HP DL320 good to go?

[Bob Zelin]

so basically, you want to set up shared video media storage for 4 workstations for a total cost of $1100.

Well, you try it, and let us know how things work out for you.

bob zelin

https://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=8852216&oext=1038A&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=8852216

[Don Alexander]

“Well, you try it, and let us know how things work out for you. ”

Well, I have done just this in the past. And we’ve been mildly successful in sharing the same storage among 6-7 editors. Rarely, if ever, did we use the same files concurrently.

Following several of your discussions here has been very educational. Thank you.

Did you have any knowledge of the HP server regarding it’s efficiency and suitability to the task?

Don

[Bob Zelin]

Don, I can only say one thing.

Long before I discussed any of this, long before companies like
Tiger Technology, Facilis, Apace, EditShare, Charismac, and Maximum Throughput existed, there was AVID Unity. And the second AVID Unity came out (which is expensive), every IT manager said “you don’t need this – we have a fast network” and tried to show everyone with 100baseT (before Gig E was popular) that they could do shared storage of video files across their “fast” office network. And guess what – it didn’t work.

Then Gig E happened. And products like Apple XSAN came out. And you know what happened, once again, every IT manager said “you don’t need this – we have a fast network”, and tried to show everyone that their fast office network (now gig-e) could do shared storage. And guess what – it didn’t work.

As the advent of early “third party companies” like Facilis and EditShare came out, there were FINALLY shared storage solutions that actually worked that didn’t cost a fortune. These products still exist, and are in fact wonderful, but still, a little too expensive for many users. So the next generation of products happened, that include Apace Systems, Maximum Throughput, and Tiger Technologies MetaSAN. And these products work too.

With the advent of innovative companies like Small Tree, even less expensive solutions are appearing, using industry standard “tricks” like link aggregation. And yes, you can pull off alot of cool stuff with managed switches from other companies like Hewlett Packard,including the inexpensive ProCurve series from HP.

But you know what Don, a regular office network just isn’t going to cut it. The regular Joe IT guy is not going to configure a shared storage enviornment for a video facility. But hey – I’ve been wrong many times before.

I recently setup the “cheapest possible shared storage” to date that I was able to configure for Valencia Community college West Campus, using a MAC with internal SATA drives, and the Small Tree hardware – just to do DV25 for several FCP systems. Cost was about 2 grand plus the MAC.

Can this be done with an HP computer with some internal disk drives and a HP ProCurve, setup with LACP. Why sure it can – I dont’ know if SMB is going to work well for multiple FCP stations trying to read a PC server, but someone who knows more than me about this can probably get it to work – certainly with HP’s excellent support.

But just a regular “plain vanilla” network doing shared storage for Video Media ? Sorry – we ain’t there yet.

But if you get this DL320 to work, you let us know, and believe me, I have been wrong before.

bob Zelin

[Sean Oneil]

Don,

You’re using Mac clients, right? Then the HP is a big mistake. It’s SMB w/ a non-Mac filesystem. You want something that has AFP. I would look at Lacie’s newest NAS units. Similar price. Or set something up like what Bob did with Small Tree cards.

Sean

[Don Alexander]

Sean, No, I’m running PCs. I’ve decided to stick with Adobe and Windows.

I’ve really enjoyed and appreciated the dialog you and Bob have provided here.

Don

[Bob Zelin]

then Don, this is what I advise you to do. Unfortunately, I don’t have the exact knowlege to make this happen (and tell you exactly what to do). If you are using all PC’s, you can use the same concept. Get a HP Procurve switch that supports jumbo frames and link aggregation (like the 1800-24), and trunk some ethernet ports together on your “server” PC – you will need a multi port ethernet card to do this. Now, I don’t know the LACP settings for the HP 1800, but I am sure a few phone calls will do it for you. You can either use internal SATA drives stripped together (using Microsoft Disk Manager) to get a RAID0 set, or use an external array from one of the companies you mentioned in your first post (if you intend to grow in storage). This solution for DV25 will definately work, and I only hope that you are so kind as to post your results when you do so. Had I personally built a PC system like this with the ProCurve series, I would have posted more detailed info.

bob Zelin

[Don Alexander]

Thank you Bob.
I had already placed the Procurve 1800-24G on my shopping list based upon earlier posts you have in another thread. And I’ve investigated multi-port NICs and port aggregation. The Small-Tree NIC appears (from the website) to be Apple specific.

Again, thanks for your informative posts on networking issues. I’ve seen you mention a couple times that you prefer to not use internal drives installed in the server. Could you expand upon this? Is there an electrical/mechanical constraint making say an e-sata solution more desirable?

Regards,
Don Alexander

[Bob Zelin]

you write –
The Small-Tree NIC appears (from the website) to be Apple specific.

REPLY –
well, I hope that someone from Small Tree looks at this thread, and responds (if the 4 and 6 port cards can be used on a Win XP PC system). I don’t know the answer to this.

As for eSATA being “more desirable” – EVERYTHING TODAY is eSATA. Standard ATA is dead. Buying into ATA is a foolish investment. Be it MAC Pro’s, HP xw8600 workstations, or any external solution that you see advertised on Creative Cow, EVERYTHING uses eSATA drives today. So if you use internal or external drives, on a MAC or a PC (or Linux computer) – SATA drives are the ONLY way to go.

Bob Zelin

[Sean Oneil]

It is Apple specific but they’re just Intel PRO/1000 cards that will work on any operating system. Small Tree maintains their own Mac drivers for those cards. For Windows you can just buy Intel cards from anywhere. That said, while buying from Small Tree may cost more, you’ll get better support than somewhere like Newegg.com.

Sean

[Matt Geier]

Hi all,

ALL of Small Tree’s Intel Cards (Which is our entire line of Gigabig and 10Gb cards) can be used in Windows and Linux with drivers direct from Intel. When you buy a Small Tree card, we send you a Mac driver which we support and maintain.

If you’d like to go out and buy an Intel card off the shelf somewhere, and use it in your Mac, that will not work. Our Mac Driver will only work with cards from Small Tree.

Thanks,

Matt

Matt G.