabit Ethernet links. The switch connects with the same bandwidth to a variety of servers, mostly Dell and Sun with one Mac system, and to the departments 10 Gigabit Ethernet production network.

www.raid.com

C U STO M E R T E STIM O NIA L

Probability of Data Loss by RAID Level
1 1E-01 1E-02 1E-03 1E-04 1E-05 1E-06 1E-07 1E-08 1E-09 1E-10 1E-11
RAID 0

The JetStors platforms are configured for RAID 6, which delivers block-level data striping and avoids data loss even should two disks fail within an array. The department provisions them with 2 terabyte disks to attain over a 100 terabytes of storage capacity. Between the bandwidth on our network and the throughput of our JetStors, we can support extreme data generation, said Dorff. When a workgroup is created or a data-intensive experiment is conducted, we can ensure that researchers have access to fast, reliable storage. Administrators use JetStor RAID Manager, a web-based application, to manage the storage systems. They can easily start or shut any array with readily-accessible controls on the devices, and can quickly identify any disk within an array that might be malfunctioning. This enables us to quickly adapt storage to our very fluid research environment, Dorff concluded. ABOUT ADVANCED COMPUTER & NETWORK CORPORATION (AC&NC) Advanced Computer & Network Corporation designs and manufactures JetStor RAID systems. With an extensive line of storage solutions for any computing platform and operating system, comprehensive free technical support, and fast on-time product deliveries, AC&NC brings freedom of choice to all clients, from workgroup to enterprise. Our RAID systems ensure rapid, roundthe-clock access to all of the information our customers rely on to move forward in the 21st century.

RAID 5 RAID 1+0 RAID ADS

Total Number of Physical Drives in the Array

AC&NC JetStor SAS 516iS RAID Array

USA HEADQUARTERS Advanced Computer & Network Corporation 5001 Baum Blvd., Suite 680 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 tel: 412.683.9010 toll-free: 800.213.2667 fax: 412.683.9070 www.raid.com info@acnc.com

SALES toll-free: 800.213.2667 tel: 412.683.9010 fax: 412.683.9070 sales@acnc.com OEM/VAR SALES toll-free : 800.213.2667, ext. 122 partners@acnc.com

GOVERNMENT SALES toll-free: 800.213.2667, ext. 125 gov@acnc.com GSA Schedule GS-35F-0694J EUROPE Vector & Scalar Products Limited tel: +44 (0)1628 891616 fax: +44 (0)1628 472137 sales@vspl.co.uk www.vspl.co.uk

Copyright 2011 Advanced Computer & Network Corporation. All rights reserved. JetStor is a registered trademark of AC&NC. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.