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RAID question
Hey all-
Trying to figure out the best approach to a long term broadcast project and would appreciate any input.
I am going to be assembling about 20 highlight shows that are being supplied to me as DVCPRO HD files. So far each show seems to be around 2-2.5TB of media. Once a show is done, the media is no longer needed, but I may be working on a couple of shows at a time. I only have to send them completed QT movies. Nothing is put to tape. Approval copies will be low-rez FTP’d or sent on DVD. I have new Mac Pro 8 core with Aja LHi card.
Based on the budget I was given, I was thinking of using an eSATA 4 bay unit that can handle up to 8TB. In terms of importance, I was thinking capacity and redundancy maybe are a bit more important than performance. Since this is DVCPROHD(about 130Mbits/sec) I think the eSATA transfer rate seems to work pretty well. As far as capacity goes, in a RAID 5 don’t you lose about a drive’s worth of storage?..So in theory a 8TB RAID 5 might actually be only 6TB or so. But I can’t really afford to lose the time needed to fix a drive failure.So I guess what I am asking is:
-if the redundancy of a RAID 5 outweighs the loss of capacity?
– would a JBOD be a better setup, and just swap out drives as needed?
– RAID 1 setup..slower performance but mirrored backup. And again, swap out drives as needed. -
6 Replies
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When doing your arithmetic you can’t forget about renders, which add significantly to storage required. And, you can’t fill disk drives completely either, 10% free space minimum is required, so don’t count your available gigabytes as close to the bone as you’re doing.
I would suggest that you pay the piper from the start, use RAID 5, and move completed projects off to inexpensive FireWire drives when they’re done.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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yeah..all good points to be sure…also I think I typo’d the data rate..it’s actually around 14MB/sec. Do you have any experience with the Hitachi Drives?..I am reading that they are the preferred vendor with the Firmtek unit.
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I not only have experience with Hitachi SATA drives, that’s all I own, but I have two Firmtek enclosures, one is a 4-bay and one is a 2-bay. Both are great, however neither hold a candle to my CalDigit HDOne 8-drive RAID.
In five years I’ve had one Hitachi drive that came DOA from and one that went south after 3.5 years. Meanwhile, all of the other 40 plus Hitachi SATA drives I own are still going strong.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Thanks..I am 90% convinced about getting the Firmtek raid. So let me ask you a possibly stupid question. If you stock a 4 or 5 bay unit with only 2 or 3 drives to start…and you add the rest of the drives a little later, do they automatically join the existing RAID?..or do you have to manually incorporate them?…and if so, what is the software you used to create the RAID..is is the basic Apple Raid setup?
Thanks again for your input
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sorry…found the answer to my own questions…
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[Rick Lavon] “If you stock a 4 or 5 bay unit with only 2 or 3 drives to start…and you add the rest of the drives a little later, do they automatically join the existing RAID?”
Apple Disk Utility is used to stripe drives together as RAID 0, or Soft Raid for RAID 5, and nothing happens automatically. So, if you have two or three drives striped together, then add two more to the enclosure, you’d either stripe those two together separately as a new RAID, or copy all the media to another drive temporarily, then stripe all drives together into a single RAID. I would always recommend creating a RAID into a single large RAID with all available drives to derive the best performance from the increased throughput that more drives will yield.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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