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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

XP 64 and Redcine

Umm, don't you mean 2GB limit? 2TB would be a heck of a lot of RAM!:w00t:

But it's funny that you ask because my brother and I are currently using Windows XP x64 on our Mac Pro for 3D modelling purposes and it works great. As far as what systems Redcine works on still hasn't been said yet as far as I know and I'm not sure that it will make much of a difference for Redcine, the real question is whether any editing software will work on a 64-bit system. Just looking on Adobe's site for example, the system requirments for Premiere list Windows XP and Vista but only certifies for the 32-bit editions.
 
Sorry I wasn't more clear. The 2 tb limit that I refer to is in reference to HDD size. First you need a 64bit lba raid controller. Then you need to have Windows Server 2003 sp1 or XP 64, I don't know about vista, but since Redcine will not work on Vista (that we know of to this point) then it looks like XP 64 is the best option for having a lot of ram and using disk arrays bigger than 2 tb. I wish that the ICH9R would support bigger than 2 tb raid arrays, but I can't seem to find out if they do. If so, then a cheap box could be built with a q6600 and then throw in 6 1tb drives in a raid 5.
 
There is a trick to get around that with the volume manager, you have to convert the volumes to dynamic disks to be able to "add" them together and have only one big volume exceeding 2TB
more here: http://graphics.adaptec.com/pdfs/3759_2TB_WP.pdf

But yes I think XP64 is a good option, as long as you don't have hardware that doesn't have 64 bit drivers (like a m-audio sound card), but then you can always have a dual boot and have a XP 32 bit when you need your special audio card...
I have to admit that OSX manage that in a better way, but it has also some down side (like Linux, Iris, Unix,...)

antoine.
 
That is right, I remember reading about using dynamic disks. That limits the version of XP to Pro since home can't use dynamic disks. I think to be able to use 4gb of ram, that xp64 will still be the OS of choice. I just really wish that there was a new imac or mac mini that used the q6600 quad core chip. It wouldn't be my main machine, but would be great for use on set and for basic redcine stuff.
 
Both REDCINE and SCRATCH were having some initial troubles on an x64 station at SMPTE, but Lucas sorted it out reasonably quickly. I'm not sure the exact nature of the issue.
 
Ok.. I think a lot of stuff being mixed together here.

Any 32-bit Windows EXCEPT Server2003 have a 2TB LUN limit. But, that doesn't mean that there is a 2TB volume limit in Disk Management!

You can create a whole crapload of 2TB LUNs, then stripe them in Windows as a RAID50 that is more than 2TB. I regularly work on volumes that are 8 and 12TB.

Server2003 does not have this limit.

I'm thinking that for REDCODE, this will really not be a massive issue. Start with 27MB/s. That translates to 94.9GB/hr. Let's say that a shooting day averages 5 hours of footage a day.

94.9 *5 = 474.5 GB / day.

So, you will be able to get a few complete days onto one 2TB LUN. In those couple of days, that can be backed up to any one of a number of solutions. Depending on how on-set deals with circle takes, then that can reduced drastically.

These are not big numbers to deal with in terms of storage and backup. The LUN issue is simply not an issue. Also true because there is no limit to the volumes that REDCINE can access. If you have 6 drives set up in the OS, REDCINE can see all of them.

Lucas
------
ASSIMILATE, Inc.
LA, CA, USA
 
Help me understand please. If I am running 12 750s in raid 6, I'd have 7.5 tb of usable space (approximately). Then in windows, I'd make 3 2tb LUNs, then one that is 1.5tb. Then I would span them in windows, right? You mentioned Raid 50 in windows, are you just saying if you don't have it on a secure raid already?
 
Ok.. I think a lot of stuff being mixed together here.

Any 32-bit Windows EXCEPT Server2003 have a 2TB LUN limit. But, that doesn't mean that there is a 2TB volume limit in Disk Management!

You can create a whole crapload of 2TB LUNs, then stripe them in Windows as a RAID50 that is more than 2TB. I regularly work on volumes that are 8 and 12TB.

Server2003 does not have this limit.

I'm thinking that for REDCODE, this will really not be a massive issue. Start with 27MB/s. That translates to 94.9GB/hr. Let's say that a shooting day averages 5 hours of footage a day.

94.9 *5 = 474.5 GB / day.

So, you will be able to get a few complete days onto one 2TB LUN. In those couple of days, that can be backed up to any one of a number of solutions. Depending on how on-set deals with circle takes, then that can reduced drastically.

These are not big numbers to deal with in terms of storage and backup. The LUN issue is simply not an issue. Also true because there is no limit to the volumes that REDCINE can access. If you have 6 drives set up in the OS, REDCINE can see all of them.

Lucas
------
ASSIMILATE, Inc.
LA, CA, USA

That's all true, but for someone who doesn't want to invest in an Xserve/Xsan system, I would be using the raid for all my editing purposes...say, 12-15 days of shooting. The raid would then be my active working drive. But as you say, it is possible to get larger than 2TB limits currently and easily, so it shouldn't be a problem.
 
Help me understand please. If I am running 12 750s in raid 6, I'd have 7.5 tb of usable space (approximately). Then in windows, I'd make 3 2tb LUNs, then one that is 1.5tb. Then I would span them in windows, right? You mentioned Raid 50 in windows, are you just saying if you don't have it on a secure raid already?

(scratching head)

I'm pretty sure that will work - except for two things that I question:

1) I'm not sure you can stripe together LUNs with different sizes. If you have 4 LUNs, and one of them is 1.5, then I think the other 3 would also default to 1.5 when you stripe. Not sure about this and no way to verify right now, but I'm pretty sure I remember this correctly.

2) You would have to make the LUNs in BIOS as a hardware RAID. That way, your LUNs would show up as one contiguous volume in Windows, which you could then software stripe using Disk Manager. Hence the RAID50. RAID 5 in hardware + RAID 0 in software. I mean - you could do a RAID30 or RAID00, but most common is RAID50.

I should also qualify that I'm not a true systems guy - there may be other ways to do this, but this is what I know. :)

Lucas
------
ASSIMILATE, Inc.
LA, CA, USA
 
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