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Ethernet Shared Storage – Small Facility options – MetaLan vs iSCSI MetaSan Xtarget
Hi,
I’m working in a small post-production facility (Mac, Windows and Linux computers). We want to improve our ethernet shared storage.
Actually, we are working with two simple NAS (Qnap). It’s good enough to share video files and to make some renders with FCP or AE. But there are problems with other softwares like DaVinci Resolve. DaVinci Resolve renders on the network are often corrupted (corrupted frames, corrupted files…) So actually, we render on local drives and we transfer video files afterward. It’s a big waste of time. So we want to improve our workflow.I’m not a specialist, so i read a lot of forum thread in order to find a solution. We have a small budget (maximum 8-10k€) so SAN all-in-box solutions and fiber channel are sadly not for us. Besides we want to maintain an open architecture to easily evolve in the future (adding storage capacity etc…) Here is the option that i’m thinking : Keep an ethernet shared storage using MetaLan software from Tiger Technolgy
– 1 New Mac Pro (the “cheapest” Quad-Core) with thunderbolt2 as the server
+ MetaLan Server software
+ 1 Promise SANlink2 Thunderbolt2 to 10Gb/s ethernet adaptator
+ 1 Promise Pegasus2 R8 RAID storage 32To– 1 Netgear 10Gb ProSafe switch (XS708E or XS712T?)
– MetaLan software on the other computers (in the future other sanlink 10gb adaptator to use 10gb bandwidth)
What do you think of this option ? Do you think MetaLan management will prevent to have corrupted renders. (with Block-level sharing…) ?
Another option is to use an iSCSI solution : MetaSan combine with Xtarget and globalSAN iSCSI initiator from Studio Network Solutions. This solution is more expensive for us (many Software licenses) and MetaSan may be harder to configure? Do you think that iSCSI solution may be better than the MetaLan solution ?
The bandwidth is not the most important aspect for us. The most important aspect is the stability of the shared storage to prevent corrupted files renders.Any comments, advice, opinion is really welcome. I can give you more details if you need.
Thank you in advance for your help
Best regards
Laurent Navarri -
6 Replies
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SNS XTarget works wonderfully with the SANmp software
MetaLan is a stand alone solution from Tiger Technology.
You do not need both – they do not work together.
Or you can use nothing, and just do Apple File Sharing.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
Hi Bob,
Thank you for your answer.
SANmp seems to be a great (and easy to use) product but i think that it doesn’t allow several users to mount a same disk with read/write permission. It’s very important for us. That’s why i was thinking of a Tiger Technology solution.
MetaLan is maybe the better option for us. You can mount a shared disk as a local disk and have multi-users writing i think? I’m also interested in the ProjectStore application. I don’t know if it’s included in MetaLan.
Apple File Sharing is another option but i’m not sure that it will prevent us from our render corrupted files problem?
We need to have a very stable shared storage.Do you think that the Mac Pro is a good option for our “server”? or a windows based solution may be better?
Thanks again
Laurent Navarri -
the Mac Pro works fine. You do not need anything to make this work. You already own it, and you already have the equipment list.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
Hi Laurent,
We use SANmp and globalSAN via a 10GE connection to our Resolve. The renders work fine off the SANmp volumes. We did use a MacPro initially as the server but recently upgraded to an EVO, for the money your talking about you should do the same.
Cheers
Rob -
Hi,
SanMP seems to be a good and solid solution but it doesn’t enable different computers to access one volume at the same time (with read/write permission). That’s very important for us.
That’s why we’re interested in the MetaLAN and ProjectStore software. I understand that it enable to create different projects folders on a same volume and that many computers may be writing on this volume at the same time.
Am i wrong? Does someone use this type of setup?Thanks
Laurent -
Hi,
we were using iSANmp with Xtarget and it’s quite nightmare with single user write permission. Workflow gets really slow and we are having constant crash if we put the system on the pressure. And one of our Windows systems can’t even mount the volume as it crashes the same second. And there is lot’s more issues with it. So I would suggest to avoid iSANmp and Xtarget. If you still want to buy it we can sell it to you for half retail price or even less as we have dumped it :)))
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