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FCP and XSAN – performance question
Hi,
we want two use one Apple Xserve Raid (fully populated) with two clients (G5, FCP). We edit only HD Stuff (1080p, 110MB/s).
We already buyed a mac with the xserve raid. The Blackmagic benchmark test shows a bandwith of 170MB/s writing and 300MB/s reading in RAID 50 Mode.My questions is if this configuration has enough bandwith that two editors can work simultaneous (playback, not capturing).
I ask because I heard that xsan decreases the bandwith of the overall performance.We don’t want to buy a fibre channel switch or a dedicated Mac as controller. Is it recomended that we use an atto fibre channel celerity controller, wich has a hub onbord instead of another mac fc controller?
Thanks in advance…
Sven
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4 Replies
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If you’ve not already, I’d ask this question over at the Xsan forum here at the Cow. But to answer briefly:
Yes, Xsan does slow things down a bit. For editing full HD with two users, I’d be looking at 2 Xserve RAIDs.
For Xsan you absolutely need a fibre switch and a controller mac. There’s not really any way around that. Yes, you could use one of your edit macs as a controller, but I wouldn’t recommend that as a reliable way to work.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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Yes, you really need a metadata controller. It doesn’t need to be as fast as the Xserve RAID though. You could even use a G4 as a metadata controller. Although you shouldn’t use one of the clients as a metadata controller (MDC), you can use a client as a failover machine.
You also need a fiberchannel switch, fiber cable itself, another ethernet card for each client (you need two ethernet connections) and a fiber channel card for each client as well.
The guys over at the Xsan Cow are all over it, though. As Graeme says, go over and check them out. I only know how to config a full blown Xsan. Workarounds are not my specialty, but I can say this…it’s probably better to set the Xsan up to spec.
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Thanks a lot for your help. I will also speak to the xsan peaple…
Sven
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Yeup, the Xsan forum is the place for these questions.
Just to tie up a few items:-[Kevin Monahan] “Yes, you really need a metadata controller. It doesn’t need to be as fast as the Xserve RAID though”
The speed of the XServeRAID has nothing to do with the speed of the MDC. A G5 preferably a XServe is recomended. Xsan is also quite RAM hungry and I don’t know why but the Ram in a Xserve suits the job better. It will also depend on how many clients you intend to have.
You only need two ethernet connections if you want non-metadata traffic as well. The Xsan metadata needs a dedicated network to itself. So if you want to browse the internet, install a second card or use wifi. Because of the low data rate , you can probably get away with running the RAID admin on the metadata network. – I only look at mine on powerup and when something is wrong!
Peter
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