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White Paper

EMC Solutions Group

Abstract

This white paper demonstrates how EMC® VNX® storage and Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server can work together to provide superior scalability for video surveillance managers. The solution presented in this document describes how the EMC solution team used Genetec Security Center as the video surveillance manager.

April 2013

EMC LARGE-SCALE CONSOLIDATION FOR PHYSICAL SECURITY ON UNISYS ES7000 MODEL 7600R G3 Unisys ES7000 Enterprise Server, Genetec Security Center, EMC VNX, VMware ESXi

Consolidate Genetec Security Center Archiver servers Integrate Genetec Security Center in an EMC VNX environment

EMC Large-Scale Consolidation for Physical Security on Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3

Unisys ES7000-G3, Genetec Security Center, EMC VNX, VMware ESXi

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Copyright © 2013 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

The information in this publication is provided “as is.” EMC Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com.

VMware, ESX, vMotion, VMware vCenter, and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

All trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

Part Number H11268.1

3 EMC Large-Scale Consolidation for Physical Security on Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3


Table of contents

Executive summary ............................................................................................................................... 5

Business case .................................................................................................................................. 5

Solution overview ............................................................................................................................ 5

Key results ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 7

Purpose ........................................................................................................................................... 7

Scope .............................................................................................................................................. 7

Audience ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Terminology ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Configuration ....................................................................................................................................... 8

Environment profile .......................................................................................................................... 8

Hardware resources ......................................................................................................................... 8

Software resources .......................................................................................................................... 9

Testing overview ................................................................................................................................ 10

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 10

Benchmark notes ........................................................................................................................... 10

About our test results ..................................................................................................................... 10

Performance testing ........................................................................................................................... 12

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 12

37.5 MB/s write with playback—motion detection off .................................................................... 12

Setting up the test environment ................................................................................................ 12

Viewing the write performance test results ................................................................................ 12

43.75 MB/s write with playback—motion detection off .................................................................. 13


Write performance test results ................................................................................................... 13

43.75 MB/s write with playback—motion detection on .................................................................. 14


Write performance test results ................................................................................................... 14

Linear versus non-linear scalability analysis ...................................................................................... 16

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 16

Linear versus non-linear analysis ................................................................................................... 16

Performing the test .................................................................................................................... 16

Linear versus non-linear test results .......................................................................................... 16

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 18



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Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 18

Findings ......................................................................................................................................... 18

References.......................................................................................................................................... 19

EMC documentation ....................................................................................................................... 19

Product documentation .................................................................................................................. 19



Executive summary

As more customers transition their legacy surveillance systems to digital systems based on centralized storage architectures, a significant opportunity is growing to consolidate these centralized systems with the latest server, virtualization, and storage technologies.

Through large-scale consolidation, customers can experience:

A higher return on investment (ROI)

Easier management

Greater scalability

Improved recoverability

The combined scalability and performance of the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server and EMC® storage technologies represents an industry-leading solution that provides large-scale consolidation of enterprise-level centralized environments.

Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server delivers mission-critical performance in a standards-based environment. With scalability, the ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server has the power to tackle the most complex and demanding physical security virtualized environments.

Normally, a large physical security implementation includes one or more racks of physical hosts. The ES7000 is ideal for consolidating the physical host sprawl from one or more cabinets into 12U of a single cabinet. You can install up to 34 Genetec Security Center 5.1 Archivers (Archivers) at 300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s) on a single Unisys ES7000 with 80 cores. Variances in features that affect bandwidth, such as camera resolution and frames per second, may limit or extend the number of virtual Archivers you can run on a single ES7000.

While testing this solution, we1 achieved a performance benchmark for Genetec Security Center 5.1 SR3 running on a Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server, using a pair of EMC® VNX® storage arrays.

The goal of our testing was to determine the error-free Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 scaling factors associated with Archivers in a VMware ESXi 5.0 environment.

We used two key units of measure to quantify bandwidth during the testing:

Mb/s (mega-bits per second)

MB/s (mega-bytes per second)

The surveillance industry typically measures data networking in Mb/s, while the storage industry typically uses MB/s.

1 In this white paper, "we" refers to the EMC Solutions engineering team that validated the solution.

Business case

Solution overview



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We configured the Archivers to run at the following rates to emulate moderate and maximum Archiver workloads:

300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s)

350 Mb/s (43.75 MB/s)

The observations outlined in this white paper represent average production environments.

This solution provides guidance for pre-sales and post-sales integration efforts, and provides guidelines for the correct configuration of the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server in production environments.

Our testing showed that the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server accommodates:

Up to 29 Archivers at 350 Mb/s (43.75 MB/s) with an aggregated bandwidth of up to 1,268 MB/s2

Up to 34 Archivers at 300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s) with an aggregated bandwidth of up to 1,275 MB/s

We achieved an aggregated bandwidth of 1,275 MB/s using 34 Archivers at 37.5 MB/s (300 Mb/s) for each. Most testing was done at the higher per Archiver bandwidth of 43.75. The 300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s) Linear/non-linear test results presented below were derived from the 43.75 results.

