Using a Linux-Based File Server with MC5

[Michael Hancock]

Open your console in Media Composer (Ctrl+6 on a PC, Cmd+6 on a Mac), then type ‘alldrives’ without the quotes. Avid will now recognize network drives as media drives.

Let me know if it doesn’t work.

—————-
Michael Hancock
http://www.oswaldcommunications.com

[Dom Dalliac]

Michael,

Thanks so much–that did indeed allow MC to “see” the drive.

However, now I’m having an additional problem. On my Mac Avid (Snow Leopard 10.6.4), I get this error message:

“Exception: Operation not supported, filename:/Volumes/xxx/Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1/Creating/creatingxxx”

So something along the way isn’t allowing (or MC5 isn’t allowing itself) to write to the server.

If you or anyone else can think of anything that I might try to solve this, I’d really appreciate it.

[Loring Weinkauf]

What network filesystem(s) (CIFS, NFS, AFP, etc.) are you using on the Linux server to share the volumes out?

Also, what is the underlying block filesystem of the Linux server volume that you are sharing (EXT3, REISER FS, etc.)?

Loring Weinkauf
Systems Administrator / Media Manager
90 Degrees West
St. Louis, MO

[Dom Dalliac]

I should add that my PC machine can write to the server just fine…this is a problem on the Mac side of things.

Thanks.

[Dom Dalliac]

Loring,

What you asked I didn’t know right away, but I looked it up on the UnRaid site. I believe the answers to your questions are 1) CIFS (Samba) and 2) Reiser FS.

I believe that UnRaid just added support for NFS if a user chooses to use it. (I have no idea what the difference is…all I know is that my server has functioned perfectly for me with my FCP/Premiere workflows in the past two years).

Thanks!

[Loring Weinkauf]

Either the Apple or UnRAID implementation of SMB/CIFS may be compatible for simple file transfers, but may not support whatever I/O operation that AVID is trying to perform.

I would suggest accessing the storage via NFS from Apple & AVID, to see if you receive the same error.

Loring Weinkauf
Systems Administrator / Media Manager
90 Degrees West
St. Louis, MO

[David Norden]

Hi Dom! Sounds to me like a permission problem, cifs/smb works if you want to share a drive with the avid, but with the mac you might have to create a specific user and give that user write permissions to make it work. Also, trying DAVE, a replacement for the built in smb client in OSX, might help you, they have a demo you can try for a month I think.

Good luck, and keep us updated.

[Dom Dalliac]

David,

Thanks for the response. I think it’s definitely an issue with Snow Leopard. I just installed MC on my MacBook Pro (which is running Leopard) and I can write to my server just fine.

The Sharing & Permissions settings for MC are set to “Read & Write” for all users, by the way. I just don’t know what more to do beyond that.

I have never heard of DAVE. I will look into it. Thanks again for the tips.

Dom

[David Norden]

I know they changed a lot in the smb/cifs client on Snow Leopard, but have a try with DAVE, makes thing easier for us at least…

Best Regards David

[Dom Dalliac]

Awesome! DAVE worked. Now I can do things like consolidate media to my network server from my Mac (something my PC does just fine).

Now the big question: What did DAVE do to my network connection to facilitate this? I have 30 days left on the trial, which gives me 30 days to figure this out. Then I’ll have to pay almost $150 for a year’s license of DAVE, which is a lot to pay for this one bit of functionality.

If anyone has any ideas, I sure would love to hear it.

Thanks in advance.