Storage Setup Advice for Video Production Company

shaneyegs

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Dec 19, 2012
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10,510
Hey Guys,

I am looking at adding around 14-20TB of network storage to our video production office. We have 4 computers and plan on adding an extra later in the year.

How would you go about setting this up, what brand/s do you recommend, is this a smarter workflow over passing around harddrives (wil it be faster to render from a sata drive over through the network)

I am a total rookie at network setups so I am sorry if what I ask is basic.

Thanks guys!

 

zdbc13

Distinguished
You need a server. Just a tower server would be adequate for that much storage but if you anticipate great increases look into rack servers. They are more expandable. You can put your router, switches, and rack mount servers on a starter rack and add more later. I'm a little out of the server game now (used to admin Windows 2000 servers in a major company domain). I've been playing around with Linix lately and would definately look in that direction. As for hardware, what is your budget?
 

shaneyegs

Honorable
Dec 19, 2012
5
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10,510
looking around $3500 at most. We have a huge library of stock footage and would like to start a website selling it along with having the ability to share projects we are working on with out passing around a physical drive.

 

zdbc13

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Well, that's not enough for racks. After you make your first few millions you can get some of them. I do recommend you find a local IT guy who knows how to set this up and trust him with the project. It's a little bit much for an enthusiasts IT forum trying to lead a newbie (no disrespect) to network heaven. You need someone to set up your router/switches/servers and do all the software installation. If you want to do your own internet hosting you'll need a web guy, too. Sometimes you can get 2 for 1. You can outsource the internet part if you want. Good luck! It would be fun to help you in person....
 

shaneyegs

Honorable
Dec 19, 2012
5
0
10,510
Thanks so much for the help!

If you're ever in the Wash. DC area and want to drop by feel free haha. We have a good friend who does IT for NORAD that said he'd help set this up I just wanted to have a solid second opinion.

Any specific drives you recommend? high reliability?

we could stretch the budget to 5000 if it really ment high speed and reliability. (spend now save later)
 

zdbc13

Distinguished
I'm partial to Western Digital although have had good luck with Seagate, Samsung, etc. Yes don't skimp on the server. I'll let some of our hardware gurus help you with details as it's been a long time since I built an enterprise server. Been building fun servers a bunch and having a good time....
 

FireWire2

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You can check this Dual Gb Ethernet NAS/iSCSI out:
http://www.datoptic.com/ec/1u-5bay-hw-raid-nas-iscsi-with-dual-gb-nic.html

It shows over 200MB/s transfer rate.
Supports: CIFS/SMB, NFS, FTP, Secure FTP and Apple Talk enabling Windows, Linux, Unix and MacIntosh clients to share data on the network

20TB RAW - 16TB usable space for RAID5 - cost about $2,693.75

Is that what are you looking for?