[Eric Hansen]

hey shane

i should have mentioned in the article, but this install is all based on AFP. no MetaLAN. a little while back a COW member posted that their Ethernet SAN was running slower under MetaLAN than just AFP. so i contacted MetaLAN and asked them about the install i was about to do. they said it was too small to benefit from MetaLAN. this is a guess and i could be totally wrong, but i think MetaLAN dynamically changes the priority tags on ethernet packets based on if your capturing (highest priority), editing (medium priority), or transferring files (low priority). basically balancing the bandwidth on the system and giving it to people who need it. it makes sense that you would need something like this in larger installations, but not in smaller ones. when i spoke with Apace systems about their all-in-one solution, they also had a similar application that had to be installed on every system that would be used for capturing.

i don’t know what the magic number is for how big your system needs to be to need MetaLAN. maybe when your total bandwidth needs exceed your server’s available bandwidth? with the installation i just did, i think they would have to triple their number of edit systems before the server would even start to sweat.

e

Eric Hansen, The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

i was having intermittent drop frames during capture, but no playback problems. so bandwidth wasnt a problem, but latency was. Small Tree recommends turning on Flow Control on the switch as standard procedure. their ethernet cards have flow control on by default. the issue with the switch is that you can’t do it with the shipping firmware, and after you update the firmware to the current version, you can’t enable FC in the GUI. you have to use telnet. thus is why i had to spend 1.5 hours with Chris to get it going. right now Small Tree modifies the setup of every EdgeCore switch they ship to make it easier to log into it the first time via IP address to get to the GUI (the switches can’t do this by default). the next time i order a switch i will ask them if they can enable FC before shipping. the drop frames went away after that, so i consider this required for these switches.

another interesting note. if the client systems are on Tiger, Small Tree has a list of configuration settings to get the max throughput for video over ethernet. if they are on Leopard, then these settings have already been made by Apple in the OS. all the client systems in this install are Tiger. so if i have future speed or drop frame issues, the next step is to update to Leopard. i’m not going to waste my time tweaking settings files when the client has already agreed to pay for the Leopard upgrade.

e

Eric Hansen, The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

ditto on Small Tree. i was having trouble updating the firmware on the EdgeCore switch so i could enable Flow Control, and Chris Duffy from Small Tree tech support spent an hour and a half with me over screen sharing in iChat, showing me how to telnet into the switch from Terminal and run all the updates and commands. that guy’s a ninja. i foresee always using Small Tree, just so i dont have to learn a whole new language with these switches. and hour and a half with Chris saved me probably days of learning the correct commands and such. since fibre switches for this size installation start at $5k, my client didnt even bat an eye at the $1800 for the ethernet switch. they are very happy so far.

i have a client whose 4 seat Xsan is approaching 3.5 years old. there’s not a lot of money to put towards an update, so i’m going to push a combo of fibre and ethernet. basically just have 2 computers connected to the Xsan – the online edit system and a main ethernet server serving all the edit systems. i have heard about PCIe switches that work the same as as fibre, but much faster. i have a feeling this is the direction that medium-size post houses will go as high quality video compression gets better. super high speed shared storage for one or 2 computers, and the main ethernet server. the editors work in DVCPRO HD or ProRes, then the online editor and maybe a GFX/VFX computer can work at uncompressed.

e

Eric Hansen, The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

hey marc

thanks for the reply. i just got off the phone with Matt at Small Tree and he pretty much said the same thing. i’m happy i read your post before i budgeted in MetaLAN when it appears that its not really needed for this particular installation.

if this installation gets the green light i will post the details and outcome here, as i’m sure others are interested in this method of SAN.

e

4 G5s, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2, Kona LH (v5.1)
Xsan: Xserve 2.0 G5, 3GB RAM, 2 7TB Xserve RAIDs, Sanbox 5200
Quantum SDLT600A
decks: Sony HDW-M2000/10 HDCAM, HVR-M10U HDV with HD-Connect, DSR-1500 DVCAM, UVW-1800 BetacamSP
MacBook Pro: 2.33, 2GB RAM, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2
cameras: Panasonic HVX200, Sony FX1 and A1U, Arri S/B 16mm
skis: Volkl Gotama 183s with 914s and Lange Fluid 120 boots

