HP SAN with Mac OS X

[Neil Sadwelkar]

HFS+ is a filesystem. You can format an attached drive with a filesystem. You can’t (AFAIK) format a mounted volume.

Neil Sadwelkar

FCP Editor, Mumbai, India.
Completely PAL.

[Bob Zelin]

https://h18004.https://www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantdl380g5/index.html

as per the above article from HP, that specifies your system, GOOD LUCK getting SMB to work properly (MAC’s on a PC Network).

bob Zelin

[Scott Thomas]

Thanks guys for your response. Here’s more specific info. If there’s some info I’m failing to provide, tell me and I’ll find out.

We are connected to the SAN via Fibre Channel through a Brocade 300 switch.

The SAN is just serving up a raw drive that we are formatting on the Mac side.

Disk Utility formats the partition without showing any errors. It’s when you start copying files to the SAN where the problems become apparent.

The files show up as having copied, but are damaged or incomplete.

[Scott Thomas]

We still have work to do on this, but I have heard something interesting today.

It may be related to the Fibre Channel HBA in the Mac. We were trying to use the Apple-LSI 4 channel 4Gb card. Some HBA vendors are certified specifically for HP SANs and their cards provide some functionality that is apparently missing on others.

I was told this “off-the-record” by a vendor, so we have some testing to do.

[Bob Zelin]

If you decide to install a HP FC card in your MAC, it won’t work unless there are MAC drivers. Small Tree uses some Intel cards, but they WRITE the MAC drivers for these cards. So does ATTO. Why on earth are you assuming that every manufacturer (like HP) is writing compatible Apple Macintosh drivers ? Why are you assuming that your PC network will seemlessly integrate with your MAC client computers ?

Bob Zelin ‘

[Scott Thomas]

I’m not assuming anything.

I’m an art director not an IT director and didn’t have input into this purchase.

I recommended ATTO HBAs and *they* bought the Apple cards.

I was told that this SAN would work with the Macs, and it hasn’t yet.

The HP provided HBAs, of which we don’t have but one spare for one of the PC systems, does in fact have OS X drivers. (Q Logic) I’m waiting for IT to change the settings in the SAN to serve up the partition to the new HBA. (mapping is done via the card’s WWPN) We’ll see what happens.

Another test will be to take one of my ATTO HBAs and try it with the SAN.

[Neil Sadwelkar]

*They* may have made the choice but now *you* don’t have a working storage. I’ve been through many a ‘suit-n-tie’ presentation form normal IT vendors who try and sell you their banking and insurance storage, and tell you it will work with video and with a Mac.

HP, IBM, Hitachi, EMC, all make great shared storages, but absolutely none of them work with a Mac. And definitely can’t handle video.

The surest test comes when one calls the SE (system engineer) from any of these companies and ask them to demo. They make the connections, sit in front of the Mac and move the mouse screen bottom. Then they ask you where the start button is. It is then you realise these guys aren’t even aware of an operating system other than Windows and maybe Linux.

Quicktime HD uncompressed needs about the same bandwidth of about 20,000 ATMs vending cash simultaneously. Except that this bandwidth has to be sustained and not in 5-10 k packets every few seconds or so. This is the part that they find out after trying out. Which is what you’re doing for them now.

I’m sure there’s a simple fix for your problem. Just don’t expect it to come from *them*. Its up to you to get it to work.

Please let us know how you managed. When, (not if) you manage.

Neil Sadwelkar

FCP Editor, Mumbai, India.
Completely PAL.

[Scott Thomas]

As the SAN was being purchased, I asked about what data rates were to be expected from it. The answer wasn’t what I wanted to hear; Avid was consulted, but only in the context of a multi-channel MediaStream playback server that only deals with MPEG2. (@ 30Mb/s)

When I told them that that wasn’t going to support an HD editing system at uncompressed rates, I was told that they could just add more disks to the SAN to increase its speed. Not a well thought out solution.

But yes, I’ll post back with info as I learn more.

Thanks for listening!

[Greg Leuenberger]

Oh man….if it’s not too late send it back. I get the unsettling feeling that you’re in for a world of hurt..even if you manage to ‘get it working’. If your company just spent a bunch of dough on an HP system and the Art Director (no offense, this shouldn’t be your job) is over at Creative Cow trying to find answers instead of having HP personal in your office then you’re in trouble. People here aren’t even going to be familiar with this system…it’s’ not for Macs and it’s not for Production. Send it back while you still have a prayer to do so. That voice you hear in your head is your common sense saying ‘senditbacksenditbacksenditback’.

-Greg

Greg Leuenberger
CEO
Sabertooth Productions, Inc.
http://www.sabpro.com

[Scott Thomas]

I think the primary focus of this SAN is for other station business. My guess is that the Final Cut system integration was supposed to be a bonus.