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Slowwwww sparse bundles?
We’ve been using Sparse Bundles to cut with FCPX on our server. It works fairly well overall, but they’re so slow!! We usually see speeds of around 115MB/s both ways (whether transferring files or cutting in FCP7), but when working off a sparse bundle the speed averages drop to around 40MB/s, but sometimes can drop to as low as 15MB/s. Fifteen! This usually doesn’t affect performance too much, but once you start layering streams or simply copying files in and out of them, you definitely feel it.
Has anyone noticed this? I can’t find a peep about it anywhere on the forums. But with all the people now using FCPX and sparse bundles there’s no way we’re the only company to run into this…
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19 Replies
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I use Sparse Bundles on a local RAID and have never experienced this problem, even with some bundles reaching over 2TB.
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Avid MC, PPro CS6, FCP7 – wasting away on my SSD.
I just can’t quit X.
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Are you storing your bulky media in them? I always suggest keeping media in an outside, referenced location.
Right now I’m getting 140 MB/s write and 73.7 MB/s reads on a server mounted Sparse Bundle.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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The only media we store in the bundles are proxies and the odd still/SFX/music track. All original raw media sits in a separate, non-bundled folder on the server that operates at full speed.
As a result, the bundles are usually under 200GB.
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It seems to me that there’s some confusion about how SparseBundles work here.
Just so people who are considering the workflow understand, the SparseBundle package by itself is a storage container. When you LAUNCH the bundle by double clicking on it – it opens on the desktop in the finder as if the original disk itself has been mounted. In the launched state, it operates as fast as the bus allows – exactly as if you’ve inserted the original card.
So the HD or LAN connection between the device the Sparse Bundle resides on – and the throughput of the connection being used to mount that drive will be the limiting factors in the speed.
Hope that helps.
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Hey Bill,
Thanks for the input. I don’t think there’s any confusion (at least on our end) on the function of the bundles. The issue that we’re having is that the read/write speeds to and from the bundles are are far lower than what the bus allows and operates at in all other cases. We’re trying to figure out where the bottleneck is…
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There is definitely a speed difference. Here is one test I ran:
AJA System Test
Volume: Promise Pegasus R6
Video Frame Size: 1920×1080
File Size: 1.0 GB
Write: 317.7 MB/s
Read: 446.8 MB/sVolume: 20 GB Sparse Bundle on Promise Pegasus R6
Video Frame Size: 1920×1080
File Size: 1.0 GB
Write: 266.0 MB/s
Read: 236.7 MB/sJason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!Check out my Mormon.org profile.
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[Ian Johnson] “We’ve been using Sparse Bundles to cut with FCPX on our server.”
If your server can export an NFS share it will act exactly like a SAN to FCPX with all the SAN Location functionality intact.
John
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Ian, do you see such a dramatic slowdown with a new and unused sparse bundle?
Eric Newbauer
Studio Network Solutions (SNS)
https://www.studionetworksolutions.com -
Eric,
They seem to behave similarly no matter how fresh and unused. Though I haven’t tested this thoroughly enough to be 100% sure it’s not a factor. Is this something that might affect performance?
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Later this summer i will be setting up a 20 computer FCP X lab and plan on using sparse images as a way to control ownership of projects/media and make it easier to move projects to computers in the studio and elsewhere.
Would love to hear/understand best practices to do so. I plan to put all media associated with an active project in the same sparse image rather than having the original media in its own location. Is it best that the events folder itself only point to the media in a different folder(s)?
Based on above and doing more research on google I will switch to sparse image ‘bundles’ since they copy faster, shrink easier, and can get corrupted in a smaller chunks rather than the whole image going down. Disk warrior is probably a great app for them either way.
Question: I read somewhere that it is best when you begin to use a new sparse image to let FCP X create the folders (Final Cut Events/Final Cut Projects) instead of creating them in the finder. Is this true? I know just putting new media in them in the finder doesn’t work but I haven’t noticed any problems creating the folders – though maybe something is duplicated?
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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