[Jim Boas]

Hi Rick,
The guys at Commandsoft and I responded to this question last week per our conversation and the e-mail correspondence you had with Commandsoft before you posted this.

I thought I would respond to this so you and others seeing this post will understand this is an extremely easy process.

Yes, a PC and Mac can be put onto the Rorke/Fibrejet SAN using the same Rorke Galaxy RAID’s you have. The only additional piece you will need to put on this PC is MediaFour MacDrive Software to allow the PC to Read and Write to HFS/HFS+ File Systems. As we spoke about, the Fibrejet dongles you currently have will work fine for both PC and Mac so you would not have to buy anything else other then this very inexpensive MediaFour MacDrive V8 Software to add to the PC you might be putting on your current Mac based Fibrejet/Rorke SAN.

We have done hundreds of these cross platform SAN’s and would be happy to help you so please don’t hesitate to call me or Rorke Data tech support if you ever need any help.

Thank you,

[Jim Boas]

Brandon,
you may want to check out the New Galaxy Aurora LS RAID/SAN appliance Rorke Data released about 6months ago.
This 8Gbit Fibre RAID/SAN appliance is very cost effective (about $.70per GB) and allows you to connect up to 8workstations without the need for a fibre channel switch.
The Galaxy Aurora LS is a 18TB RAID system with Dual Quad Core CPU’s in it with a patent pending software RAID6 algorithm. Due to the fact that this system does not have a hardware RAID controller like many of your standard RAID systems (which typically is the bottleneck in performance and rebuild times), the Galaxy Aurora can get you anywhere from 800MB’s/sec to 1000MB’s/sec with up to 6 times faster rebuild times and alot more features then your standard RAID system.

Rorke Data also sells a number of SAN software packages including MetaSAN, StorNext or the Commandsoft Fibrejet software.
For your application, we would highly recommend the Fibrejet software due to it’s ease of use and rock solid performance. We have hundreds of SAN’s installed world-wide using all of the SAN software packages mentioned above.

A 3seat 8Gbit Fibre Galaxy AuroraLS 18TB SAN (using Fibrejet software) including all of your required 8Gbit Fibre cards, 10Meter Fibre cables and hardware and software support will cost approximately $25,000.

you can check out the Galaxy Aurora LS at – https://www.rorke.com/aurora.cfm

please don’t hesitate to call me if I cn help you in anyway.
610-793-7513

[Jim Boas]

Hello John,
I understand why you think the resolution to your problem has not gone as quickly as you would like but you have to understand that trouble shooting a SAN, especially those that have alot of different hardware which were purchased and setup from a number of
different sources is difficult, their is a process of elimination to figure out which component may be causing the problem.

Rorke Data only supplied the Fibrejet software which you tested on your own and it worked fine so you decided to replace another SAN software which was causing you problems with Fibrejet.

I do not understand how you can say that Rorke Data has thrown their hands up and said Oh Well, as that has never happened, no one at Rorke has ever said anything close to that and we have been working with Commandsoft to get their help on figuring out what the problem is and whether it has anything to do with Fibrejet or your Premiere workstations.

Because Rorke Data and Commandsoft have hundreds of SAN solutions
installed world-wide, we first thought (through the process of elimination) the issue may reside in your corporate HP/Cisco hardware/V-Lan which you are using on the SAN so Rorke took the extra step in sending a Rorke Galaxy RAID system and Fibre switch in with a SAN engineer to install it (at no cost to you) to be able to determine if it is your hardware causing the problem or not. We have now determined that the hardware is not causing the problem.

Commandsoft and Rorke Data have been working very closely together to figure out what the problem is and we are confident we can isolate the problem and determine if it has anything to do with the Fibrejet software or if something in your Adobe Premiere workstations is the root cause.

[Jim Boas]

Hello Max,
You should check out Rorke Data as they have some very good cost effective RAID systems in different sizes 8Bay, 12Bay, 16Bay and 24Bay)and different interfaces (SCSI, SAS, Fibre, iSCSI) and many others to choose from.

On average – Price per GB is about $.69cents
Just an Example: 4Gbit Fibre 16x1TB GalaxyHDX2 RAID – under $11,000

Rorke could also look at selling you a half populated 16Bay RAID and have you send us the drives that you have to be incorporated into the other half of this RAID.

Bob Zelin was right – Avid 16Bay RAID = $21,995
Give me a break Avid!!!
Rorke Data sells the exact same RAID system (called the Galaxy 3G) and a 16x1TB Dual Controller Galaxy 3G RAID = less then $15,000
A Single Controller 16x1TB Galaxy 3G RAID = less then $11,000

Rorke Data also supports and services everything they sell.

feel free to call me if you want to talk – 610-793-7513

[Jim Boas]

Spencer, I would be glad to talk to you about this as we sell both the GalaxyHDX2 RAID and the Promise RAID.

We are also Commandsofts largest partner when it comes to Fibrejet software and we know it inside and out.

Many people say “a RAID is a RAID” but that is not true. Yes, many of the RAID’s have similar features but the difference is how we setup the RAID to work best in specific applications, especially Final Cut and Pro tools.

please give me a call.

Jim Boas
Rorke Data
610-793-7513
jimboas@rorke.com

[Jim Boas]

Have you checked out Rorke Data (https://www.rorke.com) – they have a wide range of high performance but cost effective Galaxy RAID solutions including their Brand New High Performance 18TB 8Gbit Fibre Galaxy Aurora LS RAID6 solution which costs between $12K to under $16K (depending on which 8Gbit Fibre Card you choose).
You can get this solution with a Single Channel 8Gbit Fibre Card, Dual Channel 8Gbit Fibre Card, Quad Channel 8Gbit Fibre card or even 2 x Quad Channel 8Gbit Fibre Cards.

The Aurora LS is extremely quite and you can use it as direct attached high performance RAID or can be used to hooked up directly to 2-8 seats onto a SAN without the need for a switch.(Rorke sells and support 3-4 different SAN software packages as well)

The Aurora LS is extremely fast and can do upwards of 1000MB’s/sec with single stream of HD2K, 3 streams of HD film DPX, 2 streams of HD 1080P 10bit 4:4:4, 3 streams of HD 1080i 10bit 4:2:2, 16 streams of ProRes HQ up to 45 streams of DV/HDV – all from 12 drives