Apple + AttoTech iSCSI + Dell EqualLogic

SANs don't usually make for good media type servers.    I'd try to ask some other people in your field what they are using.

Pretty sad when a 32 hard drives in a SAN array aren't even good for file level access.

I am not talking about serving media here, I am talking about online storage. So I bring my media in, copy it to my external-SATA array and that is my "live" copy. From there the stuff I am working on is on my SAS drives in the system, but I always have my live work on the SATA drives. My data is also backed up into two other spots. But, I was looking at the EqualLogic to be able to toss the stuff I am not working on all the time, but would like to keep online (so I don't have to pull from LTO-5 or removable hard drives) -- I would copy the data over the iSCSI onto my external-SATA array if I needed to work on it.

So speed isn't that big of a deal, I would not be editing or even playing the media over the SAN.

But it sounds like I will look for another storage vendor....

Why not look at apple approved storage, IE Xraid or Xsan. These are now manufactured by 3rd parties but certified by apple.

Here's a link

I think EQL will make an excellent online SAN for your "warm" archives.  I had actually filed a support case with Dell about what kind of support to expect, and although they were guarded, it satisfied me.  Your needs may vary.

We get terrific performance out of two PS6500E (48 1 TB drives), one running RAID50 the other RAID10.  It just works.  It was simple to set up.  Dell offers very good management and performance monitoring tool (SAN Headquarters).  We're planning to buy more.  Message me if you'd like any details.

Hi Eugene:

Our support policy is that we will always take the call; whether you are using any third-party products or not is not a factor.  We will also always troubleshoot and try to fix the problem to the best of our ability.  If the evidence points to a third-party product, we will nonetheless try to work with it based on our experience; we have a good breadth of empirical knowledge to draw from.  However, if we run out of experience or think we are getting in over our depth, we will eventually have to refer you to the developer of the product for further help.

Our belief is that the developer of a third-party product knows a lot more about it than we do, and so is a lot more able to troubleshoot and fix it than we are.  Also, frankly, we don't want to break something or make it worse by messing around with someone else's product that we don't fully understand.

If the third-party developer needs help understanding how our product interacts with theirs, we will be more than glad to participate in any conference calls or e-mail conversations needed to give them the information they need.

For Mac OS X, we have customers that tell us they are using the ATTO initiator with good success.  ATTO Technology as a company has been around for some time and so they have a track record.  Here is a link to information on their Web site about their Mac iSCSI initiator product:

http://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?sku=INIT-MAC0-001

As Don ****** mentioned, before the Dell acquisition we resold a Mac OS X initiator developed by a company called Ardis Technologies, located in The Netherlands.  I don't know the status of their current product, but in the past Jan de Wit (developer) has been responsive to queries by e-mail.  Here is a link:

http://www.ardistech.com/main.html?id=13&lang=

Thanks,

SANs don't usually make for good media type servers.    I'd try to ask some other people in your field what they are using.

Could you explain?  One of volumes in our pool is a Red Hat based Helix Universal Server and it does pretty good...we're moving our Quicktime Streaming Server to another volume on the same pool, soon.