We used an EMC VNX5500™ unified storage array and a EMC VNX7500™ unified storage array to support the tests presented in this white paper.

2 We used bandwidths of 37.5 and 43.75 throughout this paper. The 37.5 figure represents the maximum supported bandwidth by the VMS supplier. The 43.75 figure is approximately 15 percent above the maximum supported bandwidth. In general, the EMC Physical Security lab tests yielded approximately 15 percent above the supported bandwidth to ensure adequate “head room”.

Key results



Introduction

This white paper describes the function and performance testing of the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server.

This white paper documents:

Write throughput tests on Archivers and their results at 300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s) and 350 Mb/s (43.75 MB/s).

Linear and non-linear scalability tests on Archivers and their test results at 300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s) and 350 Mb/s (43.75 MB/s).

All the videos generated externally from the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 over the EMC Physical Security Lab’s 10 GbE network.

This white paper is intended for administrators of Unisys ES7000 Enterprise Servers, the Genetec Security Center Archiver, and the storage architects involved in planning, designing, and administering an environment with VNX as the storage platform.

Table 1 provides definitions of terminology used in this white paper.

Table 1. Terminology

Term Definition

Security Center directory The main server module that provides a centralized configuration database for all entities in the system, including cameras, users, other Omnicast services, and applications on the system.

The Security Center directory service is responsible for authentications and access control using the built-in security model or through Microsoft Active Directory.

The Security Center directory offers an option to log all system events and user actions in a relational database for reporting purposes.

It also offers two redundancy options:

with Windows clustering (available with Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2008)

with Genetec fail-over coordinator

Security Center Archiver Manages the communication with IP cameras and an encoder. Security Center Archiver is the only Security Center component that communicates directly with IP cameras.

This component has a plug-in architecture to introduce support for new camera manufacturers without requiring a complete software upgrade. The Archiver supports up to 300 cameras or 300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s) of throughput. It maintains the database that links a specific camera at a specific time to a video file stored on disk and performs motion detection algorithms on recorded video streams.

Purpose

Scope

Audience

Terminology



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Configuration

Figure 1 shows the solution test environment used to evaluate the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server.

Figure 1. Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 test environment

** Although we performed our testing with 4 Gbs FC links, the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 supports 8 Gbs FC links.

Table 2 lists the hardware resources used in the solution.

Table 2. Hardware resources

Equipment Configuration

Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server

Model: 7600R G3

CPU cores: 80 CPUs x 2.394 GHz (196,114 MHz)

Processor type: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E7-8870 2.4GHz

Memory: 1048552 MB (1 TB)

I/O: 10 GigE, 4 Gbs Fibre (tested), 8-Gbs Fibre (supported)

Environment profile

Hardware resources



Equipment Configuration

Fibre Channel (FC) switch stack (4 Gb/s)

6 FC links to ES7000 Model 7600R G3

4 FC links to each VNX storage array

Storage arrays 1 VNX5500

1 VNX7500 (2 cabinets, but a single array)

VNX operating environment, version 5.31.000.5.720 attached to:

Fibre Channel

EMC PowerPath

Video storage VNX7500 operating environment

2 TB/7.2 k rpm NL-SAS storage

2 x 80-disk storage pools

8 LUNs per storage pool

VNX5500 operating environment

2 TB/7.2 k rpm NL-SAS storage

2 x 80-disk storage pools

7 LUNs per storage pool

VMware datastores 8 x 500 GB LUNs from the labs VNX5300

Table 3 lists the details of the software resources for the solution.

Table 3. Software resources

Software Version Notes

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 64-bit Virtual machine guests

VMware ESXi 5.0 Update 1 Host

Genetec Security Center 5.1 SR3 Includes Security Center Archiver

EMC VNX5500 5.31.000.5.709 Operating environment

EMC VNX7500 5.31.000.5.720 Operating environment

Software resources



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Testing overview

This section provides an overview of the tests we conducted for this solution. The intent of these tests was to determine the scalability and limitations of the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server.

This white paper details the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server function and performance tests as they apply to EMC storage products and third-party vendor video surveillance products.

Benchmark results are highly dependent upon workload, specific application requirements, and system design and implementation. Relative system performance will vary as a result of these and other factors. Do not use this workload as a substitute for a specific customer application benchmark when contemplating critical capacity planning and/or product evaluation decisions.

We obtained all performance data in this report in a rigorously controlled environment. Results obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly.

EMC Corporation does not warrant or represent that a user can or will achieve similar performance expressed in transactions per minute.

