A Novel Solution to Large Volume Data Storage Nicholas Tulley City Hospital, Birmingham Department of Physics & Nuclear Medicine
The Problem Amount of data increased significantly – Gated SPECT hearts with AC (~150MB) Optical disks now inadequate (2 GB each) Archive on this media very expensive Instant data retrieval requested by clinician
Terminology OnlineData available instantly OfflineData needs to be retrieved BackupCOPY the data Archive MOVE the data RAIDReliable data store – This is NOT A BACKUP (unless it is a COPY)
Archive Solutions DAT tape Additional local disks Local RAID storage External hard drive
DAT tape Additional local disks Local RAID storage External hard drive OR Use hospital networked-storage Built-in backup facility (IT staff) Archive Solutions
Network Storage Very high capacity (TB not GB) Easily expanded High Availability – High Security Some technical skill required Backup done by hospital IT Dept. Cost – negotiable with IT !
City Hospital Solution Odyssey Camera Network Storage Area Network Camera To Hospital Network Gateway Hospital Server running Microsoft Services For Unix
Services for Unix (SFU) Microsofts answer to the Unix / Linux threat Program available as free download Installation fairly straightforward Some simple configuration Allows a Windows PC / Server to interact with a Unix environment
Services for Unix (SFU) Microsofts answer to the Unix / Linux threat Program available as free download Installation fairly straightforward Some simple configuration Allows a Windows PC / Server to interact with a Unix environment
SFU Advantages Not much UNIX knowledge needed (SAMBA is the UNIX alternative) Windows familiarity IT Dept has Windows SAN Expertise Easy Windows dragndrop filing Free (Custom) install is quite easy…
Custom Install of SFU
Custom Install of SFU: Local User Name Mapping
Two files needed from Unix: – \etc\passwd – \etc\group Create a folder on c: for them. – e.g. c:\SFUusers – and copy them Custom Install of SFU: Local User Name Mapping
Explorer View of Windows folders
Sharing a Windows Folder for Unix
Sharing a Folder for Unix
Conclusion Local or Remote large disk drives can be added for management under (the more familiar) Windows environment. Using remote (IT serviced) data storage solves the headache of reliable data backup.
City Hospital Solution Odyssey Camera Network
Old: co-axial, Spine Ethernet configuration: HP5MChtphysicsFredHolmesTek750 ErnieGingerOllieAlbumStan MoriartyEric Watson
Old: co-axial, Spine Ethernet configuration: HP5MChtphysicsFredHolmesTek750 ErnieGingerOllieAlbumStan MoriartyEric Watson
Old: co-axial, Spine Ethernet configuration: EricChtphysicsFredHolmesTek750 printer ErnieGingerOllieAlbumStan MoriartyHP5M printer Watson
New: Switched, Twisted-Pair Ethernet configuration: HP5MChtphysicsFredHolmesTek750 ErnieGingerOllieAlbumStan MoriartyEric Watson Switch
Half Duplex Problem On LX (Linux) System Old Configuration OK Very slow after upgrade to Switched Network Was working at half-duplex – i.e. only in one direction at a time Simple fix to make Full Duplex