Openfiler and XSAN

It’s been many months since I have written a update on the SAN build.

Basically, the Openfiler box is running 16 x 3TB Seagate ST3000DM001 6G SATA drives (no these are not enterprise class drives… I know that), with a QLA2562 dual port 8Gb HBA and has been rock solid as a FC target. It runs 24/7 and so far has a longest up-time of 43 days, and I only restarted it then for a check-up, but there was really no need.

The storage is currently configured RAID 1+0 for redundancy because I was worried about the hard drives being kicked out of the array due to error correction time-outs (considering these are not enterprise drives), but not one of the 16 Seagate Barracuda 3TB desktop drives has even threatened to give me a issue in over three months on the Areca controller so now I want to reconfigure it to RAID 5. I feel I can trust it now.

I ditched SANmp very early on as it did not provide me with concurrent read/write access from multiple clients simultaneously. Since then I set up XSAN 2.3 on Lion using a older spare Mac Pro as a metadata controller running Lion Server, with three clients (one of which is also a back-up MDC) all running Lion or Lion Server. These are all Mac Pro workstations with LSI 7204 4Gb dual port HBAs.

Setting up XSAN correctly is a bit too involved to get into in this post, but needless to say I had to provide a separate private gigabit switch and network for XSAN metadata, and completely reconfigure our entire network with a existing Windows 2008 R2 server providing carefully and correctly configured DNS, DHCP and Active Directory services. I’ve built this whole system buying the absolute minimum (buying re-conditioned when I have to buy) and using or re-purposing as much as I could that we already had.

The Windows server is running on a rock solid HP Proliant ML350 G6, and I needed to set up our LTO5 drive (running LTFS) on Windows rather than OSX anyway. To be fair I didn’t have many issues binding the Macs to a Windows hosted Active Directory so I’ve had no issues there.

Apple XSAN is a complex and frustrating beast. However it works well once it is set up correctly. I’m getting +/- 330MB/sec read and write to the SAN from all clients, it’s currently approaching 80% full, and as I said, the Openfiler box has been the least of my issues… in fact it hasn’t been a issue at all. It is completely transparent to XSAN, it might as well be a Promise VTrak as far as the end performance and usability is concerned.

I know anyone wanting to replicate this will need for technical information. I will post more of the nuts and bolts asap.

SAN build almost complete… Openfiler, SANmp and fibre channel network all operational

I am writing this on day 8, working an average of 16hrs a day straight. That’s 128 man-hours so far invested in getting this SAN built. It’s been operational for the past two days with one strange automatic server reboot that I haven’t looked into yet. I am sure the answer to that is in a log file somewhere.

Complicated is the word that comes to mind. This is the single most challenging IT related project I have undertaken to date. Building a open-source, low-cost, high-performance SAN from scratch is not for the timid, and certainly not for anyone without a working knowledge of the hardware involved or a fear of the command line. Linux knowledge is a prerequisite as many of the guides and helpful step by step how-to’s I will refer to were not totally self sufficient.

I know that this post will turn up in Google internet searches involving the terms “Openfiler”, “Openfiler 2.99.1″ and “Qlogic FC Target”, and to you who clicked on the link and ended up here, I want to say two things. First of all, it works, you can set up a SAN storage server with a fibre channel front end using Openfiler (as long as you stick to a Qlogic HBA), and secondly, if you absolutely cannot afford enterprise class hard drives, I am having no problems so far with my 16 Seagate ST3000DM001 3TB SATA drives. I am aware of the differences between enterprise class and desktop class drives, and the problems with ERC, and the decision to employ the cheaper desktop drives in this build was not mine. However, I did take precautions. I configured my RAID as 1+0, meaning each drive only has one pair in it’s “sub RAID” and then the 8 pairs of mirrored drives are striped RAID 0. So far out of all the problems I have had, none have been disk related. Time will tell if this remains the case.

Stay tuned for the next post where I’ll start getting specific.

The rack is coming together with the Netgear GS748T smart switch on top, Brocade Silkworm 4100 4Gb fibre switch and the SAN storage server. This is before the HP Proliant file server went in the rack too.

Fibre channel XSAN: Muddville Dubai goes data-centric.

First off, my apologies for not posting anything in eons. I’ve been super busy… excuses, excuses… I know.

For those of you that don’t know, I’ve recently moved from Cape Town to Dubai, and am starting 2012 with a new long term contract as a producer/post producer/post workflow engineer/systems consultant/systems builder/(insert many other hats here) for the best production and post company I have ever known.

Muddville now has three Red Epic cameras, and a Scarlet on its way. Needless to say we generate huge amounts of data.

It’s come time to streamline our post workflow, and that means centralized storage and fast networking.

