FREENAS® AND TRUENAS® BEHIND THE SCENES ON THE PGA TOUR

Denver, Colorado
http://www.firstlink.com/
High-tech

Benefits

FreeNAS Mini XL offers powerful file sharing with autocaching in a small form factor
Onsite data can be archived to Firstlink’s TrueNAS to protect against data loss
18TB of redundant storage in a convenient form factor at a reasonable price via the FreeNAS Mini XL

THE STORAGE CHALLENGE

Firstlink Technology is an IT service company specializing in creating web-based services for clients with diverse needs. Able to handle everything from search engine optimization (SEO) to website development and cloud hosting, the company offers online application development and infrastructure recommendations to their diverse clientele. Firstlink can also host its customers’ websites and online services in its own cloud-based infrastructure.

As a hosting company, data uptime and storage availability are essential for normal business operation.
Several years ago the company began working with the ZFS file system and building out their own storage using commodity hardware. Through customer references, they learned that they could get the same scalable, secure ZFS file system from iXsystems in a pre-tested, proven platform that was feature-rich and simple to use. The company has since purchased two TrueNAS systems with over 200 TB of storage capacity.

FIRSTLINK TECHNOLOGY

Firstlink was tasked with building out an inexpensive content management system for the Sanford International Golf Tournament PGA Tour. The system needed to easily share, protect, and sync media from the event without breaking the bank.
Already familiar with iXsystems and their world-class level of support and flexibility, CEO Jeff Luinstra reached out to iXsystems to help set up a solution that met their customer’s needs and seamlessly synchronized with his existing TrueNAS infrastructure to guarantee against data loss or corruption.

The golf tournament used two workstations and a series of Chromebooks to capture and edit media, and then organize it for broadcast and archiving. Firstlink chose to use a FreeNAS Mini XL with 18TB of usable capacity that supported the SMB and NFS protocols to store and share data between the various clients accessing the system. Firstlink created a custom script to automatically backup photos and videos to the FreeNAS Mini XL. The backup data was then replicated to Firstlink’s TrueNAS infrastructure, creating a robust data redundancy system across multiple locations at a fraction of the cost of a 100% cloudbased storage solution.

The Sanford International Golf Tournament plans to continue to use the FreeNAS Mini XL and the replication architecture mapped out by Firstlink for the next five years. Due to its portability, the system can be deployed along with the other laptops and equipment when needed, allowing every team member to browse and sort content based on their needs.

Mr. Luinstra is getting good mileage out of both his TrueNAS system and the FreeNAS Mini XL used at the golf tournament. He is considering the purchase of a few more systems to act as office file sharing and backups around his own office. The flexible architecture, performance, ability to sync with TrueNAS, and entry-level price points make the FreeNAS Mini product line a perfect small-office NAS that can do it all.

Requirements

Flexible storage in a portable form factor that can be quickly deployed
Easily sync with backend to protect against data loss
System needs to meet a limited budget

Requirements

Scalable infrastructure to grow from 200 TB to over 4.5 PB
Protect over Millions of videos and audio files
Ensure public availability of data while keeping systems secure

THE STORAGE CHALLENGE

The JFK Library Foundation has a long term plan to digitize and store millions of documents and large amounts of videos, film, and audio recordings. Not only is the material vast, but it is also diverse, with files being copied to the storage system from a variety of sources in numerous file types and sizes. The library required a high-end NAS system capable of sharing with a variety of systems as the digitization process is completed.

Performance aside, the platform had to be accessible to various thirdparty platforms, while maintaining data integrity. The storage had to be capable of being managed independently from any digital asset management software, so that the library’s independent services could easily access the data. Admins, users, and staff all require varying levels of access to the storage infrastructure to ensure against data loss from theft or human error. Data itself then needed to be incredibly secure, so that high resolution, uncompressed media can remain error-free from the time it is stored.