Edit system storage solution

[Vikash]

Hi everybody!

We run a production company that is slowly growing. We don't really want to get to a multiple hard drives with different projects on them solution. We would like to have one big drive/raid storage solution which our 2 macs (currently) could connect to.

I've looked into thunderbolt storage units, but I figured out that you can only have 1 mac connected to these devices.

We aren't at a stage yet where we can set up a full server solution with fibre. What could you guys recommend? Is there a way to connect multiple macs through thunderbolt to one larger storage unit?

Thanks heaps!

 

[glenthompson]

How about a NAS like the Synology? With gigabit Ethernet it provides reasonable speeds. Configure it with Raid and you have protection against hardware failure.

 

[opinio]

Hi everybody!

We run a production company that is slowly growing. We don't really want to get to a multiple hard drives with different projects on them solution. We would like to have one big drive/raid storage solution which our 2 macs (currently) could connect to.

I've looked into thunderbolt storage units, but I figured out that you can only have 1 mac connected to these devices.

We aren't at a stage yet where we can set up a full server solution with fibre. What could you guys recommend? Is there a way to connect multiple macs through thunderbolt to one larger storage unit?

Thanks heaps!

If you want two macs connected always then you will have a minimum of one running through Ethernet so you may as well go for a NAS. You need all gigabit equipment though. Aggregated Ethernet is even better if possible.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Video production? You might find that even Gigabit Ethernet (1GbE) sharing is a little too slow for your purposes. You can do some simple experimentation to find out, assuming your two Macs are already connected together using GbE. Simply create a shared folder on one of the Macs with a typical project, then access that project on the other Mac (using local drive for temp work files as appropriate) and see how it performs for you. This is roughly the performance you can expect from a 1GbE NAS solution.

If it's adequate, then a 1GbE NAS product for your storage is a good plan. If it's not, don't waste money & effort on that solution. Either stick with individual locally-attached disk arrays, or look into an intermediate solution like 10GbE adapters (ThunderNet is one brand) and a 10GbE NAS.

 

[meistervu]

Depending on your work flow, a NAS + shared repository system may work really well.

For example, I would set up a NAS with sufficient storage for all the projects plus additional space allowance for versions of files for all projects, and use GIT for version control. Now, when a user want to work on a project, he can run a simple command to check it out to his local machine which put a local copy of the file(s) locally. When done, checking in is as simple as running a command. You get the benefit of local access speed, centralized storage, and versioning.

If you are not familiar with GIT, it may take you 15 minutes to an hour (to be quite conservative) to get up to speed. I think it's an excellent tool for shared work.