[Joe Bender]

Thanks for your reply Dave,

That may indeed be part of the issue and I’ll try to relieve some of the space pressure. I’m at approx 10% free. However, my sequential R/W performance doesn’t seem to be affected, at least according to AJA and Blackmagic benchmarks. Also my space available hasn’t changed much over the past few weeks while my performance has degraded substantially.

Would the full RAID affect my random R/W performance but not my sequential R/W? Could that contribute to the scrambled file paths that I’m seeing in Premiere?

[Joe Bender]

Hi All,

Just want to check back and share the outcome of this struggle. After months of wrestling with hardware support from HighPoint, Quantum, etc. and many hours of software support for both PreRoll Post and YoYotta, I was never able to get either of those programs to produce a successful backup.

Then, after months of frustration, I learned a minor detail that clarified the whole situation: my files are often well over 100GB each (long takes in 4K ProRes), and it appears that LTFS just doesn’t handle very large files well. Bizarre, considering it’s designed for archive, but it appears to be the case. I switched over to BRU, which uses its own proprietary file system and (as I understand) writes/verifies smaller blocks of data, and finally was able to create verified backups of my footage.

Moral of the story: think twice before using LTFS and LTFS-based software to archive very large files. I don’t know what the size threshold is, but I consistently got verify errors with files in the ~100GB range and above.

So, thanks everyone for your help with this, and happy archiving,

Joe

[Joe Bender]

Hi all,

Just a quick update on my situation — I’ve now been working with tech support at Imagine Products, YoYotta, HighPoint, and Quantum for over two months, and no one seems to be able to shed any light on why these errors continue to happen. I’ve forged ahead with backing up my data as much as possible, but am getting an approximately 40% error rate. Meaning 40% of my backups fail with file verification errors. In addition, I don’t seem to be able to reformat and reuse the tapes, so this is driving my cost through the roof.

Does anyone have any idea what else I can do to resolve this situation? This is a crazy outcome for an investment of over $5K in hardware and software.

For folks who have implemented successful LTO systems, what’s your setup and workflow?

Any input will be a huge help.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

[Joe Bender]

Hi Tom,

Wish I had better news — I’ve been working through this problem for almost a month now without any conclusive answers. I’ve tried swapping out the SAS and Thunderbolt cables, the computer, the data source, and the software. I’ve downgraded and upgraded the firmware on the RocketStor and the LTO drive, and I’ve spent hours on the phone, email, and chat with the various tech support departments, and I still haven’t been able to resolve the issue — my backups only complete successfully about 40% of the time (out of dozens of attempts). At this point the folks I’ve been talking to seem to think it’s likely a hardware issue, but I can’t afford to buy an alternate controller card or drive to test.

So that’s my current status. Frustration level: high. I was warned that setting up an LTO system isn’t the easiest thing to do, but frankly this is getting ridiculous. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on this hardware/software and no one can suggest anything other than “must be one of the other vendors’ fault.”

Happy to fill you in on more things we’ve tried, and I’d be grateful to hear if you have any better luck.

Best,

Joe

[Joe Bender]

Apologies for the premature post — after writing this I updated the firmware on the RocketStor 6328 and the drive is now working. Very much relieved!
Please disregard my previous message.

[Joe Bender]

Hi Tim,

Do you have any experience using the RocketStor 6328 with LTO-7? I just purchased a 6328 and a Quantum LTO-7 drive (connected to the 6328 over SAS), but my Mac Pro isn’t recognizing the LTO, as far as I can tell. No response from the system when I insert a tape etc, no devices showing under SAS in system profile…

Any thoughts on what I can do to get it working? I’m counting on this to backup rushes from a shoot starting Monday and I’m at my wits’ end.

Many thanks in advance,

Joe

[Joe Bender]

Hi again Dan,
Could you please point me toward a good explanation/tutorial on the ShotPutPro/PreRollPost workflow for offloading and doing simultaneous LTO backups? I’ve installed the trials of PreRollPost and the related apps (I already own ShotPut), but I’m having a hard time figuring out how they all fit together.
Thanks in advance!

Joe

[Joe Bender]

Thank you for the detail, Tim. That’s good to know, as I’ve ordered myself a rack-mount Quantum drive. 😉

[Joe Bender]

Thanks Eric, sounds good. Don’t think I’ll end up having this problem on my current shoot but will use this technique in the future.

[Joe Bender]

Thanks Dan and Neil for your responses!

To answer your questions Neil, for this project my footage is long takes in 4K ProRes, so large single files. I work in indie docs, so we don’t have occasion to shoot RAW very often.

Does either of you have any experience with Quantum LTO drives? I’m a bit skeptical since it’s an off brand, but it’s a lot cheaper than the competitors: https://www.backupworks.com/Quantum-LTO-7-1U-Rackmount-TC-L73CN-AR.aspx

Also, does using SAS vs. Thunderbolt interface on the tape drive make any difference for the software?

Thanks again!

Joe