Trouble capturing to xserve raid

Hey,
I'm having serious issues capturing from my Dual 2 Ghz G5 with 3.25gb RAM (running os 10.3.9) to my apple xserve raid.
My raid is striped as raid0 and is connected by fibre channel to another G5 running os 10.4 server software. Capturing from this G5 works perfectly, but when I try and capture from my other G5, which is connected to the G5 with server software via a gigabit ethernet cable, I encounter numerous dropped frames.
I have tried everything I can think of to get this working, but to no avail.
Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Am I wrong in thinking that I can capture DV to an xserve raid across a gigabit ethernet? If so, what would I need to do to solve the problem?
Sorry if I've been abit vague or if I've not supplied as much info as needed. Please let me know if there is anything else I need to add!!
Thanks in advance for any help given.
Cheers
Adam

Thanks for your post - I know its been a while responding, but it seems to be one thing after an other at the moment!
Right, for a time, your suggestion worked! We started capturing to our local drives, then transferring the media across. Render files and project files were also saved on the raid. Generally our workflow was very good - but not perfect!
Then I realised that one of the macs that is connected to the network isn't gigabit, which, from my understanding, means that all the other macs would be limited to 110mbs instead of 100 - Do you know if I am correct with this assumption?
Anyway, it hasn't caused us major issues and because of how busy we've been we haven't really had a chance to test the theory and/or reslove it.
Anyway, my boss then kindly went out and bought me a G5 Quad, which was also added to the network and then we upgraded to FCP5 on every computer - now we are having no end of trouble working across the network. When we capture locally, move it across and then play it back the footage is constantly freezing, especially on the Quad!
People keep telling me that you can't use dv across a gigabit network, but surely this can't be the case.
There must be something I'm doing wrong? if it the 10mbs issue I mentioned, or do I simply need to go spend alot of money upgrading every mac to fibre channel? Even if I did this, would it definately solve all our problems?
Pleae, please, please help!!!
Adam

Similar Messages

HD Capture into Xserve raid dropped frames

Any body know how to set up an xserve raid to capture uncompressed 1080/24p footage. I striped it to a raid 5 got dropped frmes detected, redid the stripe in raid 3 got the same thing, please help!
I'm shooting on the Canon XL H1 at 1080/24p sending the feed from the cameras HD/SDI output to a Panasonic AJ-1200A DVCPRO HD deck. after capture I want to import the footage into FCP thru the blackmagic multibridge extreme onto a 7 terabyte xserve raid.
g5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

You may check your cache settings on Xserve RAID via RAID Admin tool.
Here is the settings I believe should work for most video captuer cases.
RAID ADMIN 1.5, with 1.5 firmware on Xserve RAID
1) Use controller write cache checked
2) Use Drive cache checked
Read Prefetch:
8 stripes

Dropped frames only on xserve raid

dropped frames only on xserve raid
i'm not able to capture on xserve raid without dropped frames. tihis was a working sytem bud one morning it dosn't work. i capture on mac pro internal drives or external fw drives without problems.
the xserve raid is new formated in raid level5 [mac os extended journaled and striped in raid 0 extended] and the risult of kona system test are 178mb/sec write and 167mb/sec read.
must bee enought for 8bit uncompressed pal, no? also if i divide the stripe set the system dosn't work on both controler. i tried also to change the fibrechannel cables!
i checked also the fibrechannel card with expansion slot utility and the message is that runns at maximum speed.
there are no error message on raid admin, the xserve raid appears ok.
i'm shure that the fcp settings are ok, i know the list that regard dropped frames from apple.
i'm desperate, can you help?
thanks jochen
system:
mac pro 2x3ghz-5gb ram(from apple and the hardware test on the system dvd is ok)
osx 10.4.10
fibre channel card: lsilogic firmware 1.2.18.0 in slot 4
xserve raid 15x250gb firmware 1.5.1/ 151c
aja io (driver 3.0)
raid admin 1.5.1 (diver 1.0)
fcp 5.1.4

