Major issues with Nexis

[David McCarthy]

I'm having a hellish time trying to get PT to work with our Nexis Pro.
For over ten years we've done solid work with Mac Pro5,1s and incorporated the Nexis about five years ago without any problems. It was a terrific workflow.
Recently, we decided the time was right to upgrade the studios as we had pretty much reached end-of-life with hardware, OS and software.

We opted for the Mac Studio M1 Max with Sonnet expansion chassis for the HDX cards. Out of the box they would not play nicely with the Nexis. The Nexis system software was pretty old so I knew that would be an issue, but it also wouldn't talk to a newer Nexis that we have for video work.

For a while we worked locally which worked - mostly - but was inconvenient. I then repurposed a Synology NAS for studio connectivity and that has been working - mostly.

Now, I have updated the Nexis system and the Nexis Clients. I have updated the MacOS. I have updated Pro Tools. I checked that all components were compatible according to Avid documentation. Still no good.

The issues seem to be read/write ones. First thing I tried after confirming everything was running the appropriate software was a "Save Copy In", copying a project from the NAS to the Nexis. A few seconds in... 'bad address' error. I can't describe how depressing this was! This error cropped up frequently when we first upgraded, most noticeable when opening AAFs.

Next, I tried to move the Project folder from the NAS to the Nexis in the Finder. 150MB in... computer spontaneously shut down and rebooted. This happened twice and seems replicable.

Next, I moved a project from the NAS to the desktop and then to the Nexis. That worked. So is the two-way network traffic causing a problem?

Finally, I opened a project from the Nexis. So far, so good. Played OK. A couple of things I tried indicated that the Nexis workspace didn't have record permissions but I fixed that. Then I went to render a clip using Audiosuite and Pro Tools hung. I left it and went for a coffee. Came back. Still hung. Forced quit - restarted Mac - tried again. Same.

I haven't done much more as I have a lot of work to get on with so I'm back on the NAS. There are other non-Nexis issues like 'missing codec' errors when I've been playing a session with the same video file perfectly well for several days prior. But for now, if I can just sort this Nexis issue I'll be happy.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? It does feel like a networking thing. I've submitted a support case with Avid so will work through it with them but I know fellow-users often have genius ideas that might help.

Many thanks.

Mac Studio M1 Max
Sonnet Echo 1
Pro Tools HDX

PT Ultimate 2022.9
MacOS 12.5.1
Nexis Pro 22.5.0.109

1GB Network

[StefB]

https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=420842

I have 22 systems running off Nexis and experiencing the same issues even after upgrading to Nexis 2022.5 (which is way better but still sucks) and Pro Tools 2022.9. It works "ok" (just sometimes cannot save) until you open audio suite and then it pops. I am at the point where I am considering pulling the M1 macs and replacing them with second hand Intel Macs. I would go PC but we are running VoiceQ (mac only) on all those machines. We have 2 x Nexis Pro 40TB bonded and one stand-alone.

[Brandonx1]

My M1 Max is working perfect with my qnap NAS. I know not a Nexis but a network drive.

[David McCarthy]

A Synology NAS is our current workaround but not as solid with several workstations hitting it.

[David McCarthy]

Didn't see that thread. Thanks, Stef. So things came good, briefly, in July but are still unstable? We've just avoided it altogether as we cannot afford the downtime.

I just spoke to a friendly contact at Avid who thinks this could be related to a known problem and will contact Avid support at a higher level to investigate and escalate my support case. I'll keep you posted.

[StefB]

Hi David,
I see Nexis update 2022.9 was released on 19 October - I will install that over the weekend and see if there was any improvement - I do not see it on the read.me
https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...-Documentation

[tklaavo]

Hi

We have issues too. Here's the setup:

- Mac Studio M1 Max, 32GB RAM, Monterey 12.6.1
- Pro Tools Ultimate 2022.10
- Latest software, both Nexis and Client manager
- Nexis Pro 20TB, Dell N4032 switch
- Using the Mac Studio's 10Gb ethernet for Nexis connection

Getting random "unable to auto save" messages. At some point Pro Tools freezes while writing the auto save file. The last autosaved session is incomplete, as it is smaller than the previous ones. This happens every couple of hours.

Our intel machines do not have this problem.

Tuomas

[StefB]

For what it is worth:

Avid Nexis 2022.12 released on 18 Jan 2023 - Installed server and client just now ...will feed back on how it goes.

[Fredpipe]

Fingers crossed here. Any news on the outcome?

[georgesenior]

Hi, Has anyone had any updates on this? Running a Mac Studio M1 on Monterey and Pro Tools 2022.10 and latest Nexis which is seeming to have the same saving issues.