small-tree, xserve, metaLAN and… iMOVIE!!

[Bob Zelin]

Hi all, first let me say this entire site, and Bob Zelin’s contributions in the Ethernet sphere… totally rock… lost without you really.

REPLY – if you read the posts here, I am a little surprised by your questions.

Ok, we have just 4 Mac Pros and we’re implementing an ethernet solution from Small-Tree that looks like this:

xServe

REPLY – you don’t need the XServe.

Small-Tree cards and switches

REPLY – great choice

4 Mac Pros

GraniteSTOR 16TB RAID 5 storage…

REPLY – great choice

metaLAN

REPLY – you don’t need it for a MAC only tiny system like this.

Now and I have two questions:

1. What is going to be responsible for handling the future online expansion of the RAID 5 array? In the past (Caldigit etc.) we’ve been able to expand the array, but OS X doesn’t recognize the larger partition anyway, so… is this system going to be any different? DO we NEED xSan to handle this? Or will metaLAN do it?

REPLY – XSAN, and MetaLan have nothing to do with expanding your RAID 5 array. The Small Tree Granite Stor, and Maxx Digital EVO chassis have SAS expanders built into them. You want more storage- you add another drive array. Bing, bam, boom – instant expanded storage. There is absolutely no issue having a single 32TB volume on MAC OS-X. This is one big mama partition, and it is a common setup.

2. OK, yes, we use Final Cut Pro but… we actually start a lot of projects in the field by storyboarding with iMovie. We simply export a Final Cut XML from iMovie and take things “all the way” when we’re ready. BUT… iMovie REFUSES to use network attached drives for editing. So… while metaLAN claims to turns network attached drives into local volumes, will all software, like iMovie, react accordingly?

REPLY – I have no idea. When you mount any network drive volume on the desktop, by saying GO>ConnectToServer, and entering the IP address of your server, the shared volume mounts on your desktop. The MAC computer thinks it’s a local firewire drive. FCP sees it fine, so does Adobe products, so do Cache-A products. I don’t know iMovie, but if you can choose a drive to work with, it should see a shared volume, once it is mounted on your desktop.

So… this should work right??!

REPLY – yes. If you need help, I am here, or you can contact me directly. Find my website – it’s easy on Google.

Bob Zelin

[James O’connor]

Thanks Bob,

I understand we’d be expanding by SAS expander, but I keep reading things like this:

https://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3103912

How would you do it? Run iPartition on your precious RAID 5 array? Or have a huge, slow JBOD backup (mirror) of your fast RAID that you can draw upon in terrible times… like having to do an expansion.

I’ve seen the question asked: what good is a controller card that gives you online expansion when OS X can’t “use” the new larger size? If that’s the case, I feel safer relying on my backup and doing a reformat of the newly expanded RAID.

Am I right here?

[Bob Zelin]

Thanks Bob,

I understand we’d be expanding by SAS expander, but I keep reading things like this:

https://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3103912

How would you do it? Run iPartition on your precious RAID 5 array? Or have a huge, slow JBOD backup (mirror) of your fast RAID that you can draw upon in terrible times… like having to do an expansion.

REPLY – you do not increase the size of the single volume. IF you buy an 8TB drive array, and add another array, this will be ANOTHER VOLUME. So if you called your original 8TB volume “raidvolume1” and you now buy a new 16TB RAID array, you call this “raidvolume2”. Modern host controller cards from ATTO and Areca can run 128 disk drives. You do not need iPartition. You leave your original drive volume alone, and simply add another volume. You assign it thru the Apple File Sharing menu. EASY as pie.

I’ve seen the question asked: what good is a controller card that gives you online expansion when OS X can’t “use” the new larger size? If that’s the case, I feel safer relying on my backup and doing a reformat of the newly expanded RAID.

REPLY – you do not have 4 32TB chassis acting as one single 128TB partition. You can easily have 4 RAID 5 volumes, each 32 TB. The host controller I personally use now is the ATTO R380, but the Areca 1680x is good as well.

Bob Zelin