[James Mckenna]

Chris,

From what I’ve seen in the market these past many years, avoiding the Windows licensing fees and increased cost of server OS is the primary reason for basing a NAS on Linux. There are many Windows-based NAS solutions out there, including Avid’s products, entirely windows-based. The trick is to lock down the Windows install, and give the OS as little information about what you’re doing as possible.

We create virtual volumes, and expose them to the Windows OS, so that you can have access to the storage allocations from the Windows OS if you chose (to re-share, backup/archive, etc.). However during the normal operation of the system, Windows has no shares listed in computer management or on the UNC path. Windows server services can be disabled entirely and it will not affect our clients’ ability to mount virtual volumes over IP or FC.

I’d be happy to get you on another demo to see this interaction if you like.

Thanks,

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
978-562-7022 x101

[James Mckenna]

Hi Sal and Chris,

Love the forums, they can make an otherwise uneventful week interesting. Since some things are being thrown around here I wanted to chime in. We’ve been selling the same product, by the same name for 11 years. Because of the large sample size, you will find some customers who have had issues, hence “Terrorblock” (have you heard of Avid “CRISIS”, and “EditScare”?). People usually don’t post to forums when things are going well, and emotions run high in this business.

Reliability is our number one concern, and we have been very reactive to problems in the field. We are proud of our support, having taken some seemingly cursed sites and turned them around to strong references and case studies. I don’t need to tell you that your due diligence is the right way to approach this, and no one should question anyone bringing up the discussion about reliability. I can promise that I can offer many sites that are happy with our product, running close to, if not the exact same configuration as you’ve been proposed.

Please let me know if I can answer any questions.

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
978-562-7022 x101

[James Mckenna]

Wow Bob, that list gets longer every year. There’s even more but I’m not going to name them!

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
978-562-7022 x101

[James Mckenna]

Bob,

Funny enough at the time you were writing this we were on our way to an event in NY to show 4K playback (among other things) at the Digital Arts theater on West 29th. (tinyurl.com/FacilisNY3-14)

Sharif from Assimilate can attest to the fact that no SAN has been as successful out of the box than TerraBlock with 4K playback. We can do it on a single enclosure, and without getting into all of the various frame sizes and bit depths, it’s even possible to do on a Multi-user Write volume over 10Gb Ethernet or 16Gb fibre. The larger frame formats, all the way up to 16bit, will require Single-user Write over 16Gb.

4K compatibility with RAW and uncompressed formats, and our unique ability to support these workflows, is a focus at NAB for us this year.

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
978-562-7022 x101

[James Mckenna]

Hi Ryan,

If you give me a call or email me off list, we can talk about a product that may suit your needs and budget.

Thanks,

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
james@facilis.com
978-562-7022 x101

[James Mckenna]

Ok, the “really-really” took you out of the market for anything purpose built by a manufacturer. It seems like you’re not into renting, which could get you a great system for a month, for a fraction of the new purchase price. All you’re left with is a volume-level share, FC or iSCSI, you won’t be very scalable and you’re not sharing Avid projects.

The manufacturers that offer these feature have to develop and SUPPORT it, and that’s where the premium cost comes in. Avid would rather you buy an ISIS, so when we say we’re fully compatible with the Avid workflow, it’s on us to be fully compatible, or else. Again, let me know if rental is appealing to you and I can hook you up.

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
978-562-7022 x101

[James Mckenna]

Hi Scott,

That indicates to me that there’s a mod date change in/on the host-named MXF folder. If the folder date is newer than the date of the databases, Avid thinks there’s indexing to be done. This could also be a problem of an improper exit of the application after writing, where Avid isn’t allowed to clean up the database. Next time you exit Avid, check the mod time/date on the pmr and mdb files, and compare to the upper level folder mod time/date. If the folder date is newer, you’ll likely get an index.

This can also happen if another Avid is deleting media from your subdirectory. This is why we recommend project-based volumes when possible, to limit the amount of housekeeping that can impact your databases.

Since you’re in emulation mode (I hope), you can rename that directory to anything you want and still have access to the media (i.e. from hostname.1 to hostnamexx.1). Only the databases in the folder that has your specific Avid’s host name will be rebuilt. When you write media again to that volume, the Avid will generate a new folder. This is all Unity/Isis functionality as well, not specific to Facilis.

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
978-562-7022 x101

[James Mckenna]

Hi Ryan,

For a month, why not just rent a system. You won’t have to deal with the headache and it’s gone when you don’t need it. I bet you can call Dom at MPE or Scott at East Coast Digital and get a good price.

Alternately, rent space in a facility. Most have shared storage available and I can get you the names of several facilities in Manhattan that have 4-walls for rent.

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
978-562-7022 x101

[James Mckenna]

“by charging a lot of money :)”

That’s right. The client software you’re paying for has the ability to break up the requests along a dual paths. Each port has it’s own IP address. I was out of Avid way before ISIS became a shipping product, but I’ve heard that this is the way it’s done, and that makes sense to me. Personally I think 10GB-baseT over copper 6a is the more elegant solution, and optical is even better (then FC becomes an option).

In the end it doesn’t really matter for that product, even if you can push 190MB/sec on a single client, you can do that on all of TWO clients before your ISIS 5000 drops to it’s knees.

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
978-562-7022 x101

[James Mckenna]

Hi Stephen.

Our TerraBlock 8XS model is often overlooked because of it’s limited capacity. while it does have limited capacity internally, it does offer some scalability. The TerraBlock 8XS uses the same internal hardware as the 24 drive models, supports 10Gb and will easily manage your streaming requirements. We start at 8TB for $14K (16TB is $18K) with dual 10Gb Ethernet or 8Gb fibre.

Here’s the trick – you can expand this with the T8 drive array (RAID5 or RAID6) for an additional 16TB RAW (14TB/12TB usable) for $7K. The capacity expansion does not have the same functionality as the internal storage – including virtual volume creation, no speed degradation or defrag, etc., because it’s an external array and not internal virtualized storage. This is not a config I would recommend for larger shops, due to lack of overall bandwidth and the lack of PSU redundancy, but for your purposes it should be seriously considered. We have a lot of 8XS units out there and they’re a real value if you’re in the right situation.

Let me know if you’d like more info on this.

Jim McKenna
Facilis Technology
978-562-7022 x101