Beeks Analytics can be consumed either as a service (Analytics as a Service) or as an onsite appliance.

This section describes what you'll need to know if you are deploying the onsite appliance.

About the Beeks Analytics Appliance hardware

Beeks Analytics is architected to take advantage of standard off-the-shelf commercially available servers and FPGA cards to provide horizontally scalable performance that can deal with the broadest range of financial market traffic volumes.

These cards are configured for use as part of the VMX-Capture configuration.

There are two types of FPGA card used in VMX-Capture:

  • One or more capture cards.

  • Optional one or more compression cards.

Beeks Analytics appliances are usually built on Dell PowerEdge servers.

The current generation servers are based on 1U and 2U, single and dual CPU slot chassis.

As part of its open architecture, Beeks Analytics is also available as a software-only option. Clients can provide their own hardware, using specifications provided by Beeks. This gives the client full control of their hardware lifecycle, as well as full cost transparency.

Please see the Beeks Analytics Appliance Hardware Options document and talk to your Beeks account representative if you want to purchase your own hardware to run Beeks Analytics.

Hosing the Beeks Analytics Appliance Hardware

For users taking the appliance from Beeks, your Beeks technical contact will advise you of the exact specification of the box that you will require, based on your requirements. The following information is a general guide.

Appliance Information

  • Beeks Analytics appliances are now typically a single 1U servers , but clients with larger storage requirements (50 TB +) may need to factor in a 2U server.

  • Clients wishing to store 1 PB+ data may need an extra 2U storage shelf, which Beeks will provide with the appliance.

Appliance Power Information

  • The appliance requires two power connections, each rated at 1800 Watts maximum capacity.

  • Typically one of the power connections is active at a time, while the other remains idle and does not draw power.

  • The average power consumption per appliance is approximately 450 Watts when operational.

Traffic Visibility

  • The Beeks Analytics appliance needs to receive mirrored network packets. See Options for mirroring packets to Beeks Analytics for the background on packet mirroring options. The appliance capture cards can accept many different port speeds:

    • 2×1/10G

    • 8×10G (with breakout cables)

    • 2×10/25G (direct cabling)

    • 4×10/25G (with breakout cables)

    • 2×40G

    • 2×100G

  • Note that both ports on a single card must support the same configured speed.

  • Breakout cables will be supplied if any of the 4 or 8 port connections are needed. The length of the cables will need to be specified- the options are 1 metre, 3 metre or 5 metres.

  • Beeks will provide the optics for the Beeks Analytics appliance. We will need to know whether the interfaces are long-range (LR i.e. single-mode) or short-range (SR i.e. multi-mode) fibre connections.

  • If these packets can be timestamped at source, that will provide higher fidelity. However, Beeks understands that this is not possible with many switch configurations. If timestamping at source is not provided, Beeks will timestamp the packets at the appliance (see ‘Time Synchronisation’ below).

  • Please inform Beeks of the make/model of the switch that is mirroring the traffic. This is important as some switch manufacturers (e.g. Juniper) are known to be unreliable for traffic mirroring.

  • In cases where the switches cannot mirror the traffic, Beeks can work with the vendor to implement optical taps for the connections to be monitored.

Other Appliance Local Connectivity

  • The appliance will need one port that is used to SSH onto the appliance to manage the appliance. The appliance supports both RJ45-based (1Gbps) and SFP28-based (10Gbps/25Gbps) – whichever is easiest to provision.

  • This SSH port will need to be accessible remotely by named Beeks staff (see Network Access).

  • The appliance has a single RJ45 port which is used for IDRAC (lights-out management). This will be used by the team who will support the server and is not frequently accessed.

Time Synchronisation

The accuracy of the timing for latency typically requires a high accuracy clock source. Typically this is a connection to a PTP source that is provided to the Beeks Analytics service. A dedicated port on the Napatech card (RJ45, 1Gbps or 1000Mbps) in the Beeks Analytics appliance will receive this signal.

Beeks can provide a PTP source in many datacentres if the client does not have access to a PTP source already.

Network Access to the Analytics appliance

A limited number of named Beeks staff will need remote SSH access to the Beeks Analytics appliance estate to assist the client with configuration tasks, when required. Beeks can work with the client or other vendors to arrange suitable VPN connectivity.

Firewall and DNS details

A user interface is provided on the appliance. This is an https connection and is accessible via tcp/443. The client should provide a DNS resolvable Fully Qualified Domain Name to use to access the client. Beeks can then work with the client to ensure a suitable TLS certificate is installed on the Analytics appliance.