I'm guessing conditioning is the same as optimization, but I can't find anything about it in the help documentation. I ran another capture test today with no problems.
An interesting side event is that when I started experiencing dropped frames I ran the Kona System Test utility to verify write and read speeds. It wouldn't run (no write or read) on my RAID. I tried it on my Firewire drives with no problems. I discovered that in the Kona System Test preferences there is a choice of I/O API for Macintosh or Unix. When switching to the Unix I/O API the test ran fine with expected read and write speeds reported. I've used the Kona utility in the past without having to change that setting. I sent an inquiry to AJA.

Capturing Video To Xserve Raid problems

I recently purchased an Xserve raid (1.75TB with 512mb cache on each controller), set it up for Raid 5. I also have an Apple Fibre Card on Slot 4 (the fasted PCI-X slot on my dual 2.0 G5. Much to my surprise when capturing DV video, not HD or DVCPRO, simply DV video via FireWire 400 to the Xserve Raid it can't keep up and drops frames! When I caputure DV video via FireWire 400 to my internal 150gb SATA drive all is well.
I do have journaling turned on for the Raid, but that can't be the problem.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

Hi there,
I’ve been reading numerous posts by you on the Apple Discussions pages and was wondering if you could help me.
I work for a small video company with 1 G5 Quad, 4 Dual G5’s and a G5 Imac. We have always worked across a gigabit network, sharing media and projects from each other’s internal and external drives without any problems. However, it was very hard to keep track of what everyone was doing and it was often hard to find specific files.
Therefore, we decided that it would be a good idea to centralise all of our storage, so we invested in an Apple Xserve Raid, which we connected to one of the dual processor G5’s (which we installed 10.4 server software on) via fibre channel. We figured that we would all be able to access the raid (just like we access each others internal and external drives) and read the media across the network. However, this has not gone to plan!
I followed the instructions about how to initialise and setup the raid and striped one bank of 7 as Raid 0 (set as our Projects drive) and the other bank as Raid 5 (set as our capture scratch). It does work ok for the most part. The G5 that hosts it works perfectly and most of the time one or maybe two of the other G5’s work well, but on the whole we are dropping a lot of frames and images are freezing frequently.
My understanding is that all 6 of our edit suites should be able to read DV across the gigabit network and as I have said, this has been the case before we got the raid – which leads me to think there is something, not right with the Raid. I could be here all day if I were to explain all the network settings on each computer, as well as what settings the Raid is set to – and to be honest I wouldn’t even know where to look!
I don’t know if I made this clear, but we capture locally and move the footage across – the project files and render files are also saved on the raid! We are not trying to work from the same project files, just the same media – but not all the time!
I really need to understand why we are having so much trouble and any help would be greatly appreciated?
Kind Regards
Adam

HUGE Troubles with xServe RAID formatted 10.4 and using it with SLS 10.6

Hi All,
We met today a huge trouble using an Apple xServe RAID (formatted HFS+ with a Mac OS 10.4 Server PowerPC G5).
This RAID has been plugged with a new xServe Intel Xeon (Model xServe 3.1), MacOS X 10.6.2, Apple FiberChannel card 4 GB, the link is at 2 GB.
There is also an Infortrend RAID FiberChannel 4 GB Fiber to SATA RAID attached to this new Intel Xeon server : this RAID drive mounts correctly, no troubles.
BUT the "old" xServe RAID is not able to mount at all while plugged with this new Intel Xeon, DiskUtility claims the volume needs repair !!! We try a repair = failed !!!
The xServe RAID has been formated under 10.4.6, HFS+ Journaled.
The Infortrend has been formated under 10.6.2, HFS+
Does anyone met a such case ??? We tried using SFP to SFP Copper cable or Optical Fiber + SFP/LC Transceiver = same results
Many thanks a lot for your opinion !!!
Regards.

