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SSD for CCTV

W

winterblade

Junior Member
Hello guys, before everybody start yelling, the reason because my company is considering a SSD array to store the feed of multiple CCTV cameras is because it will be installed in a Semi Sumersible Vessel, so there is going to be a lot of movement and vibrations, we have been working with small NAS solutions (read NOT enterprise) and the MTBF has been between 6 and 12 months so obviously we have a problem in our hands.

Cost is not a big issue, so we started thinking in an all-solid solution, but as far as I know, the nature of SSD don't make them ideal for CCTV (constant random writes, very little read) BUT if we get a MTBF of at least two years I think it will be well worth the investment.

So, do you guys have any feedback about using SSD for CCTV systems?? We will really appreciate it 😀
 
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A little more info:
1) Each camera writes independently (Mobotix D-14 cameras)
2) The video is stored in HD resolution using h264 encoding
3) We only record on motion detection
4) We have 16 cameras, so using two or three arrays is an option to reduce the stress of the ssd's
5) Each camera normally writes about 20-30 GB daily
 
Welcome to the forums.
Using a SSD for CCTV video recording. Yes, it works, yes it does it really quickly, but it's not the ideal tool for the job, and it costs an awful lot more.but in your case Cost is not a big issue.
 
denis280 said:
Welcome to the forums.
Using a SSD for CCTV video recording. Yes, it works, yes it does it really quickly, but it's not the ideal tool for the job, and it costs an awful lot more.but in your case Cost is not a big issue.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the answer, do you think we can achieve MTBF of at least two years using SSD's?? Will it make a difference in resilience to use SLC or MLC for the disk arrays??
 
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winterblade said:
Cost is not a big issue, so we started thinking in an all-solid solution, but as far as I know, the nature of SSD don't make them ideal for CCTV (constant random writes, very little read) BUT if we get a MTBF of at least two years I think it will be well worth the investment.
Click to expand...
Random writes, for CCTV? Isn't CCTV almost 100% sequential writes, highly bufferable at that?

Definitely test out brands for which memory is their business, like Sandisk, Samsung, Crucial (Micron), and Toshiba, and get fairly new drives (Crucial M500 should probably be the oldest to consider).

If cost isn't a big issue, get a couple of what look like good models, find how to tell the actual writes (how its recorded in SMART values varies, but several brands have Windows tools that can tell you in terms of host GB and NAND GB).

SLC v. MLC is dead: MLC won (with pseudo-SLC modes for caching and longevity), and is even replacing SLC in enterprise units, now. SLC->MLC is too much additional space for the money to give up, is more popular, so cheaper per unit in terms of R&D, and wear-leveling implementations got good enough that most users will see failing controllers and capacitors long before their NAND wears out. Test for how much NAND writing you are likely to be doing, and extrapolate from there.
 
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I think an SSD would be perfect for your environmental conditions, assuming the price and space are within your constraints/budget.
There is a reason nasa adopted SSDs 10+ years ago.

I agree with the others above on calculating/extrapolating the writes. Current gen SSDs are pretty good with not wearing down, but they still aren't as long lasting as old fashion spinners.

IMO avoid gamer/enthusiast type SSDs, look for something designed for a somewhat enterprise/professional focus (ie: m500)
The m500 has features like "Adaptive thermal monitoring", 1.2 MTTF, and extra capacitors to protect against power losses that most of the consumer drives don't.

If you wanted to adhere to the specs "Endurance: Total bytes written (TBW): 72TB"
30 GB daily * 16 = 480GB
that's only 150 days for a single SSD
arrange them in a set of 4 maybe ?
30 GB daily * 4 = 120GB = 600 days

As the article posted above suggests, SSDs are usually able to sustain much more writes than the specs say.

I wouldn't worry about speed, as most any current SSD is fast enough for your application.
 
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Cerb said:
Random writes, for CCTV? Isn't CCTV almost 100% sequential writes, highly bufferable at that?
Click to expand...

Hey Cerb, I agree that one camera generate mostly secuencial writes, but I think that multiple cameras writing at the same time may change that. What do you think??
 
Soulkeeper said:
IMO avoid gamer/enthusiast type SSDs, look for something designed for a somewhat enterprise/professional focus (ie: m500)
The m500 has features like "Adaptive thermal monitoring", 1.2 MTTF, and extra capacitors to protect against power losses that most of the consumer drives don't.
Click to expand...

Thanks Soulkeeper, we are actually considering something like the 960GB Crucial m500 ssd because of the cost per megabyte, so I'm happy to hear it also has advanced pseudo-enterprise features.
 
metril said:
This is for you. http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/4178...date-20-6-2013

That is a TLC SSD that lasted for over 700 TB of writes.

Figure out how much data your CCTV is going to write in a typical day, week, month, etc. You'll have your answer then.

You might want to try a test yourself with 1 SSD and see how many writes/erase cycles have occurred after a typical day, week, etc.
Click to expand...

Thank you, we will proceed with the test, I'll let you guys know how it goes.
 
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