thunderbolt shared storage ? What about USB 3.1 ?

[Chris Kenny]

Thunderbolt probably isn’t going anywhere on higher end Macs for a while. As a replacement for PCIe, Thunderbolt 2 is already out ahead of USB 3.1, and the gap will widen significantly with Thunderbolt 3 later this year. I don’t think we should treat Apple declining to include Thunderbolt on a 2 pound computer with one port as a significant indication of their plans across the lineup.

—
Digital Workflow, Nice Dissolve.

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[Simon Blackledge]

So Thunderbolt is dead ?

[Chris Valdez]

I watched the interview that of Su-Syan Huang from Accusys at NAB. I am quite impressed with what they are providing.

Currently I am working with a small creative group that is looking to get a shared storage for an upcoming project. It is a team of 4 editors where 2, possibly 3 editors working from the shared resource at the same time. Problem is, they have a limited budget for about $3K for their (shared) storage.

When I was approached and asked if I could help with a solution for a team of 4, the first thing that came to mind was ProMAX Studio, this was before I knew the budget.

The team initially was thinking of getting a Pegasus R6 or something similar and connecting 2 workstations to it. My response: BAD IDEA! BAD! DO NOT DO THAT!

I am stuck at this point, as the only thing in their budget I can come up with is a NAS from QNAP, but I really do not like that because that kind of appliance is not meant for NLE editing.

The A16T2-Share from Accusys would be perfect, but not available until after early July, Huang mentioned they are planning to ship then, and resellers will offer barebones units. the A16T2-Share with 16TB over 4 bays and a Mac mini as the meta-data controller and XSAN would work for this team of 4 people.

I typically do not like DIY kits. I have been administering a 250TB Active Storage mVault/ mRAID for the prior 1.5 years. As an admin, you know that support is vital. And I can say when Active Storage went dark in 2013, it was scary when one of the metadata controllers died. I had no warranty support for that while, with only 1 working controller, eventually was forced to replace both with 2 Quantum MDC’s.

Huang mentioned that Accusys was part of the same team that designed the Xserve, I can see a resemblance of the Accusys hardware design and Active Storage. I am going to keep Accusys on my radar.

If anyone can point me to a solution around $3K, I would appreciate it.

I do not think TB is going away anytime soon from Apple products. It essentially is replacing PCI-e, Intel’s Alpine Ridge controller will support PCIe 3.0 and other protocols, including HDMI 2.0 (allowing for 4K resolutions at 60 Hz), and DisplayPort 1.3 (allowing for 5K resolutions at 60 Hz). We won’t see hardware with this type of connection until Q3 of this year, cough, cough, new Mac Pro 2, cough.

[Chris Valdez]

Bob,

Lets get something straight here.

1.) I am my own boss.

2.) I was ASKED if I could HELP a team of creatives that are just starting out. THEY have limited funding (as with most startups).

3.) I am a SAN admin, I know what real hardware and solutions cost, not ignorant of the facts.

4.) I clearly stated that for a Accusys Thunderbolt Share to work for multiple users, a Mac Mini would be required as an XSAN server; rather redundant and ignorant of you to repeat what is already known.

5.) Maybe someone who is creative, demonstrates a level of professionalism and is not tactless would be able to point out a semi-cost effective solution that I have not yet seen.

6.) ProMAX does offer their Portable Platform for the $4-6K range that can use this teams existing storage until they have enough funding to invest in something like the Studio Y or something comparable.

[Alex Gardiner]

Hey Chris,

Not 100% sure of your requirements, but perhaps fire me an email.

We publish an Open Source NAS management tool that might be of interest. You’ll need some Linux based storage, but actually very easy to setup and even easier to use 😉

Best,

Alex

alex@indiestor.com
Open Source Shared Storage

[Chris Murphy]

Any possible valid criticism or argument you have is totally obliterated by comment #7 and makes you look like a violent nut case. People who assault other people are properly put in jail, shortly followed by therapy, and children are people too.

[Chris Murphy]

The bigger confusion is USB 3.1 Gen 1 vs USB 3.1 Gen 2. Apple’s USB-C uses USB 3.1 Gen 1, which is 5Gbps bandwidth, not the 10Gbps bandwidth offered in Gen 2.

[Chris Valdez]

@Chris Murphy

No. 7 is a sarcastic comment in response to the post that has been removed from this thread that was authored by Bob Zelin where he stated, in short, “And stop it NOW. Or I will slap you (and your boss).”

Bob has a habit poor conduct within threads and of berating members.

Anyhow No.7 is out of context, AND, no person should ever slap another. its petty.

[John Parker]

Hi Chris,

For point 4, from my understanding, there are two ways of this Accusys thunderbolt share storage to work for multiple users:
1. The XSAN server you mentioned here
2. Separately access without SAN software:
Manually define volumes accessible to a specific Mac at one time

[Elvin Jasarevic]

We from DDP can mix USB 3 and Ethernet and almost double bandwidth. This test was done with 2 years old Macbook Air.
HD 10Bit uncompressed anyone?

What do you think about this?

https://www.ddpsan.asia