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Trouble in Paradise
Got a new 2013 Mac Pro. Maxed out! (12 cores, 64GB RAM, D700 cards, 1TB Flash boot drive). I coupled it with a new Thunderbolt 2 Promise R6 RAID. I did NOT use Migration Assistant to bring everything over from my old Mac Pro in fear of installing junk built up over the years. I took DAYS to manually build up the new Mac Pro with Final Cut and Motion and Compressor and Adobe Creative Cloud apps.
But, on its maiden shake-out edit, a big paid edit with a short deadline, Final Cut Pro X is performing no better than what I get at work on a 2008 Mac Pro!
it drops frames on a single, un-rendered effect. Some responses are slow. Final Cut will crash (just blink out) from time to time. A rendered full-size movie opened in QuickTime Player doesn’t play smoothly.
Now, let me be clear that I’m not blaming the design. I’ve seen too many videos before taking delivery on the new Mac Pro that clearly shows the system taking on multiple un-rendered effects and playing without dropping frames. Something is clearly not right.
There’s trouble in paradise.
GeekBench shows the CPU’s performing just like they should. I ran the BlackMagic disk speed test but it was taking so long that I had to quit it because of the pressure of getting the edit done.
The edit will be put to bed by tomorrow (Wednesday, April 8, 2014). I’m posting here just on the chance anyone else with a new Mac Pro is experiencing something similar and maybe we can share some ideas.
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27 Replies
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So it’s a problem with the raid then? You said BMD speed test was taking forever. It should take a matter of seconds or minutes depending on the test size.
Is the raid done setting up? My r4 8TB took a day I think.
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Yes, the R6 ‘cooked’ for hours setting itself up and was left on and alone for days before I received my Mac Pro.
This morning I saw an amber light on one of the drives. That went away shortly thereafter. While editing I saw that the top two drives in the RAID had two blue lights while the remaining four drives had one blue light, the bottom one in every case. I don’t know enough about RAIDs to know what this means.
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contact Promise. you should have two blue lights on every drive.
anickt
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Just looked up what the blue lights on the front of the drives mean. The top light on each drive is the power and the bottom light is activity. What I read seemed to say that when the RAID is being accessed, ALL the activity lights will light up. All the power lights will be on for each drive at all times. Is that correct? This morning, two of the drives had two blue lights while the other four had one blue light on. I said before that I thought it was the bottom blue light but now I’m not sure. I’ll have to wait until I get home to see for sure.
In any case, seeing one amber light this morning concerns me although it went off right after I started editing.
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On my system (an R4 with Thunderbolt 1) all lights are always on and blue. The bottom lights flicker when the drive is accessed. I have never seen any other color and BM Speed Test typically shows 400+ MB/sec RW without any lag or other issues. Promise is pretty good at troubleshooting over the phone.
anickt
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Thank you for the information Nick.
I just had a quick trip home. Both lights blue on the top two drives, only the power light is on and blue for the bottom four drives.
Then I played a quicktime movie and saw that all drives were being accessed.
As soon as I get out from under the pressure of the edit I’m finishing up I’ll really look into this.
Some peripheral information; I went into Terminal so the array wouldn’t be running 24 hours. Then, when I need the array to continue so it can render I put in an app called Caffeine. There’s a coffee cup in the menu. When empty the drives will sleep when the computer sleeps. Click the cup to put coffee in it and the drives will not go to sleep.
I’m wondering if something I’ve done is interfering with the RAID’s normal operation.
What I want is for the RAID to power down overnight when the computer goes to sleep.
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Mine are both blue on my R4 like Nick says.
Why don’t you open the Promise utility and see what it says? It’ll tell you if the drives are having or have recently had a problem.
Disable the caffeine thing and see if that helps of course.
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Any special third-party effects? All ProRes media? I’ve been told there are some driver issues with these machines (different from iMacs or MBPs) that may be fixed by 10.9.3.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Open the promise utility and check out the different tabs. You will learn if the raid is experiencing any problems. I would also try deleting FCP X preferences. But if things stay bad try calling promise and ask for Kristopher Bose. He’s patient and will talk you through any problems.
According to the user manual this behavior happens automatically so no need for Caffeine.
https://www.promise.com/media_bank/Download%20Bank/Manual/Pegasus2_Product%20Manual.pdf
Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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Good information Craig. I launched the Promise utility and it prompted me to update to a newer version which I did. Then the newer version then prompted me to update the firmware which I did.
All lights are blue now (two were red this morning before I began this process) but when I scrub the Final Cut timeline only the data activity lights of the top two drives blink.
Looking at the online manual you linked to it says that I go to the Dashboard of the Promise utility, click on the controller link and click settings to managed the power (sleep) of the drive. I do that and it takes me to a Component Page but all I get for the controller section is a box with three tabs of information. Nothing on the page with a Settings button except for the Buzzer settings and the Fan.
When I first used the RAID it was CONSTANTLY spinning down! I mean, after only a couple of minutes!
And the Promise website is just awful. When I went to register the Pegasus 2 it wanted the ‘TLA’ but didn’t explain what that was. I figured it out by trying any number I could find on the unit and the box it came in. Now, they’ve replied to my help request and asked for a service report from the Promise utility and I can get that, but to upload it I have to go to my case on their website. Fine. Except no amount of clicking on the link will do anything. The email asking for the service report is a dead drop and I can’t reply to it. I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to send them the service report or at least let them know I can’t send it. Arghh!
Blackmagic Disc Utility can now check the drive. I get 970MB/s write and 880MB/s read. That’s very good but I don’t know if its the same as a known properly operating RAID.
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