Each test scenario includes statistics, configurations, and test results.

We analyzed the test results to determine if the scaling Archiver CPU and memory was linear or not linear.

When we added a new Archiver to an existing host, linear scaling resulted in consistent CPU and memory use.

When we added a new Archiver to the host, non-linear scaling showed irregular CPU and memory use.

Knowing how bandwidth affects Archiver performance helps you properly configure the Unisys ES7000 Enterprise Server in production environments.

Our test results revealed:

The maximum number of Archivers that a Unisys ES7000 can accommodate while running maximum bandwidth at 300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s) per Archiver using our lab’s video stream is 34.

The maximum number of Archivers and simulators that a Unisys ES7000 can accommodate running maximum bandwidth at 350 Mb/s (43.75 MB/s) per Archiver using our lab’s video stream is 29.

Note: 43.75 MB/s represents a value that is 15 percent above the Genetec supported bandwidth of 37.5 MB/s. Tests at this bandwidth ensure a successful production implementation at the maximum supported bandwidth.

Introduction

Benchmark notes

About our test results



The capabilities for linear performance scaling are with the:

Motion detection function turned off (“motion off”)

Motion detection function turned on (“motion on”)

Video grooming function active

Client-side loading (video playback)

The tests scenarios adhere to any performance restrictions specified by all software and hardware being tested.



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Performance testing

The tests included in this section detail the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server function, performance test plan, and test results for each Archiver at bandwidths of:

300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s)

350 Mb/s (43.75 MB/s)

This section describes the steps used to set up the test environment and provides the write performance resulting from the test.

Setting up the test environment

To test the write performance at 37.5 MB/s with video playback and the motion detection function turned off, we:

1. Created the maximum number of Archivers on the Unisys ES7000 Enterprise Server. We configured the simulators on a different system that communicates with the Archivers using 10GbE NIC cards.

2. Assigned 4 TB LUNs from the EMC VNX storage to the Archiver as raw devices and formatted them for use.

3. Started the cameras on the simulator and made sure that each Archiver could write to the EMC VNX storage array at 37.5 MB/s.

4. Increased the number of Archiver/simulator pairs until the host CPU and memory reached their maximum, and then started four review sessions per Archiver.

Viewing the write performance test results

Table 4 shows the Security Center test results at a bandwidth of 37.5 MB/s with video playback and the motion detection function turned off.

Table 4. Security Center test results at 37.5 MB/s with video playback and motion detection off

Security Center characteristic Value

Maximum array throughput tested 1,275 MB/s

Number of Archivers 34

Number of video simulators 34

Number of Security Center directories 1

Number of VMware guests on the Unisys ES7000 35

We did not change the Unisys ES7000 bandwidth while the video playback was on. When the video playback was on, the CPU utilization increased on the VMware guest running video playback. There was no impact on the Archivers.

Introduction

37.5 MB/s write with playback—motion detection off



The following is a summary of the test result:

When the playback sessions started, the host reached 149,167 MHz with 34 Archivers. Each virtual machine guest was allocated four vCPUs and 4 GB of RAM.

All the Archivers were writing at 37.5 MB/s without errors to the EMC VNX arrays.



To test the write performance at 43.75 MB/s with video playback and the motion detection function turned off, we:

1. Created the maximum number of Archivers on the Unisys ES7000 Enterprise Server. We configured the simulators on a different system that communicated with the Archivers using 10GbE NIC cards.

2. Assigned the 4 TB LUNs from the VNX storage to the Archiver as the raw devices and formatted them for use.

3. Started the cameras on the simulator and made sure that each Archiver could write to the VNX storage array at 43.75 MB/s.


Write performance test results

Table 5 shows the Genetec Security Center test results at a bandwidth of 43.75 MB/s with video playback and the motion detection function turned off.

Table 5. Security Center test results at 43.75 MB/s with video playback and motion detection off






Number of VMware guests on the Unisys ES7000

30


43.75 MB/s write with playback—motion detection off



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The following is a summary of the test result:

When the playback sessions started, the host CPU reached 164,629 MHz (86 percent) with 29 Archivers. Each virtual machine guest was allocated four vCPUs and 4 GB of RAM




To test the write performance at 43.75 MB/s with video playback and the motion detection function turned on, we:

1. Created the maximum number of Archivers on the Unisys ES7000 Enterprise Server. We configured simulators on a different system that communicates with the Archivers using 10GbE NIC cards.

2. Assigned the 4 TB LUNs from the VNX storage arrays to the Archiver as the raw devices and formatted them for use.

3. Started the cameras on the simulator, made sure that each Archiver could write to the VNX storage arrays at 43.75 MB/s, and turned the motion detection on.


Write performance test results

Table 6 shows the Security Center test results at a bandwidth of 43.75 MB/s with video playback and the motion detection function turned on.

