[Matt Geier]

Hi Stepan,

I hope someone comes and backs me up since I have not posted in what seems far too long. However, to set the stage, perhaps my friends can reassure you to some, most, or all of my advice im going to give you. I do come with references in any case.

Im going to talk about what I know. Looks like Bob has your back also.

Your basics;

10Gb Ethernet is very capable of reaching the speeds you’ll want to reach while working with many if not all of your Adobe, and similar “class” products.

It is capable of reaching speeds on a Mac and Windows of over 800MB sustainable and reliable in a single direction. Taking and doing that in two directions at once and is called BI Directional. (so you see numbers of between 1.6 to 1.9GBps for total flexibility… Thats what is called Near Line rate…

Dont forget to measure all your current overhead. You need to make sure you tie up all your bottlenecks in your network. Especially a Shared Network, which is why its a Standard IT scenario to run your business of graphics and pictures you rely on to keep going. You will need more stuff. Start building a diagram of your network.

So measure each client, all the connected online and offline connected also. Even though it is off, stuff is still sending little pings to make sure its actually still there on the network.

Make sure you know what each machine is doing, and how it’s user is working. They will interact with the work flow. You will want all your usual ACL perms etc.

Now, its always more than my customer could ever chew off the first time too.
Were all here to give advice and help.

I have witnessed Ethernet vs Fibre Channel battles since much of the early 2000s, when I startedworking for SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.). Ethernet will ALWAYS win the war. In all areas of Simplicity, Performance Scalability, Excellent Community-based Development and much more.

Ethernet can even win a place in Bob Zellins heart for useful gear. So Take our advice. Please.

The price differences are still knee jerking from super high to super low on configurables.
Everyone also has their soft spots.

Your Dell Servers are great for serving files. I KNOW those specific ones, and they are not the best at the highest performance without many in a cluster working in tandem. (which opens more performance and engineering needs to address also). (Have you ever tried running HELIOS on those?) Windows, as well as all their operating versions, and Mac, and Linux too, require tuning to have your performance sustainability match that of your networking loads, cpu, memory usage and more.

What tests have you run on your network? What tools did you use? Have you checked out Promax Windows specific platform scalable solutions?

For Mac Specific Workflows in all areas of High Performance Networking and Shared Storage, by far a wonderful product, did you check Small Tree perhaps? HAVE YOU CALLED THEM ALL YET?

HELIOS would be another company to talk to directly. Adobe, perhaps too. A lot of your places have personal consultants.

Hopefully you continue to post your progress, etc.

Regards,

Matt Geier
Free Agent
Sales and Marketing Consultant.
High Performance Computing Consultant
Digital Media, Film, and Video workflow Specialty.

[Matt Geier]

I was just going down that path of trying to gather up some additional info….

I was thinking that IBM LTFS 2.0.0 supports the T2250 drive, because it does…

So why not just start looking in the system log and other log files to see what is being reported in hardware and drivers?

Even though this error message indicates one thing, looking at the system log and other associated driver dumps, etc, might indicate another….

I know of instances where the tape or disk device says it did not mount or was not being recognized… upon further investigation and research through the command line tools and other diagnostic tools, it determined that the hardware and device were mounted and working and seen just fine by the operating system… which meant something else was actually happening.

No harm done here I hope.

Matt Geier
952-374-6735 (Office)
651-808-1338 (cell)
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Matt Geier]

Tim,

Might want to double check on some stuff first before you change everything up. Have you tried using newer LTFS software instead of such an older copy of one?

LTFS is an open standard, interchangeable with other LTO-5 and LTO-6 brands, and is also cross-platform, so you can use the tape as you would a USB flash drive. Simply load an LTFS-formatted tape into your LTO-5 or LTO-6 drive, mount it into the file system, and it becomes visible as if it were a disk. Currently, the Quantum LTFS software supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Also, the issue could be hardware related. I know that sounds strange but sometimes, when software isn’t working right, it can be because of hardware problems.

Start trouble shooting the hardware, to determine it’s definitely working… (does it work any place else…does it do something, has the firmware changed, is it updated, etc.) and don’t assume the green lights mean it’s okay either. That’s called Green Light Syndrome, and you don’t want it.

You actually need an expert in IBM and LTFS to help you through this before you hurt your data or other pieces in the process. In sorts, keeping yourself, from hurting yourself more.

I know where we can get you some hardware support maintenance….
and I know where we can get you some LTFS support to troubleshoot any software issues.

If you want, call me to discuss and we can go from there.

Matt Geier
952-374-6735 (Office)
651-808-1338 (cell)
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Matt Geier]

Kelly,

Bob’s right. As usual.
Here’s some info I have that he may not –

For this type of solution, you can consider using HELIOS Webshare and Document Hub.

You can even try it out free of charge for this transfer.

I will need to make a special log for you on my LA Server and also send you instructions on how to use it with drag and drop as well as Resume if transfer stalls or fails due to some strange issue.

I can also provide you with pricing for your own server.

Or we can charge for this one but giving someone a test drive and then offering a spot on the server or their own server would be the best way to make certain this is a valid solution.

For the data hosting, if you need that, this can be hosted at the same site for a higher price of course too.

If you’re interested, you’ll need to give me a shout so we can talk.
I’m based in the US. You can email me at mgeier@nasi.com.

Matt Geier
952-374-6735 (Office)
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Matt Geier]

Thats good advice for any Storage or CPU utilization. Memory etc..
You should always allow for Bursts…

In the case of storage drive,… Utilizing them over a certain percentage, will start to cause problems with fragmentation, as well as other things.