What if you connect your "old" xServe RAID to a non SLS server if you have one available? Preferably one running 10.4.x server to match your HFS format. If the data on the old RAID is so critical that you can't afford to lose it, you could always pickup a used PPC w/ a fibre channel card and install 10.4 server on it just so you can transfer the data. Curious to see what you end up doing.

Xserve RAID - to slow during video capture

I have Xserve RAID with 14 drives in 2 stripes ( 2x7 drives ) in RAID5. I can see in my system two "drives" called RAID1 & RAID2 - each 2.18TB.
When I`m using BlackMagic Disk Speed test utility I have only 150MB/s read and 100MB/s write which is to slow for 1080i HD.
What is wrong ? What should I do to get better performance ?
I`m new in Xserve so maybe somebody could explaine me "step by step" what to do.
I read a little about RAID50 but I have no idea how to create it.
Regards.
Rafal Szermanowicz
www.grupa13.com

Those speeds are fast enough for HD capture.
Anyway, to ensure you're getting full speed, make sure:
1) You have the 1.5 firmware on the RAID
2) Enable controller write cache is checked (enabled)
3) Use drive cache is checked (enabled)
4) Allow host cache flushing is DISABLED (unchecked)
5) Use steady streaming mode is DISABLED (unchecke)
For capture, leaving the settings at 8 stripes as prefetch is probably best. If you are going to be doing extensive playback of uncompressed HD, you may want to consider setting the prefetch at 128 stripes.

Connecting xserve to xserve raid - done everything

Hello,
I'm having trouble connecting my secondhand xserve to xserve raid.
- xserve is running 10.8.5
- i'm screen sharing the xserve
- I have reset both the RAID controllers with paperclip
- both fiber channels are connected
- both controller cards are connected to the xserve via ethernet
- half the hdds in both sides of raid show red light
- it has been on for 24 hours now
Add system in RAID Admin doesn't propose anything, so I have manually entered the ip addresses from server.app>network pane.
If anybody has any ideas I would be thankful.
Paul

There are several possibilities.
First off, from your screen shot, both your RAID and your host are using the same IP addresses (169.254.192.90 and 169.254.87.107). That's not going to work. However, it's probably not your major problem... let's move down the stack.
Your interface on the host isn't connected/configured corrected - as noted by the Orange ball alongside the IP address. You need to fix that.
Second, the 169.254 addresses are somewhat variable, so just because the RAID had that address at one point in time that doesn't mean it still has that address - it could have changed. This may or may not be the case, depending on the link status of the host system.
If you choose to Add System within RAID Admin, it will search over the network to find nearby, available RAID systems to add. This is usually better than relying on dynamic IP addresses that might have changed since you last configured the array.
In either caase, focus on the link to your host. Check if you can at least ping the RAID. Use a tool such as tcpdump to see if you can determine the IP address of the RAID (hint: you should see it broadcasting on the network link).

Dropped frames on Xserve RAID upgraded w/750GB drives.

I'm capturing in 10-bit uncompressed standard definition 720x480. I just upgraded one side of my Apple XRAID, (connected directly via fibre channel) with seven, 750GB hard drives from Apple, drives designed for the XRAID, (came with there own sleds.)
Current Xserve RAID firmware version is at version 1.5.1/1.51c
Before the upgraded drives, no issues with dropped frames, (drives 1-7) the other side of the same RAID has no problems, (currently running 250GB drives, drives 8-14.) All sleds are populated with drives of the same capacity, (respective to each side.)
The drives were formated using the Xserve RAID Admin software and mounted using Apples Disk Utilities, Journaling turned off. The final formated capacity of the RAID on drives 1-7 is 4.1TB.
When I capture to the drives on the upgrade side, I get dropped frames. When capturing to the other side, no issues, works great. I checked the settings for performance and they are the same for both sides, as follows:
Use Controller Write Cashe - ON
Allow Host Cashe Flushing - OFF
Use Drive Write Cashe - ON
Use Steady Streaming Mode - OFF
Read Prefetch: 128 stripes (8 MB/disk)
My capture box is an AJA I/o and has never given me dropped frames till now, but only on the side of the RAID that has the new 750GB drives. I also have another RAID that uses 500GB drives on both sides and it work just fine as well, (no dropped frames) using the same performance settings in XRAID utilities.
Any suggestion on why these new Apple drives modules are dropping frame would be very much appreciate. Again 7 new 750GB drives from Apple w/sleds having dropped frame issues.

