Re: Advice on a SAN

the biggest issue i have with fibre is the different speeds. your Xserve RAID is at 2Gbs. but the current standard is 4Gbs, which is quickly giving way to 8Gbs. you say "future-proof" with fibre, but this just isnt the case. its more dependent on the switches, cards and transceivers used (the optical to copper FC converters). the fibre itself is actually cheap in comparison. you would never use an Xserve RAID as the hub of even an ethernet based SAN because its just too slow. 80MB/s per channel for a total of 160MB per enclosure. the server in the example setup i gave runs over 650MB/s over SAS. don't go fibre just because you have an Xserve RAID. its OLD

you say your house finishing codec is Unc10bit, but come on, really? i have worked with post houses before that told me exactly this, but i got them to switch one show to ProRes HQ and they havent looked back. ask yourself if you really need Unc10bit for delivery. i understand the need to work with Unc10bit for certain things like graphics, and for DPX. but that's why the system in my example has one fast online system. with a codec like ProRes 4444, theres no need for Unc10bit anymore.

its difficult to put together numbers because theres a lot of variables, but here goes with the big ticket items. i'm using Xsan as an example of a fibre-based SAN because that's what i have experience with:

Fibre:
16TB storage for Fibre - Promise RAID $15,000
16port FC switch for Fibre system - $5000
FC card for each client, and server - $500
$999 per client and server (need 2 metadata servers) for Xsan
2 servers, roughly $3000-4000 each

Ethernet:
16TB storage for Ethernet system - MaxxDigital Expando (SAS with expansion) $8500
SAS card for server - $1000
Ethernet card for server - $800
24port ethernet switch for Ethernet system - $1200
ethernet cards not needed for Mac Pros or G5s that already have 2 ethernet ports
free for Apple file sharing for ethernet system
1 server - $2500-3000

of course, there's also the cost of installation and service. neither one of these is plug and play, although the ethernet based system is a little bit easier to install.

e