[Eric Hansen]

back to the original post

i have been thinking about a MetaLAN solution for awhile after reading Bob’s article (one server with 5 edit systems and a few random laptops and iMacs) and i always wondered why AFP couldnt handle it as i have used AFP at various levels for years. so you’re saying MetaLAN is not really necessary if everything is Mac and FCP (no Windows or Avid)? my client wants to run FCSvr and it bugged me that under MetaLAN, the server hosting the storage couldnt use the storage directly. i would have to use 2 different servers instead of one.

marc, i am wondering, do you only allow your edit systems to connect to the server via their jumbo-enabled ethernet? in my setup, i would like to share the storage with both the edit systems (link agg, gigabit, jumbo frames) and non-jumbo enabled office computers over the office LAN. if the server has 2 ethernet connections (one link agg to the managed switch) and one single line to the office switch, can AFP force certain computers to connect over certain ethernet ports? making sure the edit systems get the high speed link-agg connection and the office computers get the slower single connection?

thanks

e

4 G5s, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2, Kona LH (v5.1)
Xsan: Xserve 2.0 G5, 3GB RAM, 2 7TB Xserve RAIDs, Sanbox 5200
Quantum SDLT600A
decks: Sony HDW-M2000/10 HDCAM, HVR-M10U HDV with HD-Connect, DSR-1500 DVCAM, UVW-1800 BetacamSP
MacBook Pro: 2.33, 2GB RAM, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2
cameras: Panasonic HVX200, Sony FX1 and A1U, Arri S/B 16mm
skis: Volkl Gotama 183s with 914s and Lange Fluid 120 boots

[Eric Hansen]

hey bob

as i understand it from Tiger’s site, link aggregation works by opening a new connection for every request coming to the server from a client. so would it make sense to get a card (or cards) with as many ports as there are concurrent edit suites requesting media? ie, get a 6 port card for the server because there are 6 edit suites running at once. and if that’s the case, is there a limit to the number of ethernet ports a Mac Pro or Tiger’s software can support?

thanks

e

4 G5s, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2, Kona LH (v5.1)
Xsan: Xserve 2.0 G5, 3GB RAM, 2 7TB Xserve RAIDs, Sanbox 5200
Quantum SDLT600A
decks: Sony HDW-M2000/10 HDCAM, HVR-M10U HDV with HD-Connect, DSR-1500 DVCAM, UVW-1800 BetacamSP
MacBook Pro: 2.33, 2GB RAM, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2
cameras: Panasonic HVX200, Sony FX1 and A1U, Arri S/B 16mm
skis: Volkl Gotama 183s with 914s and Lange Fluid 120 boots

[Eric Hansen]

Perian is a plug-in for Quicktime that allows it to playback more formats than Quicktime alone, such as FLV. it does not however support export. its playback only.

e

4 G5s, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2, Kona LH (v5.1)
Xsan: Xserve 2.0 G5, 3GB RAM, 2 7TB Xserve RAIDs, Sanbox 5200
Quantum SDLT600A
decks: Sony HDW-M2000/10 HDCAM, HVR-M10U HDV with HD-Connect, DSR-1500 DVCAM, UVW-1800 BetacamSP
MacBook Pro: 2.33, 2GB RAM, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2
cameras: Panasonic HVX200, Sony FX1 and A1U, Arri S/B 16mm
skis: Volkl Gotama 183s with 914s and Lange Fluid 120 boots

[Eric Hansen]

i am currently working at 3 different facilities. i have not encountered this problem in awhile. all the facilities are currently at FCP 6.0.3 and various versions of Quicktime. i had suspected at the time that the problem may have been the version of Quicktime, either 7.4 or 7.4.1 that changed the way the clips were read by Final Cut. at that one particular facility we recaptured the footage so it was in a newer version of QT and that seemed to work. in the other facilities that i am at, all processes from logging to capture to edit are being done on the same version of Quicktime and on Final Cut 6.0.3. i so don’t know if Apple fixed the problem in newer versions of QT or FCP or not.