I'm capturing in 10-bit to avoid loss of quality from analog sources like BetaCam SP as well as line 21 must be part of the captured file, because it contains line 21 for captioning. Eight bit has a banding issue that I can't have in the final product and 10-bit doesn't have this issue.
Source quality is maintained completely when working in 10-bit uncompressed, as well as the captioning data that I need, which is stripped out of the captured video latter. Captioning software can read line 21 of the raster area, of the captured file.
Source video is from BetaCam SP, DVC Pro and DVCam.
The RAID is an Apple Xserve RAID, connected via Fibre channel directly, (no xsan.)
I also create high quality QuickTime Streaming files from these source files, the higher the quality of the source video the the better the streaming files look when created.
I have never had any problem capturing till I installed these new drives from Apple.
The RAID is as stated above, is an Apple Xserve RAID, connect via a fibre channel card in a Mac Pro 3.0GHz tower, (no xsan is used, due to connecting directly to the XRAID.)

We have 2 Mac Pros and 4 Xserve Raids-

I have 2 Mac Pros and 4 Xserve Raids and want to do a quick fix. I want to hook them all to gather so we can share assets for Final Cut Pro. We have a Fiber Switch and tons of cable. I know that I can’t work on the same project file as the other machine. but can we use the same assets? And will the drives just mount to both of our machines if I just connect them all to the Fiber Switch?
We are planning on an Xsan later this year just not any time to do it.
Oh and a little off subject but can an Xserve Raid mount through the Gigabit connection? I want to connect a couple of laptops to edit some XDCAM video at 35Mbs a sec. Or will I have to wait till we put the Xsan in? Or do all the machines hooked though the Xsan have to be Fiber Channel?
thanx for any help,
Dan.

+I have 2 Mac Pros and 4 Xserve Raids and want to do a quick fix. I want to hook them all to gather so we can share assets for Final Cut Pro.+
You can do this but you're begging for trouble. Really. It could be possible to mount shares as read-only on one machine and writable on the other and at least make resources available but if you really want to do this then a SAN is what you want/need. If you're in too much of a rush to implement a proper SAN system you're also in too much of a rush to reproduce a project file or replace a source file that has been corrupted and lost because someone clicked on the wrong thing. Think about it.
+Oh and a little off subject but can an Xserve Raid mount through the Gigabit connection?+
If you're running server you can share out over ether as remote mount via afp or smb but I don't think this is what you're asking. Fibre is the only way to directly mount a drive directly to the desktop and edit video from it if that's what you mean.
+Or do all the machines hooked though the Xsan have to be Fiber Channel?+
XSAN is also *fibre only*. Ether is packeted and out of order and has latency and a bunch of other problems as a streamed data delivery system. You need fibre.
HTH,
=Tod

Need to find Xserve RAID version

This is a pretty simple question, I know, but we are having trouble finding out what version of Xserve RAID we have here. It was seemingly purchased in late 2005 or early 2006, and we have only been using one side of the RAID and now want to populate the other with as much space as it will allow. I found a compatibility list at this link (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1219), but we are not sure what column our equipment falls under.

