• Storage & Archiving

  10 gigE question for mac

  Posted by Paul Mitchell on February 25, 2012 at 6:40 pm

  Hi guys

  I’m considering hooking up two Mac pro towers via10 gigE cards to share 2 x internal raid 0’s

  My first is a 12 core Mac pro running Resolve with an internal 10 tb raid 0(5×2 tb)

  The plan for the second is to be an 8 core 2008 mac pro to run Ultrascope with an internal raid 0 of 10 tb for a total of 20 tb

  The plan is to have them connected to each other via 10 gigE cards

  I’m looking at 2 x https://www.attostore.com/ethernet-adapters/fastframe-ns11.htm. ( one on each Mac pro)

  Does anyone have any experience with this card?

  I looked at small trees but they are more expensive

  I only need single ports cards. I will only be connecting the two machines to each other. Therefore no need for dual port cards.

  would there be another card for recommendation for this purpose

  I’m also wondering how the raid from the second Mac pro will show up on my main computer,will it show as a mounted drive?

  Any info would be greatly appreciated

  Thanks in advance

  Steve Modica replied 13 years, 10 months ago 9 Members · 22 Replies
• 22 Replies

• 

  Bob Zelin

  February 27, 2012 at 1:44 am

  the ATTO NS11 card is fantastic. If you do not configure a server, you are creating a “push pull” enviornment for sharing files, you are not creating a shared storage enviornment.

  Both the ATTO NS11 and Small Tree cards require a configuration on the MAC to get them to work at the correct speeds. By simply loading the driver, you will not achieve the maximum performance of either of these two cards.

  The ideal situation is to stick a multiport ATTO card or Small Tree card into a server, and put all your storage on your server. Then put the NS11 or single port Small Tree card in your MAC client computers, and you can achieve what you really want to do (unless push pull files is all you really want). But again, without optomizing these cards for the MAC, you will not achieve peak performance.

  Let me know if you have any more questions.

  Bob Zelin
• 

  Paul Mitchell

  February 28, 2012 at 6:07 pm

  Hi Bob

  Thank you so much for explaining the process, looks like I was way off in how I thought this process would work.

  When you say ” The ideal situation is to stick a multiport ATTO card or Small Tree card into a server, and put all your storage on your serve” , do you mean a multiple hard drive enclosure?

  Could you give an example model of a server, around 20 tb for example

  Which atto card would be suitable for this server

  How does this ” push pull” environment work as you mentioned

  Thank you so much in advance
• 

  Bob Zelin

  February 28, 2012 at 8:42 pm

  you use an external drive enclosure with your Mac Pro and an ATTO R380 or ATTO R680.

  an example of a server is nothing more than an ATTO R380 or an ATTO R680 sitting inside a Mac Pro.

  if you want more info, contact me at maxavid@cfl.rr.com
• 

  Paul Mitchell

  February 28, 2012 at 9:00 pm

  Hi Bob

  Thanks again for the info

  I’ve been doing some research, what do you think of the Stardom Sohoraid ST8 to go with the atto R680

  Thanks in advance
• 

  Bob Zelin

  February 29, 2012 at 1:56 pm

  The Stardom requires two cables to run the unit, which means no expansion. In the real world, you will run out of room. Without the ability to have some sort of SAS expander, so you can add chassis, you are buying into a dead end.
  With the Stardom, that requires two cables to run all 8 drive slots, you do not even have the other port of the R680 to feed a second chassis in the future.

  I believe I gave you my email, so you can contact me for more detailed answers.

  Bob Zelin
• 

  Tim Ward

  March 1, 2012 at 2:32 pm

  Paul, please give us a call or send me an email. I think we can help you out.

  Tim Ward
  Small Tree Communications
  http://www.small-tree.com
• 

  Bob Zelin

  March 4, 2012 at 6:22 pm

  so Paul, what did you decide to purchase ?

  Bob Zelin
• 

  Paul Mitchell

  March 4, 2012 at 8:17 pm

  Hi Bob

  Thanks for the follow up

  Right now I’m thinking of heading to NAB to check things out.

  Also the rumors of a possible new Mac pro are interesting ,The new XeonE5 chips and new video cards, make this a possibility, if they do release them, they will most likely have thunderbolt, so that changes everything

  Luckily I’m in no rush. This is for a home setup.

  I’ll see in a few months what develops and re-evaluate things

  Thanks
• 

  Andrew Richards

  March 5, 2012 at 3:32 am

  [Paul mitchell] “Also the rumors of a possible new Mac pro are interesting ,The new XeonE5 chips and new video cards, make this a possibility, if they do release them, they will most likely have thunderbolt, so that changes everything “

  I wouldn’t be shocked to see on-board 10GbE in a new E5 Xeon Mac Pro. Now there’s a USP for you!

  Best,
  Andy
• 

  Bob Zelin

  March 5, 2012 at 11:59 pm

  excuse me Andrew, but what new Mac Pro ?

  If you have proof of a new Mac Pro that you can show me, I will buy you dinner at the most expensive restaurant in Las Vegas during NAB that you can find.

  Bob Zelin

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