Nathaniel Cooper
Forum Replies Created
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Hey John,
The good news is you have some good options, all of which are solid systems and perform well. I’m with ProMAX Systems, our solution is Platform which you can check out at https://www.promax.com/platform That said, in the past I’ve work with and implemented SNS, Facilis & Quantum – all of which are great products.
If you want to dig into ProMAX Platform let me know and I’m happy to dig into details on why it’s awesome.
Best,
Nate Cooper
nate.cooper@promax.com
(949) 861-2725 -
It’s generally a combination.
On the network connection side (AFP/SMB) those protocols are designed for packet transmission that accommodates for connectivity loss, this is great for 99% of the world, and it’s a hassle for streaming non-buffered high bandwidth video (keep in mind, in the scheme of formats, even a light/efficient professional protocol is massive compared to what consumers are using). This is why local storage or any blocklevel protocol works so much better for us (Thudnerbolt, Fibre Channel, SAS, eSATA, USB3.0, etc.) because there is no packet transmission – just raw data streaming between a workstation and a file system.
What our product does is creates a low latency connection utilizing standard networking connectivity, this allows the GigE connections to look, feel and work like blocklevel protocols. Essentially fixing the latency issue.
The switch side can be problematic, but honestly with 3 workstations probably won’t be. The bottleneck there is in that you are limiting the connection between the switch and the server to 2 x GigE ports. Again, this just limits you to a theoretical line speed of about 2Gb/s, which is lower with overhead.
The other thing to consider is bonding still does not allow for a single workstation connection to split data over both bonded connections. Meaning, if all 3 workstations are being use 2 of them will be sharing a single GigE connection, factor in overhead and you will have no control over which workstation has 1GbE speed and which workstations have half of that. Meaning, at random 2 of your workstations will have a 40-45MB/s limit.
Add the two together (Latency + band limit) and you’re going to be limiting editorial performance. The only way you’ll know exactly how much is by setting it up. Again, not trying to scare, this will work, but at a limited capacity when compared to something like Platform Portable.
Hope this helps!
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You will get connectivity and may be able to run a couple of streams. You’re going to run into two bottlenecks. 1) Latency due to using standard network connections 2) You’re limiting yourself to 2Gb of total bandwidth, which isn’t a ton. You’d be best off with ProResLT in this set up and will likely run into a fair amount of push-pull of files locally for editorial.
If you can push budget to $6k, we just released Platform Portable a new server that allows you to utilize your existing external hard drives without those bottlenecks. You can see more info here
Either way, good luck!
Nate Cooper
ProMAX
(949) 861-2725
nate.cooper@promax.com -
I’d be surprised if this works. I think you’d be asking too much of the processors. AE compositing and stereoscopic work will eat up the resources of the Mac Pro, especially with multiple streams of 4K DNG.
You’d likely need a dedicated server if you want to do sharing. That said, keep us posted on your results.
Best,
Nate Cooper
https://www.promax.com
nate.cooper@promax.com -
Hey Luke,
Can you give a little more clarity on what you mean by SAN? What hardware/RAID and software are being used in the two locations? Is it Fibre channel based? Is there any type of fibre of Ethernet connectivity already existing between the buildings?
Best,
Nate Cooper
ProMAX
948.861.2725 -
No problem Matt feel free to reach out. I can either help or connect you with someone that can.
As far as solutions in the $5k range, there are three basic options that I know of.
1) DIY (As bob recommends) – there are a lot of good articles on how to use the networking built into the Mac OS to get this running.
– Upside – Lowest cost
– Downside – You will likely spend a lot of your own time actually getting it to work (this is why bob has crazy grey hair, he’s actually 27), limited expandability, limited performance, inconsistent throughput2) Apple Networking set up by an Integrator – Depending on where you are, I can recommend few
– Upside – Likely right at the $5k range, a good integrator will get it running quickly and easily
– Downsides – Limited expandability, limited performance, inconsistent throughput3) SANmp/Globalsan software (don’t tell anyone I said this, they are my competitors 😉
– Upside – Likely right at the $5k range, a good integrator will get it running quickly and easily, easier to manage users/permissions than standard networking, consistent performance
– Downsides – Limited expandability, software is ‘volume locking’ meaning only 1 user can write to a volume at a time; for two users this workflow is generally totally fineFeel free to reach out and good luck!
Nate Cooper – ProMAX
nate.cooper@promax.com
(949) 861-2725 -
Hey Matt,
Will you be at NAB? There will be some good solutions for you to look at there.
What you are describing is specifically what we (ProMAX) designed Platform Studio for. Small workgroups, under $10k (with storage, install etc.), video performance, easy interface, etc.
Check out details here https://www.promax.com/platform
Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions.
Good Luck!
Nate Cooper – ProMAX
nate.cooper@promax.com
(949) 861-2725 -
Boyce,
I’ve never deployed Nimble Storage – however, would recommend you check out Platform. It has full integration into Windows Server environments and plays strong with IT compliance.
You can also attached your existing fibre channel storage to it for automated back up, so you can repurpose that storage for a tier 2 set up. That backup software is built into Platforms OS.
https://www.promax.com/platform
Good luck!
Nate Cooper
ProMAX
949.375.2738 -
For two windows workstations doing DPX workflows and color correction with the hardware that you have… I would definitely go with SANmp.
It’s very solid software, been around forever. SNS is a great company and you can download a trial version of the software.
The only downside with SANmp is that it is volume locking rather than file locking (both metasan and stornext are file locking) however for two workstations doing DPX that probably won’t be a big deal. However, MetaSAN and StorNext are both pretty set up and support heavy.
I did a shared storage white paper that covers the topic of volume locking vs file locking on pages 4 & 5, you can download it here:
https://Go.promax.com/SharedStorageWhitepaperHope this is helpful and good luck!
Nate Cooper
ProMAX
nate.cooper@promax.com
949.861.2725 -
We’ll you have the hardware set up, so that helps a lot. I’d recommend looking into two options:
1. SANmp
2. MetaSANSANmp is going to be easier to set up and maintain, you can likely do it yourself and will provide a volume locking solution.
MetaSAN will be harder to set up and maintain, you will likely need someone who has already set it up and will provide a file locking solution.
Both will work with your hardware as long as the RAIDs show up to the OS as volumes that you can initialize as NTFS volumes.
Good luck!
Nate Cooper
ProMAX
nate.cooper@promax.com