Video: Facebook’s Storage Design Prototype

Facebook’s custom storage hardware, known as Knox, houses 15 drives in each tray, with two trays populating each 2U storage housing (Photo: Colleen Miller)

Storage has been the missing link in Facebook’s custom hardware designs. A storage prototype has been in the works for some time, but wasn’t ready last year when Facebook unveiled its Open Compute server hardware. In recent months Facebook has begun providing information about its storage prototype, known as “Knox.” In this video, Facebook Manager, Hardware Design Matt Corddry provides a hands-on overview of Knox and its features. Each 2U storage shell includes two trays, each with 15 hard drives. The Knox unit also features a hinge which allows the tray to to be angled downward for servicing. This video runs about 3 minutes.

For more background on Facebook’s data center operations, see our Facebook Channel and the Facebook Data Center FAQ. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.

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About Colleen Miller

Colleen Miller is a journalist and social media specialist. She has more than 25 years of writing and editing experience, with her most recent work dedicated to the online space. Colleen covers the data center industry, including topics such as modular, cloud and storage/big data.