When you install Final Cut Server, by default you use http://127.0.0.1/finalcutserver as the path to install the client software. In a number of environments we've seen this end up getting broken for one reason or another. One easy way to fix this is to simply re-run the post-install.sh script from /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Server/Final Cut Server.bundle/Contents/Resources/sbin

However, this brings up the fact that very few Final Cut Servers are actually going to be hosting other websites. Therefore, in order to make things as easy as possible for administrators and end users, how might you go about making the path to access your client installer shorter?

Tekserve, New York's premiere authorized Apple reseller and service provider, is looking for a few great people to expand its Professional Services department:

• Xsan engineers
• Final Cut Pro experts
• OS X Server administrators

These are customer-facing positions and excellent interpersonal skills are required.

Consider being part of the team that founded Xsanity. To apply, please submit a resume and cover letter to work@tekserve.com.

Matrox announced a slick new card at NAB this year they're calling the CompressHD. The card is basically an h.264 ASIC that can be called upon by any QuickTime app including Compressor. It looks like it could be a very handy add-on for Final Cut Server installations that do not want to build a dedicated Qmaster cluster but still want to offload the encoding tasks for proxies form the CPUs so they can focus on serving out the app and running the database. Cooler still, several of them can be clustered via Qmaster (though unfortunately not in the same box). Matrox claims to be handily beating 8-core Mac Pros with a single card by a wide margin.

The Intel-Mac-only card will list for $495, is due to hit the street this month. A Windows version of the card will also be available.

Apple released 10.5.7 Client and Server yesterday. While there isn't anything in the release notes directly related to XSan, there appears to be a slew of items that will benefit sites with Portable Home Directories and Network Home Directories.

Tracking processor and memory utilization of the Xsan and Final Cut Server software are fairly straight forward tasks. However, what if you want to do so from a nice clean Dashboard widget, quickly and graphically, without needing to use the command line? We have a number of customers that have asked for exactly that. After writing some java, it just didn't make sense to keep it all to myself, so it's posted for free at http://krypted.com/?page_id=2892

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Xsan typically uses almost no processing power, so don't be surprised if it barely shows up unless you're in a high volume/transaction/whatever environment or unless you are having some kind of trouble with your Xsan volume
2. The Final Cut Server monitor doesn't include the processes for Compressor. Expect a different monitor for Compressor at some point in the near future, but I chose not to combine them for a variety of reasons
3. I wouldn't really call this beta software, I'd lean towards calling it alpha. There are bound to be a few issues here and there, but in testing on a number of systems I've yet to see it cause any problems or show incorrect results
4. The meter is jumpy sometimes, but then so are processes...
5. If there is interest in bolting on other features or working with me to further develop the widgets then I will open source the widget and put it up on my Subversion box - if you are interested in that, drop me an email!

Promise quietly released firmware update 2.4.1 for their Apple OEM'ed VTraks on March 19, 2009. Among items in the change history:

• Fixed a secondary controller crash issue when the write command data is greater than 2 megabyte in size.
• Added boot delay to address an issue seen with hard disk drives that took longer to spin-up and become ready.
• Added work around for failure to login to Bonjour browser issue seen on Mac OS version 10.5.6.

Also 18 other various errata items.

[Ed. Note: According to our readers, a reboot is required. Please follow along and post experiences in our forum thread.]

Lithium, makers of Mac-based network and device monitoring software, has announced support for the Promise VTrak in its latest shipping version.

Lithium has also announced a beta release of Lithum 5.0, to support Xsan 2, user-created modules from SNMP MIBs, and an iPhone monitoring application.