Nathaniel Cooper
Forum Replies Created
-
Hey Glenn,
What are the exact specs on the hardware that you currently have? How are you using that hardware now without management software?
Best,
Nate Cooper
ProMAX
nate.cooper@promax.com -
Hey Morton,
Is there a reason you aren’t checking out some video specific solutions? Both of those options use standard networking protocols to re-share storage, generally this isn’t ideal for post and managing it is a pain.
For 3 workstations check out https://www.promax.com/s-223-promax-platform-studio.aspx
You can also watch a 4 min video on the software that drives it here https://www.promax.com/s-238-platform-manager-software.aspx
Good luck!
Nate Cooper
nate.cooper@promax.com -
Hey Rob,
To take your fibre channel RAIDs and set them up as a SAN you will need to add a few components.
1. Fibre Channel HBA’s for each workstation you plan to connect. You can likely use the HBA that is in your server for one of your worksations, outside of that you’ll likely need to buy a couple of Atto Celerity cards.
2. A fibre channel switch. Qlogic 3000 series is a good choice for smaller workgroups, Qlgoic is what pretty much everyone uses in this industry.
3. SAN management software. You have 3 basic choices:
– Xsan: Requires you to repurpose your server as a metadata server and you must have GigE running to each workstation. If you’ve never set this up you will need to hire someone to set it up for you. However the software is included in the MacOS for free.
– MetaSAN: Similar to Xsan, maybe a touch easier to set up and better supported by Tiger however you need to purchase this software.
– SANmp: Far easier to set up and far easier to support, however, you will not be able to have just one volume that everyone reads/writes to, you will need to set up a few volumes and each volume can have 1 person writing at the same time. Again, there is a cost on the software, however, it’s likely the only option you wouldn’t need to hire a pro to come in and set up for you.As far as other options or suggestions, my company makes Platform; which does allow you to connect fibre channel RAIDs and use them in your storage pools. If you’re interested in looking at that option reach out to me.
Good luck!
Nate Cooper
https://www.promax.com/platform
nate.cooper@promax.com -
Will do Ben, it shouldn’t be long. As far as pricing, you’ll be able to get everything you need under $10k USD.
Nate
-
Hey Ben,
We are just about to sign up a UK distributor who will be able to support you locally. This should happen within a couple of weeks. That said, if you need to do anything before then, please don’t hesitate to reach out directly.
Best,
Nate Cooper
nate.cooper@promax.com -
Hey Ben,
You’re in a very common position and from what I saw at NAB this year, smaller workgroup SANs are a quickly growing part of the market.
The great news is, smaller workgroups can compete with the big guys because of talent and technology. The bad news is, you have the same infrastructure needs but without the big budgets. There are a few options out there that will meet you in the middle.
We designed Platform Studio for this exact market. https://www.promax.com/s-223-promax-platform-studio.aspx It’s not much more than the other solution you were talking about, but it gives you the performance/stability/support benefits of going with a larger ‘enterprise’ solution.
Here is a thread from a recent client in a similar position.
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/197/859453Hope this helps and best of luck to you no matter which way you go!
Nate Cooper
ProMAX
nate.cooper@promax.com -
Richard,
I see a lot of people stress over SAN vs NAS.
5 years ago the only option for any of us was a SAN, it’s how systems need to be designed to get the performance required for video production. This was when Unity and Xsan were king.
These days, that isn’t the case. Take a look at ISIS; it is easily one of the best shared storage options for our market (price aside, WAY WAY aside) and it’s just running Windows Server to share out Ethernet clients.
Any of the solutions you mentioned will have tech guys that should make sure their solution meets your performance requirements no problem. That said here are some things that will help differentiate your options.
1. IT features – What redundancies are built into the hardware (beyond RAID, everyone has RAID), can you grow/shrink volumes, performance monitoring, email notifications, what does the management interface look like, etc. etc.
2. Hardware warranty – What is covered and for how long?
3. Support – Is it included? For how long? How much does it cost to extend?
4. Upfront cost of system, including installation.
5. Cost of adding new users.
6. User Experience – Are you getting support from a reseller? How many of that specific system have they installed? Is your support direct from the manufacture or from the reseller, if both then who is responsible? How responsive are they?I would also encourage you to reach out to ProMAX and check out Platform as well. We are a manufacture that sells our complete solutions directly to end users. This eliminates the 25-45% uplift on the cost of going through a reseller/distributor. It also simplifies support, as there is only one company to work with.
Here’s a recent client..
https://www.promax.com/s-233-camp-creative-testimonial.aspxGood luck!
Nate Cooper
Nate.cooper@promax.com
949.861.2725 -
Hey Matt,
I’ll check with my tech guys on this first thing in the AM. Please note, you can always open a support ticket fast and easy by emailing support@promax.com.
Can you shoot me over your contact info so I have that on hand.
Best,
Nate Cooper
ProMAX
nate.cooper@promax.com -
Hey Ryan,
As many will probably echo, what you don’t want to do is roll your own. Unless you have experience in setting up and supporting network storage for video, trying to do it on your own (albeit tempting) will cost you more in wasted time than it’s worth. Look into the various purpose built options on the market and stick with those.
I work for ProMAX and there are three solutions we sell and support
– ProMAX Platform
– Facilis Terrablock
– Avid ISISAll of products these have their place and there are serveral other options on the market that you can look at as well.
If you don’t want to go down the road of a supported solution you are likely better off sticking with locally attached storage.
Feel free to reach out if you have any specific questions on this.
Nate Cooper
ProMAX Systems https://www.promax.com
nate.cooper@promax.com
949.861.2725 -
There have been so many attempts to put in high availability enterprise storage (IBM, EMC, NetApp, etc, etc) and without fail, these installations have serious stability and performance issues for the video editors. For this reason I would stay away from the IBM XIV storage.
If you want I can put you in contact with a few clients that have tried this to hear their experience’s.
That being said, if for budgetary or political reasons you have to use the IBM storage go get trial licenses of the Mac based iSCSI initiator and SANmp volume locking software at https://www.studionetworksolutions.com. If anything will make the IBM storage work for FCP users, that is it.
The simple issue though is that video production (even using ProRes/other lower bandwidth codecs) requires far more performance per user that any non-M&E platform offers.
Video creation is so niche you are always better off finding a video specific solution. Which there are lots of affordable and extremely highly available options depending on your needs and budgets.
Nate Cooper
nate.cooper@promax.com
949.375.2738