Storage idea for DIY Scarleteers

[Max Link]

I just found this article (http://www.dv.com/features/features_item.php?articleId=196604308) through DV News&Views and thought I ought to share it with you guys...

Storage has been one of my greatest concerns about Scarlet from the start, since Desktop RAID solutions are quite pricy. But only after reading this did I realise that you can actually get all the parts needed to make a high performance external RAID storage system individually and assemble them yourself, saving money you can spend on much more interesting things. I'll definitely be looking into building my own cute little 6TB RAID5...

[dingos8mybaby]

I think you mean 6TB...

[Max Link]

Uhm. Yeah. My bad :D - Serves me right for posting that late.

[Florin Andrei]

Don't forget to have an exit route for the situation when the RAID card itself gets fried. :) Redundancy is not only for the disks. At least save the current RAID card configuration and make sure you can purchase an identical one at any time.

If you're using Linux for the storage server, you can just do software RAID. This way you eliminate one component that can fail (the RAID card), it's cheaper, and in many situations is just as fast as "hardware" RAID - yes, I know, it's counterintuitive, but true.

Finally, RAID doesn't protect you from that true brainfart moment when you wipe out completely a whole directory. It does happen every once in a while. :) Sometimes the files can be recovered, some other times you're just out of luck.

[knut]

If you're using Linux for the storage server, you can just do software RAID. This way you eliminate one component that can fail (the RAID card), it's cheaper, and in many situations is just as fast as "hardware" RAID - yes, I know, it's counterintuitive, but true.

It's right, that the RAID itself is as fast as a hardware-RAID, but don't forget that your CPU has to do all the work that a dedicated RAID-card would do. When you need this 3-5% or so it is the way to go.

[lnp25]

so... not being a raid user... And only knowing a little about it... Will FW-3200 wipe out raid speedwise??? I'm realizing more and more I may need a raid, but, would really like to not have to deal with it.. everyone seems to do nothing but tell people they need them, and then complain about them failing... So is fw-3200 and or usb 3.0 gona make raids unesccecary?

CB

[Max Link]

So is fw-3200 and or usb 3.0 gona make raids unesccecary?

No, they'll just give you more options to connect them to your system.
The speed of a volume always depends on what hardware that volume is made up of, and while some single HDDs can be pretty fast these days, constant read speeds of 600MBps like the most epensive RAID solutions offer will be "RAID-only" domain for quite some time - one file read from several drives simultaneously gets to you faster than the same file stored on only one disk.

However, high speed video RAIDs easily hit the bottleneck of RAID-to-PC-connection, current high-speed options being limited to eSATA-, or, for seroius applications, SAS-based RAID controllers - FW400, for example, could only handle about 1/5th of the data rate a high-end RAID would provide. FW3200 and USB3 might introduce some new options there.

[fde101]

If the server is dedicated to being used for storage, the extra overhead on the CPUs should be irrelevant. It's only meaningful if the server is also running the editor.

If the server is in fact dedicated, consider using OpenSolaris instead with its ZFS filesystem. Provides software RAID-like capabilities, but is much easier to manage, provides superior error handling, and offers low-cost "snapshots" of sorts which can be useful for going back to old versions of your data...

Definitely the best filesystem out there right now, and OpenSolaris is also available as a free download.

If the server is going to be used as the editing system as well, then you'd be a bit more limited in terms of available software, unfortunately...

[fde101]

Any opinions on the newer Drobos?

http://www.drobo.com/Products/Index.html


4TB disk space provides 2.7TB of storage plus protection, for $1300...

FireWire 800 and USB2 interfaces.

Not as fast as the box in the article, but much cheaper. Fast enough?

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/570430-REG/Data_Robotics_DR04DD10_4_Bay_Drobo_Robotic_Storage .html

Me likes this.

[fde101]

That price is without the drives of course...

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

Yeah, because I wanna stuff Seagates in it, not WD Caviars (like in B&H kits).

[Luke Stewart]

But the Drobo is not made for editing video. The data transfer rate won't be high enough for what most of us want to do (no eSATA). Its too bad, because the price is right. But it seems great for storage if speed is not a deciding factor.

Data Transfer Rate

FireWire-800
Approximately 40MB/sec

USB 2.0
Read: 22 MB/sec
Write: 20 MB/sec

[Luke Stewart]

What about this one?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/520408-REG/FirmTek_SATA_5PM_SeriTek_5PM_5_Bay_Host_Swap_Exter nal.html

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

Thanks Luke...

Is this FirmTek good? Anyone?
I'd need a controller card anyway...

I think I'd end up just doing some internal RAID.

[knut]

You can find many tests of RAID-cards and enclosures on http://www.amug.org/. There ist also a test of the Firmtek. Even if they test in Macs, the speed should almost be the same on Windows.

[Luke Stewart]

Hey thanks knut! That site is amazing. Ugly, but great info.

They sure gave that FirmTek box a glowing review: http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/5pm/

I may actually end up buying one of these!

CalDigit is still my top choice for a RAID setup, but is too pricey for my budget. The transfer rates those units sustain are incredible though. (plus Peter likes em :D)

Taking a second look at the DROBO, this would be great for archiving footage. Not to directly edit from, but just to back up your stuff- very affordable and expandable. I emailed em asking if they were planning on an eSATA version any time soon.

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/534459-REG/CalDigit_719114_X_2_TB_S2VR_Duo.html

Why doesn't it support RAID 5?

Do they have other box that doesn't cost $1000+ with more than 2TB that does RAID 5?

Does the FirmTek do RAID 5?

[Dances With Cameras]

What about that 3ware thing? SideCar?

http://www.3ware.com/products/Ext_serial_ata2-9000.asp

Pricey, but seems pretty solid. Anyone tried it?

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

Regular Price: $765.00 Sale Price: $382.50

Hmmmm ... Is that right Kara?
I'd buy it now hehe.

[tsvisser@yahoo.com]

I would keep it simple...

1 MAC Pro with good processors / video cards and 4 SATA drives in RAID-0
1 MAC Pro with conservative processors / video and 4 SATA drives in RAID-5

offline storage of data to Blu-Ray or other writable media.

the 2nd Mac Pro would be a simple file server and pool for media, where all the go fast / intense I/O and processing can be done on your workstation Mac Pro. Logic and Final Cut could even use the 2nd machine via gig Ethernet to offload some processing from your workstation.

[Luke Stewart]

What about that 3ware thing? SideCar?

http://www.3ware.com/products/Ext_serial_ata2-9000.asp

Pricey, but seems pretty solid. Anyone tried it?

Specs look good. Too bad the only benchmarks they publish is with 10,000 RPM drives. Smokin' fast but wondering what the speed would be with regular 7200 RPM drives.

9550SX-8 RAID 5 Read 480 MB/sec
9550SX-8 RAID 5 Write 333 MB/sec

[Luke Stewart]

Does the FirmTek do RAID 5?

Yes. Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 according to the AMUG review.

[knut]

Yes. Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 according to the AMUG review.

You should note, that they say, that it depends on the card you are using to connect the enclosure to your computer, because the RAID is built via the card and not with a dedicated controller in the enclosure. That is what the pricier enclosures do.

Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 with RR2314, 2314MS or 2522.