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Workgroup Storage Solutions

Jan 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Bob Turner

Recent offerings include EditShare, Facilis’ TerraBlock, Studio Network Solutions’ GlobalSAN X-16, Ciprico’s DiMeda, and Beyond’s Harmony products.

Last month we discussed workgroup storage issues. This month we will look at a few new workgroup storage products announced over the past year and find out what is unique about each. (To read part one of this story, see the December issue of Video Systems.)

EditShare

The first solution I will look at, EditShare, was created by a facility that specialized in long-form and documentary pieces. The facility wanted a more efficient solution for media asset management, collaborative editing, and offline-to-online workflow, and so created EditShare. This product is designed for small to medium-sized production shops, newsrooms, and workgroups running standalone versions of NLEs, such as Avid Media Composer Adrenaline, Avid Xpress DV/Xpress Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, or Pinnacle Liquid Edition.

EditShare has the lowest cost per gigabyte of all systems in this article, coming in at $3.52 per protected gigabyte (RAID 5). EditShare can share media files among 10 workstations running DV-resolution video and multiple tracks of audio, or store and access dual streams of uncompressed video (1:1, 8 bit) on your network while two other workstations use DV material. (It works with two dual-stream uncompressed workstations.)

What is unique about this product? A “delete media” function lets you automatically move clips to a trash bin when you delete them. Later, if you discover that a deleted clip was needed, you can get it back from the trash. It remains in the trash for a specified length of time before being flagged for the administrator to delete it. This is a setting choice, and not the only way to handle the delete function, but I am pretty sure you will not find that with any other SAN solution. And if you are deleting a clip that is used by someone else, you do not delete the media he is using. It looks like you do, but it stays on the server as his media. I like this!

One thing makes it clear that an editor designed this system — the unique way that everyone can share media from a large volume as someone else is ingesting to that volume. There are no permission limitations, no sudden “media offline” disappearances, and no “access violation errors” because the media database is being changed. This is important when you have a true workgroup process, where every user needs to access all other users' volumes.

With EditShare, if there are 10 editors working on a project, they can all connect to one “space.” They each map to one volume, which becomes their Z drive. Through this technique, each editor's volume includes any media that any editor has added to the project.

Also, on most SANs, “read-only by volume access” normally makes the NLE's media asset management tools (such as Avid's “delete unreferenced clips”) far less useful. In order to do media management, you have to make all the volumes read/write for a single designated user, which means you have to stop digitizing.

With EditShare, even though an editor on the system can't actually delete shared clips — effectively making it read-only access for the editor — the workstation's NLE thinks it can delete all clips. The editor is therefore able to perform media management without changing all the permissions on the server and without interrupting other users from having write access. When the editor is finished doing media management, an administrator can put all the media management changes into effect with a single mouse-click. The media is protected until the administrator agrees with the deletions.

Other unique features include:

• A Linux-based server (3GHz Xeon Server with 2GB RAM) with battery backup included. (Having your server on Linux and connected to the Internet offers a significant amount of virus protection.)

• RAID Manager software, which allows you to check the “health” of your system. Alarms and status reports are available.

• Hardware RAID (3Ware) offers the best performance on Linux for RAID 5 with no “bad block” degraded mode.

• Hot-swappable SATA hard drives.

• Easy setup, with good documentation. Each system has been thoroughly configured and tested before shipment.

• A hardware switch for one server and up to seven workstations.

The basic system comes with 2TB of storage (RAID 5), available in a non-expandable 2TB system for $13,000, or an expandable 2TB dense rack system for $14,000. The dense rack system is expandable up to 12TB. Additional 2TB upgrades are available for less than $5,000 each on expandable systems. Support contracts are available. There is no client licensing, so you can expand as you wish.

Macintosh support is currently limited to Apple Final Cut Pro 4 and Final Cut Pro HD 4.5. There are no Mac-based Avid solutions. Because of the limitations of Final Cut, this NLE may occasionally drop a frame during capture or playback. EditShare recommends consolidating media to local drive space prior to outputting any long clips.

Facilis Technology TerraBlock

Facilis Technology was formed by former Avid personnel. The TerraBlock SAN is designed to offer a lower-cost, volume-based alternative to Avid Unity. It works with all Avid solutions (including the Mac-based solutions) and works with Final Cut Pro. Other manufacturers are in the process of being certified.