Table 6. Security Center test results at 43.75 MB/s with video playback and motion detection on






Number of VMware guests on the Unisys ES7000 30


43.75 MB/s write with playback—motion detection on



The following is a summary of the test results:

When the playback sessions started, the host CPU reached 184,527 MHz (96 percent) with 29 Archivers. Each virtual machine guest was allocated six vCPUs and 4 GB of RAM.




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Linear versus non-linear scalability analysis

We analyzed the test results to determine if the Archiver CPU and memory use performance scaled in a linear fashion as we increased the bandwidth. With linear scaling, CPU and memory use remained consistent as when we added a new Archiver to the existing host. Non-linear scaling resulted in irregular CPU and memory use when we added a new Archiver to the host.

This section describes the steps used to perform the linear versus non-linear test and provides the results from the test using 29 Archivers at 37.5 MB/s and 34 Archivers 43.75 MB/s.

Performing the test

To perform the linear versus non-linear tests, we:

1. Created the maximum number of Archivers allowed on the Unisys ES7000 Enterprise Server and configured the simulators on a different server.

2. Assigned the 4 TB LUNs from the VNX storage array to the Archiver as raw devices and formatted them for use.

3. Started the cameras on the simulator and made sure that each Archiver could write to the VNX storage arrays.

4. Increased the number of Archiver/simulator pairs until the host CPU and memory reached their maximum capacity.

5. Turned off the Archivers one at a time, and documented the host CPU and memory used during the test.

Linear versus non-linear test results

Table 7 shows the linear versus non-linear test results.

Table 7. Linear versus non-linear test results

Motion Number of Archivers

Per Archiver BW ES 7000 CPU %

Total bandwidth

Motion Off 34 37.5MB/s (300 MB/s) 77 1,275

Motion On 34 37.5MB/s (300 MB/s) 85 1,275

Motion Off 29 43.75 MB/s (350 MB/s) 86 1,269

Motion On 29 43.75 MB/s (350 MB/s) 94 1,269

These tests demonstrate the capabilities of the Unisys ES7000 architecture and the scalability of VMware and Genetec Omnicast software. Our benchmark results found that during the 34 Archiver (37.5 MB/s) testing, CPU utilization was 77 percent with Motion Off and 85 percent with Motion ON. During the 29 Archiver (43.5 MB/s)

Introduction

Linear versus non-linear analysis



testing CPU utilization was 86 percent with Motion Off and 94 percent with Motion ON.

Linearity testing shows the average per virtual machine Guest CPU utilization tends to increase as more VM Guests are added. This indicated a slightly non-linear scalability profile, as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Figure 2. Linearity—Number of Archivers

Figure 3. Linearity—CPU percentages

Bandwidth is the rate for read/write service throughput in and out of a storage platform. During the test, 1,275 MB/s was the maximum total write I/O bandwidth achieved by the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G2 to the EMC VNX storage arrays on the host bus adapters (HBA) cards.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

43.5 MB/s 37.5 MB/s

Linearity - Number of Archivers

Number of Archivers withMotion detection Off

Number of Archivers withMotion detection On

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Motion Off Motion On

Linearity - CPU %

34 Archivers runningat 37.5 MB/s

29 Archivers runningat 43.5 MB/s



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Conclusion

Our testing confirms that you can use a single Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server with VMware ESXi 5.0 to consolidate a large Genetec Security Center environment. We built the test case based on Genetec Security Center and VNX storage arrays. Although we did not test other video surveillance managers or EMC storage arrays, we found the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 to be an excellent platform on which to consolidate any VMware-compliant video surveillance manager.

We configured the Security Center Archivers to emulate moderate and maximum Archiver workloads by running at:

300 Mb/s (37.5 MB/s)

350 Mb/s (43.75MB/s)

We also observed the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server linearity.

Table 8 displays our findings while testing this solution.

Table 8. Summary of findings

Number of Archivers tested

Bandwidth per Archiver

Total Bandwidth

CPU used by Archivers (%)

34 37.5 MB/s 1,275 MB/s 71

29 43.75 MB/s 1,268 MB/s 86

We tested the over-extended CPU utilization to a level that we do not recommend for a production environment. A stable environment should not exceed 80 to 85 percent CPU utilization.

The test results are based on isolated networks, dedicated hosts, dedicated arrays, and consistent video. There may be variations in these numbers during a production implementation.

Summary

Findings

Notes



References

For additional VNX and VMware information, see the documents listed below.

VNX Family Data Sheet

VNX Series Specification Sheet

VNX Software Suites Data Sheet

For additional information about the Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R G2 Enterprise Server, see the documents listed below.

ES7000 Model 7600R G3 Enterprise Server Installation and User's Guide

ES7000 Family of Servers Getting Started Guide

VMware vSphere Brochure

EMC documentation

Product documentation

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