Leopard & Apple SAN: no joy

[Leo Ticheli]

I've got a conference call in a few minutes with Apple Enterprise; I'm asking them the following:

1. Has anyone, including Apple, tried upgrading the XSan metadata controllers so that they can have Leopard clients?

2. Is there a fix so Shake can be used with all 8 cores on the new Leopard machines.

3. What's the status of working with Red Cine and Red Alert on the new 8-core Macs with Leopard?

I imagine we'll exchange a few pleasantries about Apple and NAB as well. The rumor is that there will be some invitation only presentations in LV during NAB. Fingers crossed that we'll actually have some exciting things to receive.

If I survive the conference, I'll report.

As I said earlier, Apple is seeding us some loaner Xsans to back up our entire Xsan to give it a try if we decide to do so.

Good shooting (and editing!) and best regards to all,

Leo

 

[Leo Ticheli]

OK, boys and girls, here's the scoop...

1. They can find no one who has installed 10.5.1 on metadata controllers and used Leopard clients, except on brand new installations. We're going to give it a shot, migrating our existing Xsan to 10.5.1.

Apple said that large facilities buy quantities of Macs with current OS software to protect themselves from future compatibility problems. It was mentioned that one group bought 150 Tiger Macs, just to keep on the shelf.

2. No information could be released about Shake and 8-core Leopard Macs, but I got the feeling that it's the end of the road. Naturally, Apple would not disclose any future plans.

3. We were advised to query Red on compatibility of various Mac hardware/software, pretty much a, "not my department," sort of thing.

If this information already exists, can someone point to a list of compatible configurations? Mac, OS, capture cards, display cards, etc.

On the NAB front; our Apple Rep had not received his talking points from the Mother Ship. Guesses all around were that selected customers would be invited to private showings at LV, but not physically at NAB. Note that I said "guesses;" I have NO hard information on this from Apple.

I asked some other pointed questions and receive only the stonewall response.

On the upside, Apple is seeding us a lot of hardware and providing on-site engineers to oversee the operation.

If Apple does have something special for us in LV, we'll probably make the trek again.

Good shooting and best regards to all,

Leo

 

[jon erwin]

Leo,

This is Jon over @ EB. We've got 3 suites strapped together in an XSan. About to add a 4th 8-core suite but now I'm scared to death. We already had a HUGE problem with the SAN when we did a routine software upgrade a couple of months ago (We were down for 2 weeks!)

From reading all this is the best solution to buy a new machine and down-grade the OS?

 

[Gunleik Groven]

If that was only doable, I'd have downgraded long ago...

Gunleik

 

[Leo Ticheli]

Put on the brakes, Jon; I have heard downgrading the new Leopard Macs to Tiger is either impossible or opens many problems. Please don't try it.

Here's the rule: Never, never, never, I mean NEVER, upgrade anything that's even close to an Xsan!

My favorite horror story is what happened when someone simply upgraded iTunes on an Xsan client machine and it sent the whole system down.

We keep MacBooks in the suites so none of our edit stations do anything else; no internet browsing, no email, no nothing. By keeping it totally clean and isolated and never upgrading anything without our Xsan guru's approval, we have had zero problems.

We will be upgrading our metadata controllers to 10.5.1 in the very near future with Apple's support personnel on-site and then firing up a new 8-core Leopard Mac client.

I'll report the results.

Good shooting and best regards to all,

Leo