You see this performance loss on your old full drives, etc.

Matt Geier
651-808-1338
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Matt Geier]

Hi Mark,

There are several ways to test your shared storage unit for “active” editing performance viability. Keep in mind, it may also be okay today, and not okay tomorrow if you change something. So the idea is to understand really at what point your RAID will begin to bog down….and why. Some tests you can perform are easier then others.

Small Tree has a nice tool for this however — you can download it here,
https://www.small-tree.com/Articles.asp?Id=403
It’s for Mac OS X only…no Windows version.
It runs over the current network to the Rorke array.

I’m happy to help you decipher the output. It can be a little confusing if you don’t know what you’re looking at.

(I am a consultant for Small Tree configurations….I do not currently work for them. This tool also works for testing any Raid Array. It’s NOT a bandwidth test but actually tests running video streams off the RAID…without actually running them.)

I can also lend some suggestions on how you can further improve the network and workflow to be more active editing friendly.

I do have experience with this, and I can get some folks to give me a reference on this subject if needed.

Let us know if that helps.

Matt Geier
651-808-1338
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Matt Geier]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for posting back.
I like the feedback too!

– BTW – I’m not with Small Tree anymore. I should make that clear. Some folks know by now and some don’t.

I am however still working on some angles staying in front of people that I work with. I still have tools and information I’m offering that others are not! 🙂

I realize that most of the products I recommend are pricey. I’ve dealt with those objections before. And I’m sure you have as well! 🙂 We all have, frankly.

Some of these work for a certain purpose.
For real-time video, most of them suck.
For File Transferring over 1GbE, most of them are okay and do the job. Some don’t do it well though.
For anything with 10GbE on it, that changes the whole scenario. As soon as someone sucks all the switch bandwidth up, everyone will feel it. – Give them time! 🙂

No worries.

I just find it funny sometimes, how folks go and spend 20K on a storage system, or 5K for a camera with Ethernet connectivity, but they want to spend 100 on the switch or networking and don’t get full productivity out of what they have invested in. I like to avoid the imbalance people want to have, vs doing it right, and getting them what they will need now, and use later too!

I want to be helpful because of what knowledge I have and whom I work with that I can thank for the trainings I’ve received.

Don’t take me the wrong way….I don’t have the reputation like Bob Zellin, but I do consider him a friend like many here….and were all usually very honest and straight forward with the end users and customers and clients we all service and support here. Just all be it in different ways! 🙂

Catch ya later!

Matt Geier
651-808-1338
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Matt Geier]

BTW — If you want a benchmark test for bandwidth – Check out These tools from HELIOS —

LanTest for OSX – Bandwidth and Read/Write benchmarking

https://www.helios.de/web/EN/products/LanTest-OSX.html

Maybe look at EtherShare for the Macs, and PC Share for the Windows networks; Speed things up at the server on the network;

https://www.helios.de/web/EN/support/testdrive.html

I think you’ll find that using HELIOS on your server significantly offers some increased speed performance over Ethernet….assuming the rest of the hardware will also allow it.

Matt Geier
651-808-1338
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Matt Geier]

Alex,

Just curious if you solved this issue on this switch.
It’s my understanding from these that this is an unmanaged switch.
It’s a small step up from the “web smart” 1GbE switches because it has a 10GbE combo port on it.

A lot of switches on the market have to support standards, but they are also not marketed with full proper support of certain standards. They “technically” support it…but it’s like a built in package so to speak.

You’re better off finding a Fully Managed L3 Switch that uses 1GbE with 10GbE switch.
I remember lots of problems with switches in general. Especially when 10GbE is involved…because things HAVE to work correctly, otherwise you’ll have problems with support for Jumbo Frames, Flow Control, and Dynamic Link Aggregation, which is another good example of why it’s important to make sure you’re getting a switch, or the customer is getting a switch with proper support for these technologies and protocols.

I recommend the Small Tree 10GbE Switches.
Something like the STG-28T – STG-28T

When you put these switches against their counter parts, Small Tree performance and support for Jumbo Frames, Dynamic Link Aggregation, and 10GbE Flow Control comes out on top every time…..

I’ve sold switches from other companies before. The Small Tree Switches are the best 1GbE / 10GbE switch you can buy for a Mac Network.

I believe also if you’re using Small Tree network adapters and drivers in the connections to the switch, you also see a performance boost to some degree.

Until these switches from Small Tree came out when 10GbE was on the rise, nobody elses switch worked right out of the box, and nobody elses switch supported Flow Control the way 10GbE requires it to be run properly.

Unless Small Tree says differently. Which I doubt they will.

Anyway, let us know how this worked out for you.

Matt Geier
651-808-1338
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Matt Geier]

Hi James,

If you’re editing over the Ethernet wire, check out Small Tree’s Titanium box.

Either a Titanium 4 or a TitaniumZ-5 would suffice for you.
https://www.small-tree.com/GraniteSTOR_Shared_Storage_s/94.htm

I’d be happy to talk to you in detail about your workflow, and consult for you if you’d like to give me a ring.

Without knowing a whole bunch of details about your workflow, at a first glance, you could stand to look at a bunch of these types of setups, but you still need to make sure whatever you want to buy will perform to the standards you’ll need your video streams to run at without fail….either over 1GbE or 10GbE, which may yet be left to determine.

Let us know.

Thanks,

Matt Geier
651-808-1338
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)