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recommendations for Adobe CC shared storage?
Hi, I’m looking for a point in the right direction when looking at replacing our aging SAN…there are a lot of posts on this already but it’s slightly overwhelming how many options there are. I’m happy to do research myself, just wondered if anyone can give me a head start!
Brief outline:
We recently switched from Media Composer to full Adobe CC. Currently this is running over our old SAN, 16TB, raid 3 ( I think!) running over 1gig ethernet switch to 4 PCs, with mapped windows drives on the SAN. All this works fine, but the SAN might be on it’s way out, as it has started making some weird noises and throwing up a few errors.
So in case we need to replace it, our requirements would be:
16tb or more.
RAID protected.
Preferably easily expandable in terms of size (modular system maybe…?)
4 PCs connected (expanadability would be good here).
10gig ethernet.
Setup and basic maintenance needs to be done by us – i.e. filmmakers/editors with reasonably good PC knowledge.
Small size/low noise would be an advantage.
Small production company so ‘budget’ is a big consideration.I’m not sure whether to look at replacing bits of our current rack mount setup or go for a completely new modular system that you can add expansion to.
Does anyone have any recommendations?
Thanks in advance.
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4 Replies
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HI DJ –
lucky for you, every system you see advertised here on Creative Cow works. You can use AVID, Adobe, FCP-X, etc.
They all work. Any 8 bay system with 3TB drives is a 24 TB shared storage system. They all work. It’s up to you.
There are no “bad ones” that are based on 10G these days.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
Hi,
Yes, figuring out what you need to have the best storage system that meets your needs and your budget is quite overwhelming. As Bob Zelin stated in his post, you have a bunch of options that will work with all the major NLEs and still be cost effective. Depending on how much your budget is will impact that configuration of RAID capacity and bandwidth you’re able to sustain from the editors to the system.
Few questions that you would need to ask yourself are:
• How much data do you have on your SAN currently and are you going to need to preserve that existing data and have it transfer to the new SAN/NAS?
• Do you want a SAN or a NAS? There is a difference. SAN is fibre channel based while NAS is Ethernet based. Based on your requirements, you mention 10-Gigabit Ethernet but have an existing SAN.
• How much video are you producing on a yearly basis? What codecs and bitrate are you producing? What cameras are you using? Do you have a house-codec that your editors use for editing and/or exporting?
• Do you have a backup solution in place in case the main volume goes down? Or even archive to preserve your data long-term? What plans do you have in case of data loss? This is key to ensuring that you have your’s and your client’s data protected.There are many more questions that can be asked but these type of questions are starting points that can lead to more fruitful discussions to determine the best solution for your needs.
Jessica Mantheiy
Sales Operations Manager
Chesapeake Systems
http://www.chesa.com -
Hi both,
Thanks for the replies – we’re a small company so we probably have 6-7tb of ‘live’ or recently completed projects on our current system. These would just be backed up to our archive rather than transferred to any new system.
As for SAN or NAS, I’m not bothered really, we’d just go with whatever was best. I just mentioned 10gig ethernet as it seems increasingly more common. Our current system was always referred to as a SAN by the installers so we have carried on calling it that!
Amount of video per year is difficult to ascertain exactly, but we are usually busy and have 2 edit suites that are in constant use and another that is frequently used, plus an one old one for running in tapes. We have just switched from Avid to Adobe CC so we’re still using DNXHD as a best quality house codec, as it’s something we know and trust.
Exports would usually be for web so H.264/5 as MP4. Cameras are Fs7, Blackmagic Cinema, Ex3, PMW320 and assorted old Sony DV cameras. We also do a lot of After Effects work so dynamic linking between Premiere and After Effects would certainly benefit from faster storage.
We do have an archive solution, arrived at after trial and error. This is entirely separate to the main ‘live project’ storage. Cloud backup etc is not feasible for us as we have terrible broadband so any storage solution is purely for live projects. It needs to be reliable of course, and have some level of raid, maybe 3 or 5. But, rushes are saved separately so failure is not a complete disaster.
We’re in the UK and I’m currently looking at the Rockstar Ant II:
https://www.rockstar-data.com/introducing-rockstar-ant/Look like exactly what we would need, i.e. small quiet, not too expensive and relatively easy to set up. Anyone have any experience of these?
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The ANT2 looks like a 4x drive Supermicro/Ablecom chassis. We have used them at indiestor, but generally supply 8x minimum.
You’re welcome to drop us a email if you’re based around London. We’re a small shared storage specialist based in Kent.
Our own server solution runs a conveniently simple user/workspace management software (indie-pro), which is really easy to get to grips with. While we mostly deal with rack servers, you can also have a super quiet tower version of our 8x drive.
I can probably hook you up with a demo box in the new year, if that i of any interest. Everything we do is 10G equipped as standard. We have heaps of customers in and around the UK (Attaboy, Knickerbocker, TheFinishLine etc)…
Storage Engineer
alex@indiestor.com
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