I’ve wanted to build a SAN for a long time, and each time the opportunity presented itself, the door closed for some or other reason. Not this time.

With careful consultation with Jac, Leigh and the team we have factored in all our post needs, such as a ton of storage space for 5K R3D media on active projects as well as uncompressed frame sequences, VFX assets and all this needs to be accessible to everyone on the network simultaneously.

We’re going Apple XSAN on 4Gb fibre channel, exciting times.

I also want to try out SANmp from SNS before finalizing the decision to go XSAN.

So stay tuned for write ups on the build, config, testing and deployment!

Why 4K+ is the future of media production and consumption.

I believe more than ever that 4K is the future not only of digital cinema, but of television and even portable devices. Red Digital Cinema has firmly implanted 4K+ of pixels as a common acquisition resolution for cinema, especially now with the availability of Scarlet at a unbeatable price point while most other digital cinema cameras are still only HD. Now with Sony’s F65 promising “true” 4K, and Sony bringing a high end “consumer” 4K projector to market, I think the future is clear.

Another clear indicator in my opinion is the current trend of near full HD displays migrating to smaller portable devices. For instance, take the impressive AMOLED 720p screen on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus of only 4.65″, it’s only a small stretch to see that a 1080p screen at a similar size is only a matter of time. Four of those panels equates to a 4K screen at a portable size.

Youtube now supports streaming media at 4K. The technology is already in our hands.

The reason however is not necessity, the reason is that we can sell it and fuel untold billions (trillions even) of dollars of business in cameras, post, data transmission and networking infrastructure, televisions, new portable devices and of course content production.

Since when has need ever really fueled consumption in the digital age?

EOS C300 for Cinematographers???

I am exceptionally disappointed in Canon.

Quoting their own official copy:

Since the introduction of EOS HD, the professional cinematographer has had a love/hate relationship with HD-SLRs for movie production. Because there were limitations and restrictions that prevented seasoned DPs from shooting in the ways they were used to, HD-SLRS were tools that occasionally frustrated high-end video users.

Canon is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the strengths of EOS HD-SLRs while creating a true professional video camera system that can fulfill the needs of working cinematographers. After much research and thoughtful planning, Canon is proud to introduce the EOS C300 and EOS C300 PL digital cinema cameras as our first entry into the world of professional cinema cameras.

Then they introduce a camera that shoots 1080p at a maximum bitrate of 50Mb/sec… come on guys, get real.

The EOS C300′s large Super 35-sized CMOS image sensor was specifically engineered from the ground up to meet the needs of the cinema industry.

Recording options in the EOS C300 and EOS C300 PL, when set for NTSC recording:

50Mb/sec.	1920 x 1080	59.94i 29.97P,  23.98P,  24.00P
	1280 x 720	59.94P,  29.97P,  23.98P,  24.00P
35Mb/sec	1920 x 1080	59.94i 29.97P,  23.98P
	1280 x 720	59.94P,  29.97P, 23.98P
25Mb/sec	1440 x 1080	59.94i,  29.97P,  23.98P

Both the EOS C300 and EOS C300 PL are expected to be available at dealers in early 2012, at an estimated selling price of less than $20,000 – an extremely competitive price range versus established high-end, professional HD video cameras. Actual start of sales and pricing is TBA.

Canon, seriously?

Sharp Shooting for Guerilla Warfare – Part 2 – Ergonomics and Operation with Red MX, Alexa and EPIC

Largely thanks to Philip Bloom sharing with his crowd, last week’s post Sharp Shooting for Guerilla Warfare – Part 1 – Bare Bones DCinema with Red MX, Alexa and EPIC received 1144 views and some nice comments on the RedUser forum.

Today I want to look at ergonomics and operation in a bare bones, location based situation where setup and tear-down, physically moving the camera from position A to position B, and getting into tight spots quickly can mean the difference between staying on schedule, or falling behind.

I’m going to start with the Red One MX, move on to Alexa and save the best for last!

The Revolutionary Red One

The Red One will go down in history as the camera that led a revolution. In that spirit of reverence, I am not knocking it here at all. It is however, a camera that is better suited to a larger, slower shoot with a full camera team. If I remember correctly, this is the only camera that we chose not to move while it was mounted on the head and legs.

Ergonomically the Red One is a heavy, bulky camera to handle, especially handheld or on the shoulder.

While head mounted, it’s great, no problems but as soon as a situation involves trying to manoeuvre into a tight corner, or into a car for instance, things get more interesting and options are restrictive.

There were a few shots on INSIDE where we struggled, wanting to move walls out of the way, but obviously demolition wasn’t an option.

