Promise Pegasus Thunderbolt RAID; 6x1TB $1,499, 6x2TB $1,999

[Douglas Learner]

I received a call back from Promise this morning with more info on the Pegasus. Here are the key points from my notes:

- RAID6 is supported
- The person I spoke to does not think a RAID set can span multiple devices
- The Pegasus uses Hitachi drives.
- Promise is currently testing hard drives and SSDs for the compatibility list
- The Pegasus will be available from Promise resellers come mid-July. Until then it is exclusive to the Apple Store.
- There is a possibility the Pegasus will be sold without drives in the future. Lots of folks have been asking for it
- There appears to be a lot of interest in the Pegasus


Douglas

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I wonder if it's possible to upgrade with generic drives in the future or if they've locked the whole system down.

Should be just fine. I've ordered the 4TB model and I'll be putting in 2TB drives myself. Will know in a few days I guess...

The compatibility list they have put together only shows which devices they have specifically tested. And the fact that such a list exists pretty much indicates that the units are open. Oh, and we can install/replace drives in other such Promise arrays already, why should the TB models be any different?

 

[John Bellari]

Should be just fine. I've ordered the 4TB model and I'll be putting in 2TB drives myself. Will know in a few days I guess...

The compatibility list they have put together only shows which devices they have specifically tested. And the fact that such a list exists pretty much indicates that the units are open. Oh, and we can install/replace drives in other such Promise arrays already, why should the TB models be any different?

Jeff,

Do you have any experience with the Hitachi 3TB Deskstar drives and if they are OK for use in Raid with Windows, or better performance with 3TB Barracuda XT drives ?

I have been delaying a new storage array waiting for 5TB drives to come based on 1TB platters, but it seems to take forever, so I think I'll settle for one of these 3TB based arrays...

Thanks in advance for any info, your technical knowledge is a tremendous asset in this forum...

 

[Douglas Learner]

I've got a release version of the same 12TB unit showing up tomorrow.

I've ordered the 4TB model and I'll be putting in 2TB drives myself. Will know in a few days I guess...

Steve, Jeff...How do you plan to use these? Are these going to be attached to production machines, used on location, or something else?

thanks,

d

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

John,

I don't have any experience with the 3TB Hitachi or Seagate drives. So far, the only 3TB units I have used have been the WD Green ones and only individually. They make great single-drive solutions for external enclosures due to the low power use. So far those have been reliable. I guess I've been waiting for more 3TB options to appear that are geared for RAID use and to see some real-world reports. I'm hesitating as I was an early adopter for both 1.5TB and 2TB and the 1.5's burned me pretty bad.

Douglas, I'm going to be using the RAID connected to an iMac. I'll possibly use it occasionally with my new 2011 Macbook Pro, but it's for the iMac mostly. The thought is to have some decent external storage so I can better use the system for a variety of things. Not so much R3D processing or editing, but perhaps on occasion. The system will be used more for programming and photoshop work, some 3D modeling, etc.. Occasional editing in Premiere, but probably with DSLR and EX1 footage...

I actually cancelled my order for the 4TB Promise unit shortly after my last post here. I changed it to the 6TB unit. It just made more sense... It gives me the two more bays and with 6TB I won't need to mess with swapping out HDDs initially. So I'll just plug it in and use it right out of the box. Looks like it's going to take a week or two before I get it.

 

[Stephen Lovett]

One of the huge advantages of Epic is that it allows me to scale the whole production package down.

Right now my DIT station requires me to bring my grip and camera truck along as it's pretty big, too big to fit in my SUV. (you can see it at http://uroborosfilms.com/Lab/Lab.html ) So I bought this guy principally for on set use for offload from my Macbook Pro now and I plan to add a rocket to the sonnet box when it ships allowing me to have most of the capability of my cart in a much smaller form factor.

Steve

 

[Art_Jaguar]

Wow, that setup is legit Stephen. I took a look at your company web site and your company is exactly what I am looking for in order to expand my knowledge and experience in the industry , except an email for the DIT and Post Production Assistant positions.

I cant wait till the price comes down a bit on Thunderbolt I/O.

 

[PatrickW]

I actually cancelled my order for the 4TB Promise unit shortly after my last post here. I changed it to the 6TB unit. It just made more sense... It gives me the two more bays and with 6TB I won't need to mess with swapping out HDDs initially. So I'll just plug it in and use it right out of the box. Looks like it's going to take a week or two before I get it.

Yeah, the 6bay units look nice.

Do you think you could have 2bays with SSDs and 4 with HDDs? High speed buffer and big storage disks...

 

[Bing Bailey]

when will there be a thunderbolt based enclosure for the red rocket

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Sonnet is making a TB to PCIe enclosure, but so far it seems it's only configurable as PCIe 2.0 X4... It's the right amount of bandwidth, but not in the right bandwidth format, so it will roughly be 4X faster with the Rocket than an ExpressCard-34 solution, but if they made it to also allow PCIe v1.1 X8, then we could use the Rocket at full speed.

I've heard that there will also be a MAGMA ThunderBolt solution sometime this year as well, don't know specifics. I would expect MAXX to offer a TB version of their MobileRocket at some point.

@noahvolek, I don't think you could separate bays on these RAID units and still use onboard RAID functionality. I think the only way to do what you're talking about with the 2 SSDs and 4 HDDs would be to configure the units as JBOD and RAID them how you wish via software. I could be wrong, but don't think so... Haven't seen anyone report advanced functionality with multiple onboard RAID volumes.

 

[Douglas Learner]

I just read through the Pegasus manual – slow day today – and It looks like Promise has designed this to function as a simple, plug-and-play array for people who know nothing about storage while also a providing the tools for people who know what they're doing to custom-configure and manage their RAID.

Here are my key take-aways from the manual:

The Pegasus ships ready to use (I think with RAID 0). The configuration software lets you reconfigure it as you wish. There are three levels of configuration:

- Automatic provides no user options and is designed for people new to storage.

- Express gives users “familiar with data storage” control of general parameters, including choosing Video Stream as the intended use (File Server is default) and assigning a hot spare on the 6-drive unit.

- Advanced is designed for the “data storage professional” and lets you control individual parameters, include specifying stripe size, sector size, and read and write cache policies.

The manual specifically states the configuration software is “for users who plan to…install their own physical drive” and/or “configure the Pegasus manually.” Good news for folks who want to swap out the drives.

The Pegasus uses SATA 3Gb/s technology with CRC error-checking.

There is extensive discussion of supported RAID types (0, 1, 1E, 5, 6, 10) in the manual and how they apply to the 4-drive and 6-drive Pegasus units. It does NOT appear you can combine RAID types in a single unit or create a RAID that spans multiple units.

A System Status Dashboard monitors the Controller, Voltage, Temperature, Power Supply Unit, Fan, Disk Array, Logical Drive, Physical Drive and Spare Drive. It's nice to have that type of information available.

The cooling fans for the drive and the power supply are NOT field-replaceable. That would give me concern in a unit on location.



Jeff, Steve, I'm looking forward to hearing how it works for you.

 

[Tobias Straka]

Got my R6 yesterday, connected to my MBP - all I can say is: I love it! I think it's pretty cool to get approx. 500 MB/s Read/Write speeds (configured as a RAID 6) on a portable device...