There are several threads discussing which drives work out of the box - search the forums for the multiple threads about which drives work. The Seagate ST3750640A were the well documented 750s of choice but Seagate stopped making them a while (year and half?) ago and the competition for the remaining ones got fierce and the prices when very high if you could find them.
Last I heard drives were still available through Apple service but I have no idea what the requirements are - eg Do they need to be replacement drives? - or prices.
Sadly the death of PATA as a technology has severely hampered long term viability of the Xserve RAID. If you do find replacement drives be sure to balance the cost against the cost of a more modern system.
Sorry - wish I had better news,
=Tod

XServe RAID email notifications

Hello All,
I'm a bit stumped on this one. I've never had trouble sending email notifications from an XServe RAID before. But, despite several different attempts to several different SMTP servers both internal and external, I just can't get it to send a notification message. Has anyone come across something like this?

We are having the same problem.
XServe RAID should send mails, but NOT with a local account (it's not allowed to have an additional mail server in our company).
We tried various mail accounts (google, yahoo etc.) without any success. Unfortunately there are no seetings in RAID admin available how to configure SMTP server authentication, no port etc. Additional, there is no information about the sending process, not even a log file...
So, is there any solution?
Best,
tom

Data Rate from XServe Raid

Hello all,
I have what I thought would be a simple question, but I've found nothing anywhere to answer it.
We have a new G5 Quad and an XServe Raid connected via Fibre Channel with 4 500 GB drive modules. Our Video capture card is the Decklink Extreme SD, but my employer has found a firm that will transfer our Cinealta HDCam tapes at full HD onto hard drives for transfer into our system. He then wants to work in full 10 bit uncompressed 4:2:2 HD (1080i) for editing.
I have tried several RAID configurations and used the Decklink Drive Speed Test Utility and found that the fastest data rate I am able to achieve is around 75 MB/sec (using RAID 0), which, according to the utility is only good for about 15 fps at 10 bit 4:2:2 1080.
So my question is this: How many Xserve Raid drive modules striped as RAID 0 would we need to achieve the 182.3 MB/sec data rate (according to the FCP manual) required to edit in full 10 bit 4:2:2 at 1080i at 24-30 fps? Is it simply a matter of doubling the 4 we now have? or is there some other calculation that would be required?
Thanks for the help

14
Figure conservatively that each fully loaded controller (7 drives) in an Xserve RAID will give you 80 to 100 MB/sec. 160 to 200 MB/sec for both controllers fully loaded.
With an Xserve RAID, RAID 5 will give you almost the same bandwidth as RAID 0, so there's insufficient reason to forego the file protection of RAID 5.
Then, when you stripe the two sides together in Disk Utility, you should be getting more than 200 MB/sec, enough for a single stream of uncompressed 1080i, but probably not enough for two streams. It depends.

Dropped Frames w/Xserve RAID: Solution

We were having problems with capturing DV footage onto our new Xserve RAID and having dropped frames or even image freeze during the capture. Found some threads on the Xserve RAID forum regarding the issue and after following some of the suggestions (summed up in the article below) we can now report the problem has been solved. However, there are some reports the remedy may need to be reimplemented if the Xserve RAID is powered down. But I hope this helps those out there experiencing similar problems between FCP and Xserve RAID.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302780

every night I shut down my xraid unless it's rendering or copy ing. I use raid admin to shut it down. Every morning I start the array from the button on the back, boot the G5, and launch raid admin and uncheck "allow host cache flushing" It's like brushing your teeth and having a shower tho those personal habits don't have to follow the same order

Expanding a XServe RAID and Striping

Greetings!
I have an XServe RAID with four 250 GB ADMs inside the 1-4 slots of the Upper or left controller. This one array totals 701.27 GB at RAID 5 showing up on my Desktop as one RAID.
I recently acquired two ADMs, a 750 GB and 500 GB, and I'd like to install them in my vacant second controller on the right, slots 8-9. I'm pretty sure I can create another array with these two drives setting them at RAID 5. Then what I'd like to do is stripe the two arrays, using Disk Utility, and create a software RAID that will show up on my desktop as one RAID. (I currently use this RAID as my Final Cut Pro media drive.)
My questions are: Am I on the right path?
If I stripe them together, I will lose my data on my existing array, correct? (I have the data backed up on another external drive so when I'm done I can copy it back)
I feel is best to have one RAID rather than several. Or should I consider having two RAIDs but being cognizant that I will have to stay on top of of my Final Cut Capture Scratch media folders as I edit? (ie, Two RAIDS = two separate Capture Scratch folders. So I'd have to choose what Final Cut media will be on what RAID, etc. rather than one folder where all the media can go)
My goal down the road is to completely populate the left/top controller with 250 GB ADMs. If I do, I would assume I can expand the side with the 250's by merely using the Expansion function? Would this "upset" the prospect of having a single RAID of two striped arrays?
Thanks in advance!
System: PowerMac G5 (June 2004), Mac OS 10.4.11
Xserve: Upper Controller, 4 ADMs, 250 each, 1 Array, 1 Slice, RAID 5, 701.27 GB Total