The TerraBlock is offered in four sizes: 7.2TB ($29,490), 6TB with 24 drives ($26,490), 3.6TB ($17,790), and 3TB with 12 drives ($15,990). The base model of all systems includes hardware for two users to connect, and is expandable up to 12 users for the 24D, or eight users for the 12D, with a minimal hardware upgrade. There are no licenses to buy. Larger capacity systems and a new eight-drive model starting at less than $10,000 will be announced later this month.

The product is capable of the following configurations:

• More than 12 streams of uncompressed video;

• More than 25 streams of 2:1 video;

• Multiple 100-plus track audio stations;

• Multiple compressed HD clients;

• Two 1080i uncompressed HD clients.

The TerraBlock offers selective mirroring of virtual volumes for protection of data, and the ability to recover a failed drive while clients are active. While mirroring means double the storage is needed, because it's a virtual volume system and redundancy isn't assigned to an entire stripe, you can manage storage efficiently and mirroring offers performance benefits.

For workgroup editing, there are read-only volumes for media sharing, with a single writer allowed access to any given volume at a time. Every client can be writing to the drive set, but each to separate virtual volumes. There is a client management tool based on user log-in that allows volume access to follow a user from room to room, or different users to log in on the same system.

Administration, using XP's built-in Remote Desktop feature, is also simple. It features:

• Virtual volume-based assignment of ReadOnly, Read and Write, or no access;

• Dynamic addition and removal of virtual volumes and users without affecting the disk set;

• Access to volume creation and administration without affecting active clients;

• Volume access that can be exchanged between rooms to allow migration of writable drives;

• Multiple read volumes that allow access to media recently captured in another room;

• A centralized server that allows for administration outside the client room;

• No software installed on the client systems, thus compatibility with other storage systems is maintained.

Storage can be added well past the limitations of SCSI chains. Terabytes of space can be allocated to a single system. Volumes are pre-optimized for maximum performance without striping on the client. The smallest volume has the full bandwidth of the system. For ease of use, each system recognizes the centralized storage as local basic volumes.

The cost of a 7.2TB system, including software and connectivity for two clients, comes in at less than $5 per gigabyte. The storage is not dedicated to any suite, and it is easy for the editor to switch suites and be followed by metadata and storage. Workstations connect via 2Gb or 4Gb Fibre Channel, with allowable length of up to 980ft.

What is unique about this product? Mostly the uniqueness is in the software layer, and especially in the ability to support both Mac-based Avids as well as Windows-based systems, and the ability to support Meridien-based Avids as well as DNA systems.

Other important features include:

• Single chassis integration with high bandwidth and large capacities for more finishing clients;

• Windows base with software-based RAID;

• Hot-swappable drives and full mirrored (RAID 1) redundancy selectable on virtual volume basis;

• A lack of client licensing fees (Two additional dual channel Fibre Channel expansion boards are required for six client connections.);

• Support for all Avid editors on Windows NT/2000/XP, Mac OS9 and OSX, Apple's Final Cut Pro on OSX, and many graphics and animation packages;

• Free daytime support, with optional 24/7 support packages available;

• SATA drives;

• Support for several native file format volumes simultaneously (A mix of HFS, HFS+, NTFS, and FAT directories can be created.);

• No drive striping for performance (No configuration is needed, drives are pre-formatted to provide high bandwidth.);

• Workstation connections via dedicated 2Gb or 4 Gb Fibre Channel;

• Support for more than 200 volumes and 100 user accounts, with password protection for user and administrator;

Clients are connected directly over Fibre Channel, so the TerraBlock does not allow video playback clients to access media volumes over the Ethernet LAN. If you want to do things like add a tape backup system, you'd have to use either an existing fiber-attached client, or export the volumes to the LAN through a fiber-attached client or optional dedicated server.

Studio Network Solutions GlobalSAN X-16

The GlobalSAN X-16 is an IP-based storage area network built on the iSCSI protocol. iSCSI (Internet SCSI) is an Internet Engineering Task Force-approved standard protocol for encapsulating SCSI commands into TCP/IP packets and enabling I/O block data transport over IP networks.

A unique aspect of this solution is the iSANmp software included with the GlobalSAN X-16, which enables iSCSI connectivity for OS X. Studio Network Solutions currently has the only iSCSI initiator available for the Macintosh.