ALEXA

As Philip Bloom so eloquently put it in his write-up for Arri Philip Bloom goes solo with Alexa -

The ALEXA is the Aston Martin of digital cameras – Philip Bloom

I couldn’t agree more. The camera is a work of art, it just looks like a Arri, and I love that. It instils confidence and speaks of a wealth of history in cinema technology.

It also has a nice shoulder pad! or at least our camera came with one, and that make for far more comfortable shoulder shooting!

The camera is still a long rectangular box with the lens mount at one end, the battery at the other, it’s heavy, but with fewer bits “perched” onto rods on top, on bottom, on side as with the battery and drive cradle on the Red One, it’s a bit easier to “throw” around. Often we did just grab the whole camera, head and legs and move the whole lot when necessary (two or three of us assisting).

In praise of ALEXA’s ease of operation!

I said I would get into camera menus but I’m going to stay quite general on the topic. I had a whole series of menu snapshots to share, but I fear it may be all a bit boring. I’m not trying to write a operations manual here.

What I wanted to share is basically what a pleasure the Arri’s menu system is. It’s so intuitive, I find my friend’s Sony Z5 more confusing and difficult to set up. I knew the menu back to front in less than 10mins without reading anything. You all know how men (especially) typically don’t bother with user manuals… or any kind of documentation, unless perhaps there are pictures of scantily clad women in them (even then reading anything is unlikely).

The Alexa is the most wonderful camera to set up and use. It’s an absolute pleasure!

Okay… I will share one snapshot.

You can play with the menu interactively online here, I encourage you to check it out: http://arridigital.com/technical/simulator

EPIC

If the ALEXA is a Aston Martin, the EPIC is a Ferrari Enzo, it’s smaller, tighter, lighter and more manoeuvreable. It’s the indie filmmakers’ dream in every sense.

 

I don’t think there was any instance where we couldn’t get the EPIC right where we wanted it. Handheld takes on a whole new meaning when you can grab it like a 5D MkII, and while it’s certainly heavier than a typical DSLR, especially with a Ultra Prime mounted, it’s not un-manageable. It’s actually a nice solid feel.

The EPIC made shooting inside a car an absolute pleasure, with the 10mm Zeiss, we framed everything we needed in the shot and could get it high, low, in, out, wherever. There is no way we could have captured these shots with a bigger camera.

Smaller, lighter, more flexible.

One significant advantage to the EPIC, is the need for a heavy film fluid head is gone. We had the same O’Connor 2575 we used for both the Red One and the Alexa, and it’s a beautiful, silky smooth head, but we probably could have put the camera on a Manfrotto 501 video fluid head and been perfectly fine.

This advantage carries on to jibs, car mounts, sliders, and almost anything you might want to put the camera on. While heavier than a DSLR, I would argue the EPIC with a cinema prime and a clip on matte box can be handled with anything that will take the weight of a EX3. It’s cinema in a video weight class.

That’s it for this post.

In the next post Part 3, we go into post production with these cameras! Stay tuned!

Please also subscribe to my blog!

4K is just the beginning – Is Sony’s F65 a EPIC killer?

Quite simply, I have one thing on my mind. I HAVE to get my hands on this camera.

Finally Sony have unveiled something which has not totally disappointed me. I don’t care about the F3, it passed me by largely unnoticed, I’m not interested in anything HD to be honest.

Out of the plethora of tech specs (yawn), here’s what matters to me.

• Super 35mm CMOS imager, 8K (20 million photosites) delivering true 4K after debayer.
• Mechanical rotating shutter option.
• 16-bit linear RAW recording.
• F65 for $65,000 incl viewfinder.

That’s all I’m going to say. EPIC has a fight on it’s hands. There are now two heavyweight contenders in the ring. What the RED does have going for it, that would likely swing the balance for me is it’s size and weight. Sony have built a larger camera than the EPIC, and for some that will be an issue.

I can still see EPIC winning over the indie revolution for owner/operators and small crews, it’s stolen my heart but I see F65′s populating the rental houses for “traditional” fully crewed productions. That won’t stop me putting it through it’s paces in a run and gun one or two man shoot as soon as I can get my hands on it! You know where to come to hear about it and see the images when I do!

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-highend/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-show-highend-F65.shtml

Humbled by an EPIC – guest post by Jacques Mulder

By Jacques Mulder

Its been 2 months with my EpicM and have been meaning to write something about it, I can say in all fairness this camera quite easily found a way to humble my role as a Director and an individual. The camera has opened up so many more opportunities then I could have ever expected, my Bomb Squad (Brian Sheckelhoff) handler has been privvy to my tours across this planet, starting with Dubai, I ventured to Singapore, Barcelona, bit in Munich and Frankfurt, to Johannesburg and Cape Town. I now sit in Dubai with 4TB of footage that I just so desperately want to share. I met over 300 people in my travels, (I kind of know how TED feels) and in that time I met them all, the skeptics, the enthusiasts, the bewildered the flabbergasted and the random unknown. All the while people received the handling of the camera with fascination – all of them!

