2 FCP stations on one Xserve RAID

[Mark Raudonis]

Kim,

Jordan (in the X-SAN forum) told you exactly what I would have told you.

I’ll just put it more bluntly. There is NO FREE LUNCH when setting up a networked workflow. This stuff is NOT easy, and it ain’t cheap. You get what you pay for. And when you cheap out, you’re just dooming yourself to continual frustration.

You’re working with uncompressed media, therefore you need the “fattest pipes” to push around all those pixels. Gigabit ethernet probably won’t be enough. Optical fibre is your friend here, and that’s gonna cost you.

Check out the suggestions that Jordan made. I agree with his recommendations.

Mark

[Kim Rowley]

Thanks Mark. In fact I have already written to 2 companies following up on Jordan’s advice. I wasn’t doubting it. Actually I hadn’t thought of posting here until I read the post below that I mentioned. Thanks for your reply.

Dual 2.7 GHz G5, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9650, Xserve RAID, AJA IO, 2 20″ Cinema Display, FCP Studio 2 (6.02), OS X10.4.11

[Russell Lasson]

I totally agree with Mark. Setting this stuff up isn’t as easy as just installing software and connecting the computers.

I set up a four seat XSAN where I work and it took a lot of work and IT. Luckily I figured out a way to set it up where the continuing IT needs was minimal.

For your deployment you would need the following:
– Fibre switch
– XSAN for each computer
– Computer to act as a metadata controller with a fibre connection to switch

This is probably another $7000-$9000 to take it to set it up as a SAN. Plus there is the additional administration.

For me, setting up XSAN has had an amazing impact on my productivity on our projects. But it doesn’t make sense to everyone.

I would suggest you really look into the different options and start figuring out what you need.

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Kaleidoscope Pictures
Provo, UT

[Shane Ross]

Yeah, my way is the CHEAP way, and isn’t without issues. I was able to connect one computer to the XServe Raid via fibre, then share that connection over GIGe to my G5, and I was able to get 3 streams of DVCPRO HD. But I didn’t test that in a real world situation. I didn’t work like this day after day…so I am not sure how stable it is. In a real world production environment you don’t want to temp fate and try the cheap thing only to get caught up in a mess. Get it right the first time.

I have used GIGe to share DV footage, but that was only for 3 days, and was just fiddling. No deadlines to worry about.

Shane

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[Mark Raudonis]

[Russell Lasson] “For your deployment you would need the following:
– Fibre switch
– XSAN for each computer
– Computer to act as a metadata controller with a fibre connection to switch
“

Don’t forget an “uninterruptible power supply”, Ethernet switches, “back up” meta data controller, and boat loads of storage. 2 tb is hardly worth the effort of all the other equipment.

Finally, never underestimate the air conditioning required to cool all this stuff off. Many offices have “energy saver” policies that kill the AC at night when no one’s around. Great. Except the heat is gonna kill your equipment if it’s in a relatively small room.

A networked workflow is wonderful. I’d even go as far as saying if you’re collaborating with ANYONE else, a networked workflow is ESSENTIAL these days. I’m glad the days of “sneakernet” are over. Just don’t underestimate how difficult it can be to set up even a relatively small group. If you’re not an ubergeek, I’d recommend paying someone to do it for you, and hold your hand throughout the initial few months. After that, if you’re not a total potatoe head, you can maintain it yourself. But setting it up calls for arcane knowledge of IP protocols and DNS processes that unless you do it for a living, you’ll never get right.

Good luck. There’s plenty of info about X-SAN out there. Do a google search.

Mark

PS. NAB is two weeks away. I wouldn’t commit to anything until after that date.

[Russell Lasson]

[Mark Raudonis] “2 tb is hardly worth the effort of all the other equipment. “

I was going to mention that. With the cost of drives, it would be much easier to just connect a RAID0 storage to each computer and then set it up at nights to clone the drives to the other so that all of the footage was on each RAID for each computer. Kind of messy, but… whatever.

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Kaleidoscope Pictures
Provo, UT

[Russell Lasson]

Gigabit ethernet can work for a short term solution, but like you, it really isn’t suitable for a permanent solution (at least using Apple’s file sharing).

But I’ve done it when I’ve needed to add an iMac to a SAN. And it worked out okay for the project.

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Kaleidoscope Pictures
Provo, UT

[Kim Rowley]

Thanks everybody.I am going into this thing carefully. It would be a big plus to be networked but I do realize that it’s not an easy task. I am in fact an editor and not an IT geek. I’ll heed everybody’s advice (not lastly waiting til after NAB). I want to do it right (but as cost effectively as warrants for our needs). Thanks again.

Dual 2.7 GHz G5, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9650, Xserve RAID, AJA IO, 2 20″ Cinema Display, FCP Studio 2 (6.02), OS X10.4.11

[Graeme Nattress]

I’d look at Metasan. I’m running that here on two edit stations on a 3.5TB Xraid. It works well, and works easy. It is not hard to set up yourself. It’s also very happy now on Leopard and the biggest advantage over Xsan is that you don’t have to format your drives to a proprietary format – you can just leave them HFS+. That means, if something on the SAN did go wrong, you can go back to direct connecting your drive to a mac, and still be able to access the data direct, do any disc repairs using normal disc repair software and so on.

If you have any issues with the fibre, the LAN mode cuts in and you get access to your data over gigE, which is slow, but at least you can still access your data. And you can extend the SAN out to LAN machines over gigE also, if needed.

Quite frankly, Metasan is a mac-like SAN in all the ways that Xsan is not. I don’t, for my small SAN use a metadata controller, just one of the edit suites fills that dual role, and that not only works, but saves money too on cables, hardware, switches and licences.

Best of all, as it runs on HFS+ drives without formatting them, you can get an evaluation copy to run and see what it’s like if you a fibre switch and the other gear.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Gary Adcock]

[Graeme Nattress] “I’d look at Metasan”

I will second that, I am running MetaSan on my office network ( mac’s, pc’s and one linux box)
without issues. I love that I can connect over ethernet to access the volumes from my laptop.

I too chose it over all of the other products out there.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Inside look at the IoHD