A key benefit of iSANmp is that it enables multiple Mac and Windows workstations to share data on an iSCSI network without the overhead of protocols like AppleShare, SMB, FTP, or WebDAV.

This SAN software allows:

• Password security for both clients and administrator;

• iSCSI sharing (volume sharing and more efficient block-level sharing) third-party hardware;

• The ability to mount Write Exclusive, Read/Write, and Read-Only with Group Mounting and Unmounting;

• File synchronization;

• Support for RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 10;

• Support for Mac OS9 and OS X, and Windows 2000 and XP Professional;

• Kerberos network authentication protocol, providing strong authentication by using secret-key cryptography.

The GlobalSAN X-16 is a 16-bay, six-user package with 4TB of high-performance SATA storage and includes licenses of iSANmp volume sharing software. The system can be upgraded to support additional users and storage (a license for additional seats must be purchased). The system is rated to deliver nearly 100MBps throughput, or up to 32 streams of DV or up to eight streams of uncompressed SD video using Final Cut Pro. It is available in 1GB or 10GB network configurations. The price works out to $5 per unprotected gigabyte

Ciprico DiMeda

Ciprico's pitch is “SAN performance with NAS ease of use.” The company recently introduced two DiMeda NAS products: the DiMeda 1724 ($45,000) and the DiMeda 10G ($50,000 estimated price, it is not yet delivering as this article goes to press).

The DiMeda 1724 is a SATA-based NAS solution offering 9.6TB of storage and 300Mbps throughput for 10 or more workstations. The product supports realtime file sharing between Windows, Mac, or UNIX via CIFS and NFS protocols. The DiMeda 1724 is upgradeable to the DiMeda 10G 10GBps solution.

The DiMeda 10G features 10 Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth, offering nearly 400Mbps of throughput performance. This makes uncompressed HD video postproduction collaboration possible.

The third product in this NAS family was announced last year, the Dimeda 1700 ($17,900). This product is a 3TB NAS solution that supports 25 DV streams.

The DiMeda product line features:

• Intuitive web management software, allowing you to manage your network locally or remotely;

• Storage quota software that makes it easy to prioritize user access and redeploy bandwidth according to workflow needs;

• Exceptional fault tolerance with critical components duplicated (including available dual head solutions, power supplies, RAID controllers, and hot-swappable drives);

• Remote system alerts and continuous monitoring.

1 Beyond Harmony and Harmony II

1 Beyond startled many with its high-definition Harmony SAN at NAB. It was remarkable that this SAN solution was being interfaced with high-definition workstations hundreds of feet away in another booth.

Equally impressive was the television network interest (and implementations) for this solution. 1 Beyond claims it is “the industry's first SAN to allow multiple workstations to access full-resolution, 10-bit uncompressed, high-definition video simultaneously.”

1 Beyond Harmony is scalable in several dimensions, including size, number of systems connected, and the type of video being processed. From two to 32 HD editing/compositing workstations can be served (or a much larger number of SD workstations). Up to 256TB of storage can be used. Also, you can have client workstations up to a half mile from the Fibre Channel storage.

The system can achieve performance of up to 800MBps per controller (4MBps per Fibre Channel connection), while operating at RAID 3 can be achieved for up to 6.4GBps aggregate throughput. Harmony can also be tied into 1 Beyond's Redline Render Farm.

Selected metadata can be stored with the media. This non-proprietary system offers a single location for storage maintenance, access control, and management. The system also features the ability to simultaneously read and write (edit) while media is still loading.

A Harmony HD SAN starts at $35,000 for a basic system, and as one of the most scalable systems in this comparison, goes up from there.

Harmony II is a new lower format version of the original Harmony, but designed for DV, SD, HDV, and compressed HD formats. This SAN is powered by Sanbolic's file-sharing SAN and clustered volume management software and built on open systems architecture.

A basic system starts at $15,000 and can provide multiple streams of video to up to 32 NLE, compositing, or graphics seats with multiple editors and artists accessing the same assets simultaneously. Performance is scalable, from DV to SD to limited full 1080i HD. You can mix Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet controllers, with Fibre Channel connection at 2Gbps. You can design the level of redundancy option you require, including hardware RAID redundancy.

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