Video Storage Question

[Bob Zelin]

this is designed for active editing, not just backup and archive.
FibreJet is a shared storage solution from Command Soft, that was (is) sold by Rorke Data. This uses Fibre channel, so you have a Fibre Channel card in each mac pro, that connects to a QLogic switch, which in turn connects to your Rorke drive array.
If it is NOT fast enough for active video editing, then there is something wrong with the Rorke drive array.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com

[Mark Roberts]

Hi Bob:

Thank you very much for the reply back and with the info. That was my initial thought as well but this type of setup is new for me and I wanted to get others perspectives on what their setup was like. I have one more question and from looking around the forums, I can tell you are very much experienced in this industry so you might be the right person to ask this to. We have decided to replace the Rorke system with a Scale Logic unit. How our setup was initially setup was that it wasn’t placed on the company network and there is no backup solution put in place other than storing all the shot video content on the Rorke system. Since this system isn’t on the network and accessed only locally by two users, I wanted to get some ideas of possibly how others have their backup solution setup. My initial thought was to connect a 4 bay hard drive unit locally to each Mac Pro and just perform a secondary backup of the data on the Rorke system. Just curious if this was the right approach or if you have a better recommendation? Thanks in advance.

[Matt Geier]

Hi Mark,

There are several ways to test your shared storage unit for “active” editing performance viability. Keep in mind, it may also be okay today, and not okay tomorrow if you change something. So the idea is to understand really at what point your RAID will begin to bog down….and why. Some tests you can perform are easier then others.

Small Tree has a nice tool for this however — you can download it here,
https://www.small-tree.com/Articles.asp?Id=403
It’s for Mac OS X only…no Windows version.
It runs over the current network to the Rorke array.

I’m happy to help you decipher the output. It can be a little confusing if you don’t know what you’re looking at.

(I am a consultant for Small Tree configurations….I do not currently work for them. This tool also works for testing any Raid Array. It’s NOT a bandwidth test but actually tests running video streams off the RAID…without actually running them.)

I can also lend some suggestions on how you can further improve the network and workflow to be more active editing friendly.

I do have experience with this, and I can get some folks to give me a reference on this subject if needed.

Let us know if that helps.

Matt Geier
651-808-1338
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Rainer Wirth]

Hi Mark,

if you look for a inexpensive solution with including your existing raid system you can do that.
Everything else above means shared storage solution (San network).

cheers

Rainer

factstory
Rainer Wirth
phone_0049-177-2156086
Mac pro 8core
Adobe,FCP,Avid
several raid systems