[Request For Feedback] External storage for Video production

[jwojda]

We are researching the best way to implement 100+TB storage solution for some video editing project. And unfortunately I don't have any experience with either of these solutions.

Apple is recommending XSan environment and our existing storage infrastructure team is recommending an OSX Server front end (AFP Connectivity) to a netapp backend connected via a fiber channel protocol.

Since it's going to be a video editing storage solution speed is very high priority, followed by reliability.

Has anybody had any experience with either of these solutions? Pros/Cons you've run into would be very helpful!

Thank you!

[nessts]

Well Xsan has been an adventure, I can promise you that if you can stay away from having to manage it the better your quality of life will be. I have a video editing group that has 48TB of disk, all fibre connected and most of the time things are quiet and good, but all of the sudden new stuff happens, we started out on 10.7.4 right before 10.8 came out and we had problems where meta data searches would crash the file system, so we upgraded the servers to 10.8.2 i think and everything was ok, then we started migrating the clients to 10.8.2 as well and then files started magically disappearing, ending up in the trash of other computers or just gone all together. Now we need to upgrade to 10.8.4 to fix that. Who knows what fun new problem we will experience. And for me at this point i would not put an Apple server in for anything anywhere as the server teams are very successful at not managing the Apple servers and leaving it to the desktop engineering team. My guess is you are going to have to get some sort of SAN type solution, if you plan to edit directly on the server storage there are some other black box solutions that you can look into, some hosted on linux OS, that maybe you can get your server teams to manage. Other than when are having problems the users have been able to edit and work great on the Xsan. its just the problems last for months until Apple finds us a fix sometimes. I could just be lucky or unlucky though lots of people run Xsan.

[Chris_Hafner]

Unfortunately I don't have anything specific to recommend. However, I second the "DON'T BUY APPLES " Save money by using XSAN solution". There are many many very fast solutions out there. Unfortunately I only have secondary knowledge of these products. I'm sure several others will jump in here with great possibilities. The big question has to do with the amount of cash that can be thrown at this (though no need to post that!).

[donmontalvo]

I'm in the "DON'T BY APPLES" camp too. I spent six figures on Xserve and Xserve RAID for one environment only to have the rug pulled from under me. No enterprise love for Apple. LOL

Since that belly flop, we've partnered with Small-Tree (Steve Modica) when planning this kind of stuff, they're honest and can point you in the right direction, with respect to high performance storage solution for video production.

http://www.small-tree.com

Don

[timward1]

John, I'm with Small Tree Communications. I think we can help you. You can contact me at tim@small-tree.com

[TroyP]

For that kind of storage i would be asking storage vendors.
EMC, NETAPP, Dell Equallogic.

[Niels_Illem]

Our 34 TB Xsan used for video-editting isn't large enough and we're looking also for a 100 TB solution. The number of concurrent clients is also something to consider. We've approx 20 MacPro edit stations and 20 instruction iMac's.

After the holiday season we'll test a Facilis Terrablock solution. We want to edit over ethernet using our new network build on Juniper. 20 Gbit from our DC to our faculty and 1 of 2 Gbit to the clients, of course with QoS.

I've played a little with the Terrablock Manager and it's simple. Heard that the next release will also integrate with LDAP solutions.

[scottb]

I'll sadly add myself to the "Don't buy Apple" on this one. We put in a number of 6-figure XSAN/RAID setups in LA & NY running fiber to video and audio workstations in 2007. It actually worked great, sans some Active Directory issues in one studio. It was fast and mostly reliable. Then, Apple dumped us and offered Mac Mini's and Mac Pros for "servers".
I'm sure there's better things out there today, and managing the aged and ignored XSAN world would indeed be a world of hurt. Too bad too.
But it also matters if you're rendering from the servers or just using the 100+ TB to store the files. There's lots of options, you just need to match them with what they're going to do and how.

Good luck! This should have been something ? stuck with and did well. But they hosed us.

[donmontalvo]

Drool..... up to an 144-drive system with 4TB drives...

http://www.small-tree.com/TitaniumZ_16_p/tz-16.htm