Purchasing a Server for a Production Company

Jimmy Pierce

Jimmy Pierce

Well-known member
I just recently got the go ahead to begin making a list of equipment that will be purchased for the production company I work for. Woo hoo!.

Anyways, the first thing on my list is equipment to be able to network all of our computers and set up a rackable raid server for massive storage. I have been looking at various options, like Apple's Xsan 2 and Cineraid, but I don't know where to go from here. What should I be looking for? Where should I be looking? Are some ways better than others?

This has been at the top of my list since realizing that we have way too many external drives and need a more condensed system.
 
DROBO?!? As a multi-editor SERVER? HELL NO!

Small tree is the cheapest, but there are many options. What you need to do is NOT purchase this yourself. Hire someone or a company to assess your needs and install the SAN (Shared Area Network), and offer a maintenance contract. This isn't something to mess with. Not as easy as figuring out a single station setup...not by a longshot. I myself don't do it.

Where are you located?
 
Single station, but I need massive storage. Offsite backup is taken care of with a NAS.

Chicago.
 
Single station? Good, that makes things easy. When you say massive, what is massive to you? 18TB? 24TB? Or do you need 49TB?
 
TOO low end Sparticus. The only drives that can connect to that are FW400 drives... the only connection type GigE Ethernet. And then you'd need a switcher...but oh, you can't really do that without an expanded ethernet card in the MacMini...which you can't do because it doesn't do that. And trying to get more than one machine to playback footage from a FW400 drive. Impossible.

Look at the Small Tree offering. A MacPro with ethernet card and ethernet switcher is really the cheapest you can go for more than 2 seats. If only two, you can just connec the drives on one mac and share to the other. But not Firewire...WAY to slow for multiple machines.
 
Well I guess "low end" is the market I´m in, ngo stuff, online video, smaller corporate video, indie music videos, eng - not color correcting the new BUDlight add here...;o)
The G-Tech support in Germany is practically non-existent, drives have to be sent to the UK, which is unacceptable for me. Unfortunately I already have 6 G-Raids, one with a broken FW interface (USB still works), one with a soon dying HDD (at least it sounds like it...) and the biggest one with 4 drives has a fan that is as loud as a blender...
I guess I will have to change my way of thinking first, before buying a 2TB server/NAS for 2K, I´d rather want another iMac ;o)
Thanks guys!
 
We run 2 x 16 bay Axus Yotta Sans with a third running as backup. All connected by dual channel Fibre two 6 MacPros and an Xserve running Final Cut Server. Using Apples XSAN software. All I can say is, as soon as you want more than a few terabytes of online storage GET A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR. As I think I am pretty knowledgeable about all things computer, worked for a VAR for 5 years, Adobe Ambassador etc. and after seeing some of the issues that need to be dealt with with a higher end SAN, I dont feel skilled enough to even plug and unplug the fibre cables let alone setup and manage a Fibre SAN. Also Final Cut Server is OK, but by no means a truly good implementation of a media server for mid to high end work. Damn thing cant even generate a report of how much info is in the Server, what kind of database cant generate a report?
 
Right... things are relatively simple with a 1-workstation system, but if you are thinking of ever expanding that (and you will, quite likely), things get a lot more complex. Primarily, some software WILL NOT WORK with file-level networked storage (that is, with most lower-end networked storage devices). This is where a SAN (storage area network) comes in, supporting protocols (such as iSCSI) that look to each computer like there's a block-level device directly attached to the computer. The hardware/software that allows this level of shared access without allowing filesystems and files to become corrupted is complex and expensive, and, as stated, usually put together in consultation with special integrators or at least server company reps.

Most pro audio software (e.g., ProTools, DP, etc.) WILL NOT WORK with non-block-level file access. I haven't surveyed the video software as thoroughly, but at least some some seems to work OK... though with occasional glitches and problems (writing large files, etc.)
 
Shane Ross said:
DROBO?!? As a multi-editor SERVER? HELL NO!

Small tree is the cheapest, but there are many options. What you need to do is NOT purchase this yourself. Hire someone or a company to assess your needs and install the SAN (Shared Area Network), and offer a maintenance contract. This isn't something to mess with. Not as easy as figuring out a single station setup...not by a longshot. I myself don't do it.

Where are you located?
Click to expand...

I started making some calls today. Like Shane has said, this is not an editor's task. I haven't made any decisions yet. The people I spoke to were from Cineraid and Editshare. Basically they both told me they customize the system to fit the client's needs. I did share a few facts about our company, post production wise, that I thought would help them get a better idea of what I want to do. I didn't explain enough though. Another production company I know uses an Apple Xsan & Xserve 2 system, which was set up by someone with the right kind of mind. Their set up is pretty clean, it appears, but I am sure it is also one of the more expensive options, which is fine, because a lot of times expensive just means better. The product is a big part of this decision, but it is also a question of what my needs are. I can honestly say the company is far above the stage it was when it began. More projects a year, different formats coming in and out, and we're leaning towards more HD and Red footage. I know this stuff is always changing, but I'd like our set up to be able to survive the times for a couple years or even a couple decades. Currently we only have one computer, but I am sure we will have more in the future. I want to be prepared for what's next.

What kind of questions and answers should be noted when dealing with this kind of thing?

# of projects?
codec formats?
# of computers?
type of computers?
editing software?
workflow?

Any others?

I also want to be able to make the server accessible online. I have doubts that as of now, the ability to transfer and modify large amounts of digital video over a network from another state, or even another country is not in our budget right now. But if possible, I want to eventually be able to have two servers in two different cities, both accessible to each other and the workstations that are connected to them through a local network. We travel every year, and having the ability to access raw footage transferred to the server in Los Angeles, and be able to seamlessly edit it in Florida would open so many doors for us. To be able to flawlessly open a project in Chicago that had begun in Florida by someone else and be able to make changes to it would be amazing.
 
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Here's another thing I learned. Not all companies offer a raid system that is useful for more than one computer. If we were to get, let's say, a Cineraid system, how would one make it shareable on a network?
 
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