Piql White Paper - Magnetic Tape Technology in a Multi-node Archival Storage System

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Magnetic tape technology in a multi-node archival storage system Whitepaper

This paper explores storage media selection for multi-node storage systems used for the long-term archiving and preservation of digital content. Digital preservation, or the steps taken to make digital content accessible, trustworthy and usable into the future is crucial if we are to retain the ever-growing body of digital knowledge and cultural heritage that it is accumulating, for future generations. All kinds of corporations, governments and institutions are now retaining every type of digital record including images, video, documents, records, research data, social media etc. Once digital content is lost, it is gone forever; and it is generally unknown at the time of archiving what of the broad collection of content will have the most value in the future so the typical answer to the difficult questions of assessment are to save as much as possible and to protect that content against loss, corruption and external attack.

The Digital Preservation Coalition’s Digital Preservation Handbook provides guidance on the principals that should be employed when designing or selecting storage systems for preservation 1 :

PRINCIPLES FOR USING IT STORAGE SYSTEMS FOR DIGITAL PRESERVATION 1. Redundancy and diversity

• Make multiple independent copies of digital material and store these in different geographic locations. • Use a combination of online storage systems and offline media. • Use different types of storage technology to spread risk and achieve a balance of data safety, easy access and manageable cost. • Use fixity measures such as checksums to record and regularly monitor the integrity of each copy of the digital material. • If corruption or loss is detected, then use one of the other copies to create a replacement. • Store fixity information alongside the digital materials and also in separate databases or systems.

2. Fixity, monitoring, repair

3. Technology and vendor watch, risk assessment, and proactive

• Understand that storage technologies, products and services all

have a short lifetime.

migrations

• Use technology watch to assess when migrations might be needed. • Keep an eye on the viability of storage vendors or classes of storage solution. • Be proactive in migrating storage before digital material be comes at risk.

4. Consolidation, simplicity, documentation, provenance and

• Minimise the proliferation of legacy media types and storage

systems used for preservation.

audit trails

• Consolidate digital materials onto the minimum number of preservation storage systems (subject to the redundancy requirements above). • Document how digital materials have been acquired and transferred into the storage systems as well as how the storage systems are set-up and operated. • Use this to provide audit information on data authenticity.

1 Digital Preservation Handbook, 2nd Edition, http://handbook.dpconline.org/ Digital Preservation Coalition © 2015 licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.