i know thats not an answer, but i can tell you that i have not had this problem since about a month after my last post. at that point all the old problematic QT files had been recaptured (unpaid interns rock!) and the old FCP log files were resaved in FCP 6.0.3. so my advice is to get to the current versions of QT and FCP and see if you’re still having reconnect issues. otherwise you may have to recapture as we did.

e

4 G5s, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2, Kona LH (v5.1)
Xsan: Xserve 2.0 G5, 3GB RAM, 2 7TB Xserve RAIDs, Sanbox 5200
Quantum SDLT600A
decks: Sony HDW-M2000/10 HDCAM, HVR-M10U HDV with HD-Connect, DSR-1500 DVCAM, UVW-1800 BetacamSP
MacBook Pro: 2.33, 2GB RAM, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2
cameras: Panasonic HVX200, Sony FX1 and A1U, Arri S/B 16mm
skis: Volkl Gotama 183s with 914s and Lange Fluid 120 boots

[Eric Hansen]

only Intel-based Apples can be booted from USB. PowerPC-based (G4, G5) can only be booted from firewire. you also have to make sure that you use the correct partition scheme – if you’re using Disk Utility, it will walk you though the options for Intel or PowerPC-based systems.

i have a MacBook Pro and use Carbon Copy Cloner to keep a clone of my internal drive on an external USB drive. it works great!

e

4 G5s, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2, Kona LH (v5.1)
Xsan: Xserve 2.0 G5, 3GB RAM, 2 7TB Xserve RAIDs, Sanbox 5200
Quantum SDLT600A
decks: Sony HDW-M2000/10 HDCAM, HVR-M10U HDV with HD-Connect, DSR-1500 DVCAM, UVW-1800 BetacamSP
MacBook Pro: 2.33, 2GB RAM, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2
cameras: Panasonic HVX200, Sony FX1 and A1U, Arri S/B 16mm
skis: Volkl Gotama 183s with 914s and Lange Fluid 120 boots

[Eric Hansen]

after dealing with this for awhile now, i’ve come to the following conclusion:

the problem is the new version of Quicktime that adds Apple TV video rental support, i think its 7.4 or 7.4.1. when you capture footage in Final Cut with these versions, it puts a wrapper on the QT file thats different than in previous versions. so if you open a Final Cut project that has clips that were originally logged and captured under a previous version of QT, then it will not correctly connect to the newer version of the QT files. we have this problem all the time because we will capture footage from a log project that was made 6 months ago (or years ago), then pass the footage onto the editor on a different system. in the past, we wouldnt save the log after capture to avoid any possible corruption to the log file (or changes to the log due to the footage being incorrectly captured for various reasons). then the editor will open the old log, reconnect the media, add the clips to a bin in their project, then close the log file without saving it. that doesnt work anymore, so the only solution we have come up with is recapturing the footage under the current version of QT, then saving the log with the connected media, then passing that new log onto the editor. any old shots in the editors project have to be replaced with the new clips that are connected to the new media.

basically everything captured in the last 4 months is being recaptured so its in the new version of QT. thats not a solution to the problem – a solution would be a rewrite of either QT for FCP to correctly identify old QT files – but it is a workaround. another workaround is to replace QT with an older version, but with the speed of our decks i decided to recapture instead of downgrading QT.

hope that helps

e

4 G5s, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2, Kona LH (v5.1)
Xsan: Xserve 2.0 G5, 3GB RAM, 2 7TB Xserve RAIDs, Sanbox 5200
Quantum SDLT600A
decks: Sony HDW-M2000/10 HDCAM, HVR-M10U HDV with HD-Connect, DSR-1500 DVCAM, UVW-1800 BetacamSP
MacBook Pro: 2.33, 2GB RAM, OSx 10.4.11, Final Cut 6.0.2
cameras: Panasonic HVX200, Sony FX1 and A1U, Arri S/B 16mm
skis: Volkl Gotama 183s with 914s and Lange Fluid 120 boots