I could use opinions about my RAID set up plan – Thanks!

[Alex Vargas]

Definitely that ATTO R680!
Agreed…I have read a lot of threads about it…
I am just curious as if a 16 port card would work better for a 16 bay box or two 8 bay boxes…
About speed right…? So I have that question for ATTO tomorrow… 🙂

Unless you can tell me that I get a better box with the CR-T08E, so far cost and the fact that I was able to see the T8 6G SAS Expander quite available online (in different forms, but basically the same box) made me choose it. If there is better performance in the CR-T08E I would like to know that…but at what cost…and so on…

I am already overextending…you know…

Alex Vargas
filmmaker/composer
Macpro 5,1 12 core 48GB RAM – Macbookpro 15″ – FCP 7+/Logic 9

[Eric Hansen]

hey Alex

glad to see you went with the iT8 instead of the internal RAID. WAY easier and the hard drives will last longer. I suggest RAID6 and no hot spares. ATTO’s 16 channel cards don’t have external ports. the R680 is the best for your use.

going way back to the beginning of the thread and your question about the Accelsior card with FCP7. it WILL NOT make a difference. here’s why:

When i first started installing SSDs in edit systems, the first thing I checked was performance in FCP7. In starting the app, the SSDs were only slightly faster than a regular spinning boot hard drive. Even opening large project files didn’t make a difference. FCP7 is just slow and a faster boot drive didn’t really help. Once you’re in FCP7 and editing, the boot drive makes no difference in how FCP7 operates. It’s all about media storage speed. Yes the Accelsior is faster than an SSD on a 3G SATA connection, but it won’t make FCP7 any faster. Most other apps will be faster. Your computer will most likely boot faster. But FCP7 itself, nope.

the only time i would consider an Accelsior is if I’m working in Photoshop on really large projects where each Save is a few GB. But, you now have a RAID which will go 600MB/s if you put 8 drives in it. as an editor, i think your money is better spent on the RAID than on the Accelsior. you already have the stock Apple SSD as your boot.

btw, XDCAM EX is only 35Mb/s. You don’t have to get a super screaming fast RAID to edit with that.

e

Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv

[Alex Vargas]

Thanks Eric,

( Skal jeg sige Tak?)
Anyway, I digress… 🙂
I went with a 16 bay from iStorage, the ATTO R680 and 1 TB Toshiba 6G drives. This should push my EX footage more than I need, but it will also allow for 2.5K and 4K editing in my next project.

I am happy to know that the Accelsior is not a must. In that regard, I added a bootable card to run four internal drives at 6G, though for the time being, anything I am transferring does not need it. I still couldn’t help myself turning my 12 core into 6G capable. 🙂

Why do you suggest RAID 6 with no hot spares over RAID 5 with spares? And I mean that considering that I now have a 16 bay enclosure…
I am thinking RAID 5 with two spares for this. Do you still suggest RAID 6 with not hot spares?

Thanks!”

Alex 🙂

Alex Vargas
filmmaker/composer
Macpro 5,1 12 core 48GB RAM – Macbookpro 15″ – FCP 7+/Logic 9

[Eric Hansen]

ooh, Dansk. You’re welcome. to be honest, I don’t know my lineage that well. I know my family is from Scandinavia, and that’s about it.

i know what you mean about wanting 6G in the Mac Pro. curious, are you using a 4 drive RAID for boot, or are you saying you just made your 4 internal bays 6G-capable? an SSD makes a huge difference as a boot drive, but the difference between 3G and 6G is less of a jump than spinning 3G hard drive to 3G SSD. so all my systems have 3G SSDs (or 6G SSDs on the 3G bus). and most of them have all the PCI slots full anyway.

definitely still recommend RAID6 over RAID5 with hot spare:

years ago, all the RAIDs i installed were set up as RAID5. Since there was always someone around, I figured if a drive failed, it would be swapped right away, which means RAID6 was just a waste of a drive.

but

3 years ago I had a drive fail in an 8 drive RAID5. during the rebuild, ANOTHER drive failed. i almost had a heart attack. this was footage that hadn’t been backed up yet. luckily ATTO support was able to help me recover the RAID and rebuild without losing any data. Their support is second to none. That’s one of the risks. When a drive fails and the hot spare takes over, it still needs to rebuild and your RAID is vulnerable during that time. It also runs slower (or you can use it at full speed and the rebuild takes a lot longer). my take is that if you’re putting the drive in there as a hot spare, you might as well put it to good use and make it part of the RAID. now all my RAIDs are 6. when a client tells me they want RAID5 to get more space, i tell them that story and ask them if they intend to fully back up their entire RAID all the time. since that answer is usually NO (a whole other topic in and of itself), they agree on RAID6.

plus with RAID6, you’re spreading out the risk. You’re assuming that your hot spares will work when called upon. what if they don’t?

oh, and I always setup my 16 drive RAIDs as single RAID6 volumes. some controllers will run faster as two RAID5s or one RAID50, but 16 drive RAID6 is what I usually do.

e

Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv

[Alex Vargas]

Thanks Eric!

Thats great info. 🙂
For my current 1TB 16 drives, RAID 6 will be good. (your experience is respected) When I go to 4K I’ll have to add 4TB drives instead, but that is a talk for next year…as will be backing up all that data…

Alex 🙂

Alex Vargas
filmmaker/composer
Macpro 5,1 12 core 48GB RAM – Macbookpro 15″ – FCP 7+/Logic 9