Xsanity Forums

Hardware: Promise Storage :: RE: Expansion Chassis or another Active/Active Controller

Author: abstractrude
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 4:04 am (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 1

you can attach 1 (j series)jbod in video environments

Hardware: Promise Storage :: RE: communication

Author: abstractrude
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:52 am (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 1

make sure you have both ethernet ports plugged in, mine always freaked out with 1 in. I have Never had problems using the serial connection

Troubleshooting :: RE: Slow Issues, Dropped Frames, Big Headache

Author: abstractrude
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:46 am (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 2

sometimes, xsan can be frustrating. but DNS is usually the answer.
when your xsan admin app hangs like that it is because of DNS problems. i have seen the same issue in multiple installs.
I honestly think you should setup your own dns service on your secondary controller. have it forward to your campus DNS.

setup two primary zones
public.yourdomain.com
private.yourdomain.com metdata (network)

add records for the controllers and make sure all your san attached machines including controllers are using that DNS server. I had a client once who had a crazy security guy that wouldn't let me run bind, so I used the /etc/hosts file and it worked just fine. make sure you test forward/reverse lookups for both networks. Also try to make your metadata network flat and keep it from being routed to the rest of the campus.

once you get dns fixed, if the problem still exists lets clean up. ensure your zoning is correct. what fibre switch are you on? ensure quality fibre connections, make sure your fibre card is running at full speed. What codecs are you using and how much bandwith do you need. What has changed in the last couple weeks?

Also, slow logins is another symptom of bad DNS. Open directory is another service that usually flips out when DNS is not correct.

Are you having the same issue with with playback and digitization.
Have you run a metadata defrag? whats your storage allocation policy and storage pool configs?
with the config you mentioned you probably are using prores? do you have the same issues on other codecs?

also what do you mean when you saw they wont bind to Open Directory? trusted bind?
i know there is a lot here, but these are the things I would be asking myself.

you can PM if you want

-T

Troubleshooting :: RE: Slow Issues, Dropped Frames, Big Headache

Author: palamudikkilli
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:31 am (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 2

How much free space is available in your volume? Have you checked the fragmentation levels?

General Xsan Talk :: RE: Mirrored X-SAN's

Author: palamudikkilli
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 1:55 am (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 10

Yes, Archiware's PreStore is a poor man's version for keeping a copy of your data if you can afford to live with the loss of some data during a catastrophic scenario (it is not a true "mirror"). I have used it since 2005 with Xsan. Great product.

For those with mission critical needs and with decent money, I recommend Cloverleaf. Yes, it adds complexity, but it gives you plenty of options.

Troubleshooting :: Slow Issues, Dropped Frames, Big Headache

Author: dchadd
Subject: Slow Issues, Dropped Frames, Big Headache
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:18 am (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 2

Hello this is my first time posting here but I feel that if anyone can help me its you guys.

We have two intel xservers running 10.4.11
One is the primary MDC and the other is the ODM and fail over MDC Both running xsan version 1.4.2

We then have two xserve raids. The raids are hosting 4 luns two of them serve as primary video storage. One is the metadata for that storage. And one more lun for the all the assets we use.

We have 6 FCP editors connected through fibre channel and private metadata lan. Public corp lan is on each of the computers for internet and management purposes.

Apple came and installed this for us. Everything was running flawlessly till two weeks ago. I noticed slow logins, Dropped frames like crazy when trying to capture DV and HDV.

I did find a dns error which the windows it department at my workplace corrected and now the dns is working. I did a reverse lookup on both servers and clients. The dns error was on the ODM.

Now I am having the following problems:

Slow login
Dropped Frames(tested with xsan tuner as well)
If I open up xsan admin on the ODM it takes over 10 minutes to refresh the state of the san and it is much faster on the MDC
Two computers will not bind to the open directory

I have a feeling that all these problems are related.

I did call apple but they would only help me with the xserver and not xsan due to an expired 1 year warranty. The guy said he thinks it was a problem with xsan and he couldn't help me any further.

Things I have tried:
Full Reboot(The Way Apple Suggests)
Reverse DNS Lookup
Checked XSAN file system
Hitting the xserve(just kidding)

Any ideas? If you need any more information let me know and please tell me how to get to it incase I do not know. I am still a newbie when it comes to this.

