Alex Gerulaitis
Forum Replies Created
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[Craig Wolf] “Ultrastor, IS316JS, or Studiorack? Also, while not required, we would prefer rack mounted options. Thanks again. “
An S8MS StudioRack would work (with a MiniSAS RAID controller) although I’d recommend an expandable solution, and I think Fibre-Channel would work the best given the existing hardware: ES16FS. I’ll check on pricing if you’d like me to.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Alex Gerulaitis] “Not so sure about performance – it hasn’t been Drobo’s strong point in the past, but have changed to the better since.”
Just found out Drobo iSCSI units don’t support load balancing (aka bonding, teaming) on their I/O ports so you’ll be limited to line speed of about 120MB/s or less for each iSCSI target. For your client’s 40 users, it’s on the low side even if it’s a low traffic environment.
(I do realize the bottleneck is also on the server – with xServe’s one or two GbE ports, there isn’t much to work with. That however can be changed by upgrading to a different server or dropping a 10GbE card into it. After that, the storage solution better not be the bottleneck.)
Would the DAS (SAS RAID HBA + SAS Expander box + drives) solution I mentioned work for your client?
If not, I’d look for either an iSCSI box that is faster than Drobo, or a Fibre Channel box like the VTrak E-class unit you mentioned, since it can potentially scale to dual 8Gbs channels to the server.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
If I am not mistaken Drobo 800i and 1200i are iSCSI units (not NAS) so they still need to go through a server of sort – will that be xServe via one or more GbE links?
What kind of aggregate bandwidth does the replacement solution need to have? How about expandability?
Drobo units are cool in terms of usability and management. I like the 1200i especially for things like tiering, dual PSUs, swappable I/O module (10GbE in the future perhaps?), mostly tool-less servicing.
Not so sure about performance – it hasn’t been Drobo’s strong point in the past, but have changed to the better since.
If you need iSCSI for some reason, then short of going with much more expensive iSCSI units from the big boys (Dell EqualLogic, HP, EMC, etc.), or using a custom-built one with MS or Linux Storage Servers (which usually requires decent IT VAR support), Drobo units might just be the best choices for iSCSI SAN.
A cost-effective alternative to either iSCSI Drobo or a Fiber Channel unit like the VTrak E-class, is a DAS unit: drop a RAID controller such as ATTO R680 or Areca 1882x into the server, connect a 16-bay SAS expander unit, and that will cost around $3K before you add drives. Really fast, really expandable, highly customizable.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Nir Shelter] “Apparently we were using a type CL2 cable thinner than the usual and when switched to a type CMG cable the thicker type we got through-puts of 1600 MBs raid 0 and 1200+ raid 6.”
1.6GB/s: nice.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
If I am not mistaken that graphics card is seriously overclocked – primarily for gaming purposes. Possibly a culprit? Is there a way to slow it down a bit?
If not, can you borrow a different graphics card (that still works for MPE purposes) and try it out?
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Donald Riley] “I don’t know how to unistall nvidia drivers also I downloaded the driver package and cannot do a custom install and wouldn’t uninstalling the drivers affect the screen and stop everything.”
That was a bad (not applicable) recommendation actually – what works for Windows, may not work for Mac. You’re right, a Mac system does go dark if you do manage to uninstall the drivers without first putting in a card for which the drivers are already loaded.
You did the right thing by swapping for a different graphics card; AFAIK there is no easy way to uninstall drivers in Mac OSX. Since the other card works fine, it’s much likelier now that your Q4K is bad.
Re-installing may work but I am not sure (don’t remember) if the OSX installation allows for “custom” mode like in Windows where you can uncheck the unnecessary components.
From the sound of it though, it’s the card. If you have another system to try it on (Mac or PC with a PCIe slot and 6-pin PCIe power), I’d do that. If it’s as flaky as on your main system – voila! It’s 100% the card then.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
2nd Angelo’s words: whatever tool works for you, use it.
That said, the latest version of Vegas Pro (v.11, 64-bit, with GPU acceleration enabled) has been a headache for a couple of my clients: instability, no appreciable GPU acceleration, lack of support from Sony. While Premiere Pro has its own share of issues, its stability is generally good, and so are community support options; GPU acceleration is awesome.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
It’s a hell of a nice laptop but alas, no: the GPU acceleration component of MPE will not run on this laptop: unsupported graphics chip.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Tom Daigon] “More detailed info in video on Performance Advisor.”
Thanks for posting this: graphics card usage monitoring is not easily accessible via OS, so PA does have some useful functions – if not for Premiere Pro, then possibly for other apps.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Tom Daigon] “Alex, we spoke on the phone several weeks ago. As a system integrator I understand your vested interest in folks buying from you.”
Tom, not sure which parts of my message you are responding to, with this. Could you clarify?
I did outline a couple of things we do with HP systems – but have no problem with anyone buying directly, just I as I mentioned to you on the phone. Your priority was the price point, on which we normally don’t compete with HP – or anyone else.
[Tom Daigon] “But for my money, it is well worth the expenditure to have the repair support done at my place of business. No one in my detailed research comes close to matching that.”
This seems to imply that buying an HP system from an integrator somehow limits HP on-site support. If so, this is not the case – far from it. Memory is one of the things that is relatively cheap to cross-ship when it fails, one of the reasons (besides reliability) we sometimes use 3rd party one, with lifetime warranty. If you prefer HP memory – that’s an option too – and there is a way to get it via CTO for half the price for self-install, with full support and warranty.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA