XSan for 2 workstations without a switch
by Craig Meadows
on
Sep 20, 2009 at 12:22:11 pm
New to shared storage and fiber channel systems and am curious if you can configure a SAN for just two Mac Pro workstations without a switch?
In other words, without the expense of a switch can I simply hook up two Mac Pro's + FC storage with dual controllers + XSan = happy storage sharing for two?
For example Dulce Systems says with their Pro FC storage:
"The dual ported PRO FC can be deployed in a two workstation configuration without the need of an expensive Fibre Channel Switch. Just apply your favorite SAN management software and you are ready to improve your workflow at the speed of light
Are there any 3rd party external FC chassis that I can throw some drives in and work reliably or am I looking at a dedicated storage sub-system from one of the major players like Dulce, CalDigit, G-Systems, etc.?
Re: XSan for 2 workstations without a switch by Matt Geier on Sep 20, 2009 at 3:45:01 pm
Craig,
You can hook two clients into a fiber channel device directly, however, in most all cases, you still need to have overlying software running on your clients to make sure they don't read/write over each other. This is why XSAN would be used, or some other SAN software.
If you'd like to consider using Ethernet, you may find that to be easier to get along with, and you don't particularly need any overlying software in most cases. (Depending on the kind of workflow you want...)
Are you trying to install a real time / shared, editing environment? or are you tying to install a push / pull setup for passing files back and forth?
My thinking here is that you will still spend plenty of money on Fiber Channel cards, Perhaps Storage, and Software Licenses to make it all work the way you want. You could save some money by doing this via Etherne.
Re: XSan for 2 workstations without a switch by Craig Meadows on Sep 21, 2009 at 3:04:11 pm
Hi Matt, thanks for the input.
Definitely looking for real time sharing between two Mac Pro's running FCP.
We use Ethernet heavily already for moving files around but really need the ability to have two systems editing ProRes HQ or ideally the new ProRes 4:4:4 at the same time.
I know there are Ethernet alternatives out there for real time sharing like Small Tree and others. However, I was hoping there was a do-it-yourself solution. Ideally I would love to find a 3rd party FC chassis with two ports, load it up with drives, install XSan and go to work.
Re: XSan for 2 workstations without a switch by Bob Zelin on Sep 22, 2009 at 1:31:52 am
you mean "peer to peer" - no MAC acting as a server, no switch, no file sharing. Just plug into one box, and have two MAC's share it, doing nothing else, right ?
Aint' gonna happen. Our solution requires some sort of server (a bare bones MAC Pro wtih 8 Gig of RAM), a multi port ethernet card, a managed ethernet switch, and someone to set all the menus in the right place. This will do ProRes422HQ (and ProRes4444 - but just 2 streams of this max on one client).
If you say "look, I don't want to buy a MAC to just sit there and do nothing, I don't want to spend $2700 for a MAC server, I just want to buy the drive array, some cables, and go to work, sharing media" -then I am not aware of any solution for you.
This stuff aint' plug and play - not yet, anyway !
Re: XSan for 2 workstations without a switch by Craig Meadows on Sep 22, 2009 at 2:34:49 am
Bob do you have any experience with Dulce Systems? This is a quote from their site about their Pro FC product:
"The dual ported PRO FC can be deployed in a two workstation configuration without the need of an expensive Fibre Channel Switch. Just apply your favorite SAN management software and you are ready to improve your workflow at the speed of light. In a larger shared environment, the PRO FC works well with 3rd party Fibre Channel switches and host adapters."
Not sure if they are saying it shares real-time between the two or if it is just seen as local storage. Since they indicate you need to use SAN management software it appears it might.
Re: XSan for 2 workstations without a switch by Jason Myres on Sep 26, 2009 at 2:35:05 pm
Craig, I took a look at the Dulce box you're referring to, and we work regularly with another array that seems to be very similar. If I'm right, what the Dulce is doing is allowing you to present all storage to all fibre ports. This would allow you connect two edit stations, one to each fibre port, and have them each see everything. The SAN software they are probably referring to is something along the lines of FibreJet...
You would not be able to use Xsan with this as it requires a fibre switch (and a number of other things). To set your SAN up, you'd start by creating several partitions on your array, one for each volume you'd like to create. A typical partition set could go something like:
Edit1-Scratch
Edit2-Scratch
Graphics
Audio
if you wanted, you could also add partitions for your projects (which could be re-labeled as needed):
ProjectName1
ProjectName2
ProjectName3...
Finally, you'd need one small partition for the SAN database that keeps everything organized. It's usually the first partition and is about 1GB. These partitions (except for the database partition) would then appear as your available volumes on each edit station.
Both SanMP and Fibrejet will let you share storage without the switch and metadata controllers of an Xsan, with the main caveats being they are not as scalable, or configurable, and do not offer concurrent write access to all users on all volumes, i.e. one edit station is allowed to write to a given volume at a time. If your other edit station needs write access to that volume, the first station must relinquish access to it by re-mounting it as read-only.
With that said, fibre channel is a great technology, but much of it's power comes from the fibre switch itself. When you remove that, you remove all of the options and configuration possibilities that it brings.
For comparison, some companies that offer SAN-in-a-box solutions are Facilis...
We have had a great experience with Facilis, and it is often our go-to solution if a client needs a solid solution that's not as complex or expensive as an Xsan. Archion offers a similar product, but I have not yet had the opportunity to install one. They are both turn-key solutions, but have similar limitations, and are quite a bit more expensive than a single array shared out with SanMP or FibreJet.