There was a stretch of 10 days that kept the camera really busy, some days the camera was rolling at 5am and being turned off at 2am, these particular days were in freezing cold conditions, the camera was so solid we only had one problem in a four day stretch, on a pinch zoom the Ouput monitor through the HDSDi split the screen (not physically obviously), we unplugged the cable and continued. We never lost a single R3D file, even if the battery died or someone accidentally pulled off the brick, we had 0 corrupt files, we recycled the 128gb drives at least twice per day (we had four) and then one of the best things about this camera was its battery life, we just rolled and rolled and rolled and it stayed on and got the shots.

In the short time that I have owned this camera I have produced and directed many projects, a few stood out, one a short film written and produced by Richard Lackey (a RED user) directed by Leon Laubscher. He asked if I’d be available to help him on a project. I was not really sure what I was getting myself into but found myself smack bang in a beautifully crafted and stylishly designed period piece. I mean, shoot an epic story on an EPIC, it really did justice for the production. We were limited by lights, 1k a 2.5k, a couple of Kino’s, one reflector and a white bounce. I mean, really! We never shot anything over 400 ISO with this light setup, I can assure you we did beg for more lights and landed with a box of Dedolights that did help. The light sensitivity of the camera was truly astounding and we eventually started using less light watching our blacks and highlights carefully. In some shots we were proud that we only used one light. Warrick Mcleod was a genius with the lights and in the end we ended up getting way more then we expected.

In this shot we had no lights, HDRx turned on.

From there, as luck would have it I was offered a unique opportunity to shoot a ballerina, Alice, what an amazing artist. I will be sharing the final film once we have completed the edit and the grade. But this is a testament to her fabulous art and a thank you to the number of takes I made this girl go through.

In Summary, I have had the privilege of working with all formats, a week before my Epic arrived I was still shooting film, I still have a couple of jobs in October that require that format, but in all honesty I am going to attach my EpicM to the side of the 435 and shoot with both cameras. There is one thing for those I would advise anyone out there to do and that is to get a truck load of hard drive storage. Don’t shoot HDRx if you don’t have to, but for those technical boys out there this additional channel is perfect for 3D tracking and amazing at bringing out the blown out backgrounds! It has been a long 7 weeks, but we did a documentary, at least 3 TVC’s, a more “corporate” film and a trailer for a movie by one of the big Post houses in Cape Town, the short film shown above and a passion project named Alice. Lastly, I have had the privilege of using a variety of lenses that most reputable equipment houses have to offer and I have my favorites… This topic I will not discuss now…

To the guys at RED – you have seriously humbled me…

Jac Mulder
Director/TD
Represented by www.spokefilms.tv | Dubai
Muddville www.mvdubai.com 
Epic-M and Epic-X (on the way), clutch, canon mount and some cool toys…
jac(at)mvdubai.com

The RED Revolution – LA Times Magazine

Just read this fantastic article on LA Times Magazine… a must read!

The RED Revolution – LA Times Magazine.

Coming soon! Murder at the Manor gets 5K R3D conform and grade on Quantel Pablo

I’m totally indebted to a whole bunch of fantastic people at the moment, some of whom I actually am monetarily indebted to as well after these past two films, and believe me… the Kickstarter campaign is about to launch! I need your help!

I want to express a huge Thank You! to Waterfront Studios and Condor Visual Effects, my previous employers for giving me the opportunity to have our fantastic 5K images graded and finished in their Quantel Pablo suite.

We conform on Wednesday 7th Sept, and if all goes well we will grade on the weekend, Sat 10th & 11th with colorist Kyle Stroebel.

It’s likely that we will have some challenges, a 5K conform doesn’t happen every day (yet… I hope that changes) but its all part of the fun and if I know anything about the technical crew at Waterfront Studios, it’s that they are creative problem solvers!

So, I’m going to give you a window into the world of high-end finishing at Cape Town’s premier post facility with a blog post or two dedicated to the kind folks at Waterfront Studios! Stay tuned for that.

Remember that coming up later this week is Part 2 of my “Sharp Shooting for Guerilla Warfare” series with Red MX, Arri Alexa and EPIC where I will take a look at form factor, ergonomics and menus/setup on these three top end cameras.

So if you’re a digital cinema acquisition and post production technology enthusiast, a technician, a producer, or involved in this crazy world in your day to day grind, please come back regularly. Better yet, subscribe to my blog!