Glyph Technology ForteRAID

[David Roth weiss]

[Ernie Smith] “Has anyone had any experience with Glyph Technology ForteRAIDs? Their prices seem considerably less then those of Caldigit, Dulce or Sonnet.”

The price is lower for the following reasons:

1) you’re buying only an enclosure, there is no controller included

2) you’re on your own to acquire some other manufacturer’s controller

in addition, what you are completely unaware of, is that most of the cheap do itself controllers are software based, while the good companies build their much better hardware controllers right into their enclosures — the computer cards with the more expensive RAID 5 configurations are just bridge cards that connect them to PCI slots on the motherboard

3) you’re on your own to get your setup up and running properly and to keep it running

4) if anything doesn’t work or quits working you’re again on your own

If you look around at all of the discount computer sites, such as Egghead, etc., you’re bound to find even better deals on enclosures without drives, and it’s a simple matter to populate those with very inexpensive bare drives. However, RAID 5 is all about security, and the key to security is far more than just acquiring the hardware components.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Ernie Smith]

I guess I’m a little confused. I thought this system had a controller. The spec’s on the RAID says it employs the Oxford 936 controller chip. Is this not a RAID controller?

I figured I just hook this system up via my eSata card and configure it as RAID 5 using their software utility and then I’m good to go, but your saying I would need to get RAID controller card also?

Like I said, I’m a little confused…

Thanks

[David Roth weiss]

[Ernie Smith] “I figured I just hook this system up via my eSata card and configure it as RAID 5 using their software utility and then I’m good to go, but your saying I would need to get RAID controller card also? “

Well, I don’t think you mentioned you already had an eSATA controller card Ernie. In any case, the enclosure might work with your card, but it’s a PM enclosure (port multiplier) and it will only create a software RAID 5 configuration, and it will offer nowhere near the type of protection that will give you the degree of confidence and protection that one of the higher-priced hardware raid configurations will provide.

In fact, I would not recommend Raid 5 at all with that hardware, you’d be far better off to stripe it as Raid 0 and back it up to firewire drives. Oxford chip port multiplier enclosures with software Raid 5 configurations are just not that reliable.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Ernie Smith]

Sorry for the confusion, I didn’t know that the eSATA II PCI-express card that I have been using to connect my G-Tech drives is a controller card. I thought it just added eSATA ports to my computer… shows what i know:)

The whole hardware vs software controller (port multiplier) is what confused me. So the ForteRAID is software controlled. That helps me understand some. I think Glyph making such a big deal about the Oxford chip lead me to believe it might be hardware controlled, again, shows what I know about RAIDS.

Thanks for the info and insight.

Ernie

[David Roth weiss]

It gets a tad more complicated as you move over to RAID 5 Ernie. The whole point of RAID 5 is to be able to avoid any worries about possible data loss with our important “mission critical” media. However, if the inexpensive approach to RAID 5 actually adds a level of risk, it’s just not a good gamble.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
Apple are selling the similarly specced Promise SmartStor DS4600 4 drive box as a RAID 5 backup solution for the new Mac mini Server, although they only refer to its FireWire capabilities rather than its eSATA connectivity.
https://store.apple.com/us/product/TX711VC/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nw&mco=MTMzNzkyMTc

Just to clarify, it uses an Oxford 936QSE chipset (which includes an Arm CPU and controls the RAID set from its firmware) so its NOT just a software RAID 0/1/5 solution. It uses any straightforward eSATA (non-PM) PCIe card for the Mac Pro.

And it seems to be fast enough to use as an edit-capable drive system – in contrast to the much slower software-RAID PM solutions.

However it could be vulnerable to power outages whilst writing RAID 5 parity data, which a full PCIe-type controller could solve by an NVRAM write-cache and battery backup, facilities that the Oxford 936QSE doesn’t provide. So it would need a UPS power source.

Considering the price of 4 x 1TB enterprise drives (which is what Promise specifies) the Apple version is very competitively priced.

[David Roth weiss]

Nicely worded Paul. It’s good to see that good writing is still flourishing in Britain long after Mr. Shakespeare’s demise.

And, Happy New Year to you too…

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.