Hardware: Promise Storage :: Expansion Chassis or another Active/Active Controller

Author: abelian
Subject: Expansion Chassis or another Active/Active Controller
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:23 pm (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 1

For highest performance for video affinity, is it ideal to expand XSAN 2 with the Controller Module Shelf or Expansion Chassis Shelf.

If you have Additional Fibre Channel Ports available on the switch, it would seem like a better idea to add Controller Shelves.

Can anybody do a real world test?

Cost would be 4 Fibre Channel Ports on the switch and $4K.

Troubleshooting :: RE: Final Cut Error "Out of Disk Space" and Assets goi

Author: MacCyclone
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:53 pm (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 15

jif84 wrote:

Quote:

what's the update? Still having issue to write to XSAN? tried with local admin account already?

Ok so from the primary mdc I was able to save a final cut pro project file to the xsan. I was logged into the local admin account. What does this mean?

jif84,

have you tried with local admin account on your 7 macpro clients? is it OK or not? Did you try to remove the FCP plist and the 3 files I mentioned last time?

You said that you were able to save final cut pro project file to xsan on primary mdc. Did you installed FCP on your primary mdc also?

Hardware: Promise Storage :: RE: Can someone from Promise explain....

Author: SiNiSon
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:34 pm (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 2

Thanks very much for the thorough reply.

Replication, Backups, and Archiving :: RE: Data Archive for XSAN

Author: Ernesto Sanchez
Subject: HSM for Backup
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:00 pm (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 27

Well gents, I'm glad to see there are real deployments of FCSvr and SNMS. I'm now in the shoes of the client. I need to implement an archive solution for in the next 6-12 months. I really want to see a demonstration of the this solution. Anyone know anyone at Quantum who could set this up in the LA area?

Cheers,
Ernesto
Toybox Entertainment

Troubleshooting :: RE: Final Cut Error "Out of Disk Space" and Assets goi

Author: jif84
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:51 pm (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 15

Quote:

what's the update? Still having issue to write to XSAN? tried with local admin account already?

Ok so from the primary mdc I was able to save a final cut pro project file to the xsan. I was logged into the local admin account. What does this mean?

General Xsan Talk :: RE: Mirrored X-SAN's

Author: mdlaycock
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:12 pm (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 10

We use a back software product from Archiware called PressStore.
Their sync module works great! it works with Helios and XiNet too!.

It has no issues with retain resource forks, its not as cheap as the other packages however. But how much is your data worth?

General Xsan Talk :: RE: Mirrored X-SAN's

Author: gsprague
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 1:40 pm (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 10

I am also looking for the best why to mirror an Xsan volume and rsync doesn't seem like the best idea after someone at Apple stated:

"Note that rsync is not the best replication engine for use on top of Xsan. It doesn't do file system preallocation so will fragment the heck out of your Xsan volume."

With that said what is the best thing to use for this. Has anyone tried CCC or Superduper?

Thank you![/i]

Replication, Backups, and Archiving :: RE: Data Archive for XSAN

Author: vidiot
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:09 am (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 27

Chalk me up for SNSM and FCSvr too. We've had the 2 running together well for about a month now. It's fantastic that I don't have to go hunting and loading of files and tapes. The users just click and restore as needed. Brilliant!

To MattG's #2 point, this is really a problem. Once you've restored an asset, FCS deletes the file from the Archive Device, in this case SNSM. Which means your asset is now once again unprotected. For us, that is usually a P2 MXF camera original file.

Sure it still lives on tape in a manner of speaking, unless you clean up all the tapes.

I've asked Apple for a quote from their Professional Services team to write me a different Archive process that does *not* remove the file from the Asset device.

Troubleshooting :: RE: Xsan2 and Tiger LDAP?

Author: ACSA
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:24 am (GMT -5)
Topic Replies: 4

If you want to use 10.4 OD master to be used for Network Homefolders etc, and POSIX rights on the SAN, no problem.

If you want to use ACL, it did not get to work properly, and did get it to work properly using a OD master on 10.5.

If you want to add a Final Cut Server in the equation. Then for sure no go...
Done it, been there....

Arnold