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[OT] idea for RAID
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And on this issue of reliability, is it at all possible to Stripe AND Mirror?
For ex: you have 10 drives, one 5 drive stripe, and another mirrored 5 drive stripe. So if a drive goes down, nothing is lost.If you can do this (again, forgive me for being a novice here) what RAID software would be able to handle this? Perhaps be able to monitor individual drives as well.
As for the “buy it” of “do it yourself” argument, I am a do-it-yourselfer at heart. When I feel I can do as good or better job at much less cost and I enjoy/have the time to do it, I go for it. I guess I am still figuring this one out.
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If you are set on doing this yourself, and with the type of questions you are asking, I would suggest you read as much as you can on RAIDS so you will have a better understanding of what it is you are building. Here’s some places to start.
https://www.creativecow.net/articles/lindeboom_ron/how_raid_works/
https://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html
https://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/neuffer/scsi/what_is_raid.html -
[Bob Cole] “David, how do you tell enterprise-level drives from consumer — is it just a matter of the warranty?”
Bob,
The answer is, the companies that manufacture them build them to a certain quality level and certify them as enterprise-level. They are thereby qualified for service in enterprise-level servers and considered to be pretty much “mission-critical.” The fact that they are certified makes them insurable. So, if you have hundreds of them in a tremendous enterprise-level server, insurance companies know that the odds are incredibly low that enough will fail at any given time to cause data loss. So, they will insure the company in the event of a catastrophic failure that would bring down the computer.
More importantly, the Maxline drives that I keep telling everyone about, are indeed the lease expensive enterprise-level drives available, and yet they have been tested by several reliable organizations and found to be the absolute fastest SATA 7200 RPM drives available. Check out the following article https://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/seagate16/ There are those here at the Cow who tout Seagate and Hitachi, but I have a hard time seeing how those drives deliver any advantage. Best price and best performance kinda makes Maxline III a cinch for me.
DRW
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Jeremy,
My comments weren’t directed specifically at anyone in this thread. In fact, those involved with this thread are among the most genuinely helpful in the FCP forum. That said, I meant to suggest that getting carried away with our comments without answering a poster’s question isn’t being as helpful as possible. No worries.
Many people use FCP with FW drives and internal drives. No one really discourages this in provided advice. However, when someone mentions taking a step up and getting a “less expensive” RAID solution, some people all of a sudden start discouraging the use of such setups. Some of this (unintential, I’m sure) comes off as if it were a situation similar to when FCP first became viable (version 2). At that time, I am sure many AVID afficianados were a bit defensive that a “toy system” could actually compete with their big bucks “pro” systems.
The point being that any level of storage solution may work in a given environment. Yes, if you do broadcast work with uncompressed 10-bit HD footage and typically have short timelines, then spending more for equipment easily washes out in the end. But, a lot of people aren’t in that kind of environment, yet still use FCP.
I would strongly disagree with the assertion that a less expensive RAID, or FW, system, properly configured with quality components, is any less reliable than one of the high-end systems. Probably just as important would be to ask if all important data is backed up regularly, if systems are running on uninterruptible power supplies, if there is an “active/ready-to-go” backup of all working media, etc. If I were working under tight deadlines, I would have a standby system available, as well as a mirrored/current backup of all media files, so that I wouldn’t even have to wait for overnight shipment of a replacement component.
And, as I stated before, I could get a second RAID to mirror the first in realtime, which would provide immediate access in case of any failure on the primary system. Both systems, completely installed, would still cost less than one of the “high end” systems. In this case, one would have better reliability than the “high end” system (unless multiple high end systems were in use, but then the price difference would be even larger).
Thanks again for everyone’s contribution in this forum. I personally appreciate it a lot.
-Dave
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The availability of PCI Express SATA cards is a couple of weeks away. PCI/PCI-X cards are currently available, though the higher-end “hardware RAID” variants are generally not available for Macs yet.
The availability of hardware-based RAID host controllers that will work with Macs should continue to improve.
Firmtek and Sonnet make solid, problem-free cards. Highpoint, NetCell, etc. are other choices.
I would follow Frank’s suggestion to learn about this stuff, so you’re less likely to get into a sticky situation later on.
-Dave
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i think, and i hope a lot of you are behind me on this,
as long as what you have works, works, is all that matters.
no one will(hopefully) ever watch your final edit and go,
i can you used a nice medea array on that job, NICE!
so build/buy a system that works for you, test it well, and EDIT!
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Enterprise-level drives are available from most drive makers.
Just visit their Web sites and select their “enterprise” products rather than their “desktop” products.
As David mentioned, Maxtor’s Maxline III drives are among the cheapest drives of this category available. FYI, Seagate just purchased Maxtor a short time ago.
-Dave
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Well said!
One of the points I was trying to make….
(not at anyone’s expense)To Varangian, if you want more info on how I “rolled my own,” check out my profile and send me a message.
-Dave
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[ben] “i think, and i hope a lot of you are behind me on this,
as long as what you have works, works, is all that matters.
no one will(hopefully) ever watch your final edit and go,
i can you used a nice medea array on that job, NICE!
so build/buy a system that works for you, test it well, and EDIT!”
If a client ever actually said that, I would definitely have to roll around the floor laughing. Though I have gotten more than one comment on the ‘cool light show’ that the Medea array puts on while rendering with the big bank of lights down the front.
My only point is that your media storage IS your business. If you feel comfortable building your own system and feeling that it will perform flawlessly for you with your client’s material, then go with it.
I feel much more comfortable with the technology and support that a company like Medea brings to media storage. It’s more than just a bunch of drives, there’s an architecture and “secret sauce” in there that makes these arrays perform better than anything else out there I’ve ever tested.
Plus there’s that whole cool light show thing….
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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so walter…
what i should do is the following,
get some fancy blue lights and put them behind my system, so when my client hates the edit, i can flick a switch and mesmorize them!!!
client: umm, can you crossdissolve that.
ben: crossdissolve, are we editing daytime television?
client: umm, i want a crossdissolive
::ben flicks blue lights::
client falls asleep sleeping showtunes.
lol
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