William Lloyd wrote:
This doesn't sound like a good idea. You're mixing stuff in a variety of configurations that don't match, and if you want to stripe the two sides, they should match for optimal performance.
As in: they should all be 250 GB ADMs, right?
With the 750 GB and 500 GB drives, your options are RAID 0 (with NO protection) giving ~ 1 TB of storage, or RAID 1 (mirror) giving ~450 GB of storage. The latter is probably preferable.
So I could install them into the right side controller and make an array of the two using RAID 1 (mirror) and end up with 450 GB of storage. I'll get the protection but losing the extra storage because it would defer to the smaller size 500 GB ADM. And I can't add them to the other side where the 250 GB ADMs are because you're not supposed to mix different size ADMs on the same controller. (This is the stuff that is not in Apple's fine print when they sell it to you. You find it out either through Discussion threads or Technical Articles.)
If you were to attempt to stripe this with the other side, you'd have either 1.4 TB or 900 GB of storage, respectively. In the former case, if one of the drives on the right side failed, you would lose 100% of your data on the entire volume.
My option(s) would be: install the two non-compatible sized drives into the right side controller, combine them as a RAID 1 array and then have two separate RAIDs on my desktop, with the second RAID being physically larger than the other but actually smaller because of the incompatible 750 and 500 GB sizes. Then, when editing with Final Cut, I'd have to choose which RAID that I wanted to store my media on.
So if I were you, I'd give up trying to make it look like one volume.
Agreed. But are there any other options I can explore? I purchased the 750 and 500 GB drives naively thinking I could expand the storage of my Xserve RAID by buying larger drives. Now I'm finding out I should have purchased only 250 GB ADMs-- but they weren't available from Apple when I was able to purchase additional drives and no one told me otherwise. Until now.
Thanks for your learned reply. I guess I should have consulted with you/Xserve RAID Discussions before buying anything.

What happened to Xserve RAID?

Apple.com no longer lists the Xserve RAID - instead the page shows the Promise RAID device. Has Xserve RAID been killed?
Also, where are the differences between Xsan and the new Xsan 2 listed?
Danke!

Wow this is a big issue ... Xraid's loss means Xserve cant be far behind in terms of EOL since Xraid is the tie in complement of the Xserve , I am a an entreprise sysadmin and use these systems every day , few issues at all with the devices, the lack of 4GB connectivity in the updates was a hint that Apple may move out of the storage space but this spells a load of trouble as far as FC connectivity support on the Xserve and MacPro. What about os X server since it is a tie in product to the Xserve . Apple had a one stop lineup with Xraid XServe Fibre Channel MacosX Server does this mean Apple's presence in such domains is to become a thing of the past ?
Not all macs in use out there are imacs and pro markets is what drives performance up on the Mac platform wether it is IT , FCP , RDBMS or HPC oriented , Apple made reliable tools for such setup at a fraction of the cost of the competition with good performances (not stellar ones but stuff you could setup boot and don't look at again every other day).
I guess it is high time for pro users to look for alternatives not only for storage , unless Apple provides pros with updates on EOL's and doest not simply "pull the plug" on some pro hardware line this seems IMHO the prudent thing to do.

Trouble capturing to xserve raid

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