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  #11  
Old 12-02-2018, 12:56 PM
s.d. finley s.d. finley is offline
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Default Re: NAS as working drive

Thank you for the reply Darryl! I thought there was a new ethernet hi speed format called 10MG that used CAT 5 and CAT6 for higher speeds. Maybe I am needing a SAS network. I just checked out the AVID NAS, $15K to start
I took a look at Macsales.com, OWC, and they have a system also. I would want a central HD storage with the ability to read and write to those drives from 4 to 5 workstations and have some type of RAID system for backups too. I probably do need to call and speak with a network advisor.
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  #12  
Old 12-02-2018, 05:40 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is online now
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Default Re: NAS as working drive

Quote:
Originally Posted by s.d. finley View Post
Thank you for the reply Darryl! I thought there was a new ethernet hi speed format called 10MG that used CAT 5 and CAT6 for higher speeds. Maybe I am needing a SAS network. I just checked out the AVID NAS, $15K to start
I took a look at Macsales.com, OWC, and they have a system also. I would want a central HD storage with the ability to read and write to those drives from 4 to 5 workstations and have some type of RAID system for backups too. I probably do need to call and speak with a network advisor.
I'm not sure. I think you are referring to 2.5/5 Gbit Ethernet over UTP copper which I think might sometimes be called "MG" something (multi-Gigabit?) ??. By 10Gbit you really need to be on Cat 6 or above, or optical. And there is a whole slew of standards and acronyms.

I'd be trying to meet at least 10 Gbit Ethernet needs now. With 10 Gbit over copper appearing on more and more PCs and iMac Pro and Mac Mini (as an option) we'll see more and more of this adopted. So makes sense to be trying to make sure at least new studio data wiring is Cat 6/6a or better and main switches and new NAS storage systems etc. are capable of 10 Gbit. Don't just look at the cable and read a label, it's how well its installed as well, terminated/punched down etc. For some applications, I'd go out of my way to pull optical cables... secure, isolated, reliable, and less interference possibilities.... and multiple confusing options there... from Ethernet standards, cable wiring, connectors and connector modules. I'm was serious about getting an expert involved

Popping up a level with NAS. To me the starting point in a studio environment would seem to be a staging and archive/backup system. Copy a session down to local (Fast PCIe based SSD of course ) storage and then push an updated copy back at the end of the session. And hopefully be automated or organized enough not to overwrite things. With good user management, security etc. across the system. I'm a technology geek and audio hobbies who happens to work in enterprise IT technology development... and I have *no* recommendations for practical studio NAS systems, I hope others do here.

One thing that I would be paranoid about with storage systems that are so complex they increase the chance of data loss or botched recovery or lock you into super-expensive proprietary expansion options. Again, think through multi-user administration, security etc.

And SAS.. I think that was a typo and you meant SAN. I'd not go there today unless you already have SAN infrastructure in use and wanted to expand. In general NAS/Ethernet has really eaten SAN/FC and I think is the future of all distributed storage.

Anyhow my 2c.

Last edited by Darryl Ramm; 12-03-2018 at 12:30 PM.
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  #13  
Old 12-07-2018, 05:20 AM
bartosz idzi bartosz idzi is offline
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Default Re: NAS as working drive

I would recommend FreeNAS to everyone interested.
You need a server, preferably based on Supermicro motherboard, with a Xeon processor, and about 24-32GB of Ram. You can get these pretty cheap on ebay, even with hard drives, with multibays for up to 24 drives, if you so wish.
There is some learning curve involved, no doubt, but it's very much worth it, in my opinion.

ZFS as a file system is great, there is a lot of security and redundancy, with Smart monitoring, so as long as you use RAIDz2 for example, you will not lose any data, and just can replace the drives as they fail with age. The version that works great is FreeNAS-11.1-U6.

Works great with Pro Tools and it's caching system, as you can play the section of the project and it all gets cached firstly in the NAS memory, then in the workstation memory - so disk activity is basically minimal.

One caveat though, these guys are noisy, so you have to mod it a little to be quieter - I replaced 3 fans in mine, and use the fan control script for my motherboard (the one that works with the script for sure is X10SLM+-F)

for example this server would do fine, i have a very similar one.

It's also upgradeable to 10GBps via SFP+ ethernet card if you'd like - there are cards for 2009-2012 Mac Pros out there that work with the standard, so you could achieve pretty nice speed. Haven't tried it yet, but soon will.

Last edited by bartosz idzi; 12-07-2018 at 05:40 AM.
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  #14  
Old 12-10-2018, 12:10 AM
Stephen Webster Stephen Webster is offline
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Default Re: NAS as working drive

Hi guys

Been experimenting with running sessions off of NAS's the last few weeks, and have done exactly what was suggested earlier in the thread, using a Mac Pro as a "NAS" buy just sharing a local drive on the network and mounting it on the workstation Mac Pro's.

Running sessions off the shared drive works really well with disc cache, basically nothing happening on the drive as its all cached. The problem im having is running video off the shared drive (as we are a post studio)

The data rate of the video file (even as a DNxHD) is minimal (compared to the network speed) barely touching 10MB/s while streaming the video. But for some reason the video freezes in Pro Tools, the session keeps running perfectly, just the video freezes. I can push stop, and play again and it runs fine, but the video freezes in the exact same spot every time, not randomly, which confuses me. Just a note, the same video file runs fine when accessed locally.

Any ideas?
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  #15  
Old 12-10-2018, 09:43 AM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is online now
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Default Re: NAS as working drive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Webster View Post
Hi guys

Been experimenting with running sessions off of NAS's the last few weeks, and have done exactly what was suggested earlier in the thread, using a Mac Pro as a "NAS" buy just sharing a local drive on the network and mounting it on the workstation Mac Pro's.

Running sessions off the shared drive works really well with disc cache, basically nothing happening on the drive as its all cached. The problem im having is running video off the shared drive (as we are a post studio)

The data rate of the video file (even as a DNxHD) is minimal (compared to the network speed) barely touching 10MB/s while streaming the video. But for some reason the video freezes in Pro Tools, the session keeps running perfectly, just the video freezes. I can push stop, and play again and it runs fine, but the video freezes in the exact same spot every time, not randomly, which confuses me. Just a note, the same video file runs fine when accessed locally.

Any ideas?
(I am not a video person) But DNxHD in MXF or QuickTime/MOV? What happens if you play in QuickTime stand alone? Stops at *exactly* the same spot each time... likely points more to player side issues being triggered by something. What happens if you get through the stop, go back to the beginning and start playing again? Happens in one video or session or all videos beyond a certain length or all videos encoded exactly the same?
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  #16  
Old 01-31-2019, 06:03 AM
priorytools priorytools is offline
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Default Re: NAS as working drive

Hi peoples. .

We have 2 x QNAP NAS on different sites for archiving. . .
We initially had firmware version 4.3.4 and commenced ingesting data. .
All sessions were opened & checked following ingestion & marked NASCHECKED.
Splendid.
Down the line, we updated the firmware to 5.3.5
Upon opening a "NASCHECKED" session, an AIFF session from 2003, the session was now unable to link to the audio files. . Upon closer inspection I saw that those old aiff files didn't have the .aiff suffix. . . Adding the .aiff suffix fixed the problem. . I opened a support ticket with QNAP, but they have gone very quiet having escalated the ticket up their support chain. .
So, I'm just letting you know that this is an extremely annoying issue.
Some one told me that the aiff format has been changed from big endian .aiff to little endian aiff-c.

If any of you have old PT aiff sessions you might want to try opening those old sessions & see what's occurring. .
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