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SAN Alternative
Hi,
I originally posted this on the Final Cut Server thread but Andrew Richards thought it might be better answered here…
I’m looking at deploying Final Cut Server in our production company. We have 4 FCP suites. I’m thinking of putting an old MacPro (2x 2.66 GHz, 8GB RAM) into the server rack and running FCSrvr from that. While our budget doesn’t stretch to a SAN I was thinking of attaching something like a Lacie RAID by eSATA and using that as shared direct attached storage with the MacPro as the controller. We mainly edit with DV, Uncompressed 8-Bit or XDCam at the moment.
We don’t necessarily need to edit straight from it. It would be used mainly as nearline storage and as a MAM system.
Would this work? We currently use a Lacie NAS and against all odds it seems to work fine for storing and viewing tapeless media. I imagine though that the eSATA connected version would be better for proxy generation.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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2 Replies
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A simple network (your MAC’s, a switch, and some ethernet cable) will be fine as a SLOW nearline backup
storage system. Why a Lacie NAS ? Use an old MAC Pro, and any drives you want connected to it, for nearline storage (slow, but no slower than a generic NAS like Lacie). And you can run FCSvr or CAT DV on it.Just remember, you are not editing anything directly off this system. It’s for backup, and for your FCSvr. Once you try to play video off this old Mac Pro/Drive combo over regular ethernet, it will crash, the moment you try to access two FCP systems at one time from this drive array. That is why there are the solutions shown here on this forum.
Bob Zelin
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Thanks for the speedy reply Bob.
That was the plan alright – to use the Mac Pro and connect a RAID drive (maybe Lacie , maybe some other make) by eSATA and have it as a central hub for checking in and out FCP projects, creating and storing proxies and storing tapeless media from the EX.
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