StorageManager
Storage management that thinks like you
Automated workflows can save a lot of time, but they are often less automated than you'd like. Creating, administering and monitoring them can sometimes take as long as handling the tasks yourself, leaving you less time to tackle more critical tasks.
The StorageManager module for SGL FlashNet is an intelligent, automated data life cycle management tool that fully manages the data within your archive, from the moment it arrives in the archive. StorageManager is a user-defined, rules-based system that does exactly what you tell it, when you want it done. You define media attributes, associate a choice of actions with those media, and leave StorageManager to it. Clips are moved across storage layers, from disk to tape or vice versa, copied to multiple locations, or deleted, all based on how big they are, how old they are, or even how much time has passed since they were last restored for transmission or editing.
In addition, StorageManager's Defrag constantly analyses your archive, and recycles volumes that are being used inefficiently, saving time, resources and, of course, money.
StorageManager consists of two sub-modules, LifeCycle and Defrag.
LifeCycle
LifeCycle is an automated data life cycle management module that streamlines your storage, moving and copying clips within the archive based on their attributes. LifeCycle ensures that material is always stored on the most suitable media, making it easily accessible, and using storage media layers more intelligently and cost-efficiently.
LifeCycle follows rules set up by the user. Rules contain a description of material types (defined by attributes such as clip size, age, or time since it was last restored), and one or more actions. You can have as many rule sets as you wish, to provide different workflows for different types of clip. When a clip meets the criteria set in a rule, LifeCycle performs the appropriate actions for that material type. For example, you can create a rule that automatically copies short-form clips to multiple disk locations, or to a disk archive and a tape library archive. For Disaster Recovery, rules can automatically copy all clips from one local archive to a different archive in a geographically disparate location. News and Sports can, for example, create rules that automatically move clips not used in the last x days from expensive spinning disk storage to a more cost-efficient tape archive, as soon as the defined age expires.
Automatic data movement based on attributes means that material is always stored on the most suitable media and in the most appropriate location. Throughout the LifeCycle processes media remains available to all control systems, such as automation or MAM.
Defrag
Due to the linear nature of tape, as users delete unwanted clips, tapes become fragmented (individual clips cannot be deleted from tapes, and so after a while they may contain a mixture of valid and defunct clips). The Defrag module allows you to re-purpose these tapes, reclaiming the lost space and greatly increasing the cost-efficiency of your archive tape media.
Based on user-defined rules that stipulate how much non-useful material a tape should contain before being re-purposed, Defrag instigates FlashNet restore and archive processes to move the ‘good’ data to a disk cache, and from there to a different media group (disk or tape). When all ‘good’ data has been moved, the original tape no longer contains any useful data and is reformatted, to be used by SGL FlashNet in standard operations. All Defrag operations take place automatically, and can be set to use only a certain amount of resources (e.g. tape drives), so as to impact on daily operations as little as possible.
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"SGL FlashNet has significantly improved our workflow."
Felix Sauer,
Technical director,
CREATION CLUB
