Tim Jones
Forum Replies Created
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The primary reason for not running your media off of your system drive is one of spindle access – if both the application AND your data are coming from the same drive, you’ll see further slowdowns caused by the higher access requirements on that single drive. This is why all of the NLE vendors recommend an external data drive.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
You’re pain is one we’ve all felt – I have a stack of 11 USB drives that have failed over the last 3 years alone. Of course, I do use BRU and tape so I’m covered when the drives die. However, I also agree that the life expectancy of these things is far too short.
The issue seems to be related to the “cost” perspective in the eyes of the various USB / FW disk vendors – they’re more worried about the price of the product rather than the expected life of the product. For comparison, an enterprise grade 2TB raw disk costs $220 in OEM quantities ($350 retail). And THAT’S just the drive. On the other hand, the consumer grade 2TB drives run under $100. You can see where the average USB or FW drive falls.
However, stepping away from consumer grade USB / FW drives really depends on your system. Do you have Thunderbolt or an available PCIe slot? If not, you’re limited to a NAS-type solution. But, even those are either prone to failure (cheap) or very expensive. As with almost everything in the computer world, your choices are “High Quality”, “High Performance”, “Low Cost” – pick any TWO.
Finally, even if you do move to a RAID solution, you still face failures that can cost you data. While a RAID 5 solution can save you from a single drive event, it can’t save you from a filesystem failure, accidental deletion, user mistake, or multi-drive failure in the array. This is where backup comes into the picture. Sure, copying your files to more than one array may be a short term solution, but only something that can be safely taken offline for extended periods will truly save you on those tight schedules when Mr. Murphy has his way. Both Blu-Ray and Tape are good options, but tape (LTO especially) offers a much higher capacity point and performance than any optical disk solution.
I know of at least 7 movies in the last 4 years that would have suffered incredible time and budget overruns (if they could have even been finished at all) if it had not been for LTO tape backup. In each case, the result of the failure and subsequent restore operation was the loss of less than a day of operation and creative time.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
The same problem does not apply to any of our BRU products, we share nicely :-).
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
You need to use the LTFS code for your vendor’s drives. They are tied to the firmware inquiry vendor string.
As for other software, Retrospect is definitely an issue because their device daemon grabs the drive and refuses to share it with other processes. You’ll need to completely disable the RetroRun daemon (or whatever they may be calling it in the latest version).
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Compression for us is a myth. You will get 1.5TB/tape for LTO-5, 800GB/tape for LTO-4.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
I suspect that your disk performance is the main bottleneck on that system. By moving off of that disk configuration to something faster (215MB/sec is pretty slow for handling 4444), you’ll see a big improvement even on that system. To see what I’m talking about, grab the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test from the App Store and run it on that volume. I believe you’ll be surprised at how limiting that disk configuration is.
Here’s a fast example:
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
I agree with Bob on this. RAID 1/5/6 is good for “oops” protection, but it’s not good for “Oh S**T” protection. Drives fail and that’s why people perform backups. Plus, if you plan on keeping things around for longer that a few months, disk of any sort is not the best solution.
Also, as Bob mentions, LTO is really the safest, long term recoverable solution for backup and archival of the data that we generate on a daily basis. He’s also correct that it’s more expensive in the short term, but it adds infinite expansion and the costs per GB drop very quickly after your first few tapes of data. LTO-4 tapes are below $30 now (800GB/tape) and LTO-5 tape are right under $50 (1.5TB/tape). Both offer a shelf life in the 30-50 year range (conservatively) and require no maintenance to keep your data safe – just a stable storage location.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
I suspect that depends on your system, more than the FCP X update. What are your specs?
I have a Mac Pro 5,1 8 core with SAS RAID-0 Array of 6 2TB, 7200RPM drives (~800MB/sec), 16GB RAM, and a Quadro FX 4800 1.75GB and I’m seeing very few to no slow downs in tests with 4444 footage. While my tests are only 10 minutes or so, I can scrub chroma composites with no glitching and tests with that configuration compared to 442 converted footage seems to be very similar in performance.
The same footage on my older MP 4,1 with 8GB and the ATI graphics card are unbearable with the same version of FCP X.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
Hopefully, most of you following this thread saw my other post. The ATTO drivers have been updated and posted on ATTO’s site for download. We’ve tested the released versions and they are working as expected on all platforms.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
A RAID-base NAS would definitely be a good option for expanding your storage and giving yourself a boost in both edit and render performance, but that will limit you to the speed of your machine’s networking.
If your budget allows, I would recommend an Areca or Highpoint RAID card in your Windows box with a Sans Digital 6GB 4 or 8 drive SATA/SAS chassis. You can then add hard drives to your required capacity point (up to 24TB in the 8 drive array), and gain both capacity and performance that these RAID configurations offer.
If you’d rather not “do it yourself”, many vendors participating here on Creative Cow offer disk array solutions that would be pretty much plug and play with your Windows editing environment and offer capacity and performance to take you to the next level in your efforts.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!
