Make network drive a performance volume?

[bakerja]

Anyone know of a way to make a network drive work as a performance volume? I use gigabit speed lan to access extra hard drives for video editing and multitrack audio in programs other than PT and the throughput is more than adequate. Pro tools insists on using only local drives for performance volumes. It seems there should be a way of doing this in pro tools given the speed of gigabit networks.

[spkguitar]

You can map the drives as local drives and Pro Tools should be able to use them.

Performance from those drives will probably be another issue altogether.

[NeveSSL]

It's not just the speed of gigabit networks... it's everything. Instead of just going through the data bus to the hard drive, the info has got to be computed several different times to reach its destination... once from PT on the local PC, then to the NIC (which is the local PC again unless you have some serious server NICs), over the network (which involves at a MINIMUM of one switch or hub... and hopefully the former), then by the other nic, then by the server who finally stores it. You're looking at potential latency problems EVERYwhere. Not to mention, you're network is going to have to be perfect and not drop ANY packets for it to be seamless (which just flat out doesn't happen) because if it does, the process starts all over at the NIC, which takes even more from your PC.

There are MANY reasons not to map a network drive to record to and these are just a couple.

Brandon

[dillon99999]

i agree with the two previous posters.

you are just asking for trouble with this type of setup.

i can't see how it is better than just recording to a local hard drive (or even an external usb2.0 or firewire drive).

if you really want the best performance, i would recommend a pair of SATA II hard drives in RAID-0 (striped) mode.

that is what i use, and have no issues what-so-ever.

i know that digidesign does not support / recommend RAID-0 - but their reasons are not clear nor conclusive - and i haven't had a single issue with running my setup this way.

good luck if you want to go gigabit ethernet - you will probably need it.

[NeveSSL]

...

if you really want the best performance, i would recommend a pair of SATA II hard drives in RAID-0 (striped) mode.

...

Exactly... especially with WD 10kRPM Raptors... they're SATAI, but it's all good with the 10K spindle speed.

Brandon

[bakerja]

I was hoping this would work more for convenience thing than anything. I use a laptop with gigabit connection to a server machine (1 gigabit switch) which houses drive bays for removable ata drives. Each individual clients sessions may be on any one of 8 or so hard drives. What I do with the video files is simply mount that volume on the desktop machine and share it on the LAN. I was hoping to use a similar approach with my pro tools sessions to avoid the copying back and forth. Oh well, I'll get used to the copying I guess.

Thanks,
JAB

[bakerja]

Sean,

Protools recognizes mapped drives as a "Transfer Volume" and therefore must copy the files to a "Performance Volume" before using them. That is what I am trying to get around. I was hoping that the gigabit speed would be sufficient. I do this with quite complicated video editing projects and the network performace is flawless.

thanks,
JAB

[audioboffin]

i know that digidesign does not support / recommend RAID-0 - but their reasons are not clear nor conclusive - and i haven't had a single issue with running my setup this way.

It would be difficult for Digi to qualify RAID arrays given the number of combinations of hardware. I think we can all agree that when digi DOES qualify hardware, that it is stable. I remember working of stuff in 2000 on external firewire drives using a Mix system, 128 tracks in the session arranged so that 64 were in play at any time. I was talking on the phone to a Digi support guy about a problem with a Magna expansion chassis, and he asked me what the music was I was playing. I told him it was a massive PT session playing off one firewire drive. He was convinced at the time that it was not possible. It took Digi a while after that to qualify various firewire enclosures and drives, and all of those combinations worked very well.

Some of these more "unusual" requirements may work sometimes, but if you need to be 100% productive it's safer not to gamble.

Having said that, if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space !