Looking for a networkable multi-user osx friendly storage solution

[leglez]

I am looking for a multi-user networkable osx friendly storage solution for video editing. We are getting ready to add a few more users to our video editing studio. We use mostly OS X, in the future we plan on adding 2 windows PCs for our sales representatives. It also needs to be able to support large amounts of hard drives.

I have been looking at the Drobo Pro a lot and it looks perfect. Except a lot of people are complaining about the speeds. Is it as bad as it sounds? What are some other options? I have never really messed with RAID, but we really need some sort of setup to protect from hdd failure and data loss. I have considered a cheap dell with freenas, would that be any better? Once we get the new computers we are having our network redone with gigabit ethernet. Any help is appreciated.

I haven't really read up on WHS but would something like that work for OSX? Also would like to somehow make all the drives appear as one to make it easier for the users to locate stuff.

 

[RebateMonger]

I have never really messed with RAID, but we really need some sort of setup to protect from hdd failure and data loss.

If you have data you can't afford to lose, then I suggest setting up backups first, before worying about RAID. There are tons of good backup solutions available nowadays that can do everything from backing up just data files to allowing quick restoration of entire computers/servers. Redundant RAID definitely doesn't guarantee against data loss. I've seen significant data lost or corrupted on RAID arrays.

There are lots of ways to serve files on a network. They all do pretty much the same thing. The main differences are their ease of setup, transfer speeds, disk redundancy capability, file security, and ease of capacity expansion.

WHS works fine as a file server for OSX. It has good file transfer rates and adding additional storage disks is ultra-simple as long as you have some way to connect them (IDE, SATA, SCSI, eSATA, USB, Firewire). WHS will make all the disks appear as shared storage folders on your network.

While WHS has folder-level redundancy available (storing files on two different disks), I still recommend separate backups. I don't trust any single disk, server, or RAID array with the only copy of important files.

With all those Macs, it'd be best to look at the HP MediaSmart servers, which have lots of Macintosh-specific apps, including the ability to make WHS compatible with the Apple Time Machine image backups.

 

[leglez]

I like the look of the mediasmart servers. They look like they would be perfect for us to start with. Except for the lack of additional hdd bays. We will be starting with 6TBs of storage, most likely 3 x 2TBs. We expect to add 1 - 2TB every 6 - 8 months. The mediasmart looks like it only has 4 bays. I don't really like the idea of having 5 external drives hanging off of the server. Are there any accessories or any way to add more internal drives to the mediasmart series?

 

[leglez]

Would Microsoft Small Business Server be better suited than Windows Home Server? I found these Dell Small Business Servers:

http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/....aspx?refid=rec_server_networksol&cs=04&s=bsd

It looks like it would be perfect. Get it preconfigured with 1 hdd and then when I receive it throw in 4 x 2TB. Then whenever I need more space I could pickup one of the dell storage servers and hook it right up to the original server right?

What would be a good option for backups? After we get it setup each time I purchase a hard drive for the server I could get the same hard drive for the backup option rather than purchasing tons of drives upfront.

 

[leglez]

I have started looking at Xserve with something like Promise Vtrak. It looks perfect for the situation considering 90% of the computers will be running OSX. Only thing I am curious about is a good solution for backups. Would it be best just to buy 2 promise vtraks and each time I upgrade the hdd in one upgrade them both? Is there a cheaper alternative?

 

[Emulex]

yeah buy a decent iscsi storage solution with volume snapshots and perhaps offsite replication.

lefthand vsa works with most existing equipment (over vmware).

hourly snapshots (or on demand) or luns, thin provision, low bandwidth snapshot replication over wan for off-site.

you can do alot of this with openfiler if you are on the cheap - but storage is something you need to take seriously.

any network gigabit storage solution will probably support MP/IO but getting it to work practically in a non-windows environment with an iscsi software initiation (nfs/cifs shares too) will limit the total bandwidth of an ip or session to gigabit - which is quite slow.

why the newer NAS/SAN are coming with dual 10-gbe CNA's/HBA's.