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Author Topic: GDC PSD-300P Storage units Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 07-06-2014 10:10 AM                     The PSD-3000u probably had the RAID software running on the SX-3000 itself. Strange concept. The enterprise 19" storage option contains a dedicated RAID controller, like the current PSD-3000P. With all these variants, it doesn't really look like a solid concept. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-06-2014 10:14 AM                     Monte... Yes, I had a dozen or so of the rack mount units at first. Some of them certainly had issues. GDC has since replaced them all... Carsten... The actual raid controller is inside the PSD-3000. At a certain point in the boot sequence the SX-3000 wakes up the raid card and the blue drive activity lights come on so you know the drives are spinning. The drives do not spin up unless the SX-3000 wakes the raid card. There is also the usual software raid available in the SX-3000 if you prefer to run triple external 2.5 or 3.5" drives via separate eSATA cables. Or as you mentioned an external source either supplied by GDC or some other manufacturer. Frankly, I think the idea of these server/IMB's is great because they offer so many options for data input. There are really no hindrances between these vs. a full size server that I have encountered in my installations.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 07-06-2014 11:46 AM                     I have no problem with IMBs or IMSs, and not with ingest drives being attached through USB, eSATA, whatever. But the playout storage itself is so dependent on solid realtime response, I just doubt it's a good idea to do it the way Christie or GDC implemented it with their IMS. While internal drives may be a potential source of heat problems, they are better to control. Even just a slightly higher probability of hanging, skipping, stuttering is not acceptable in my opinion. There simply needs to be enough safe margin for uninterrupted playout. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-06-2014 11:54 AM                     quote: Mark Gulbrandsen The drives do not spin up unless the SX-3000 wakes the raid card. This explains why I was told not to power down the PSD since it wasn't necessary when doing the reboots. Looks like when powering down the SX-3000 through the GUI also shuts down the PSD unit, thus making as a whole system shutdown. When the projector power return, it's also 'wakes' up the GDC system back to normal. Thx for the info - now it makes more sense on the procedure. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-06-2014 12:45 PM                     quote: Mark Gulbrandsen I disagree on the IMB being powered from the storage device. There is really nothing wrong with the way it is being done right now unless perhaps your projector does not have a standby mode... Bullshit...it is just plain stupid. If one shuts down the projector before the server, the server can go corrupt on both the GDC and Doremi. What a silly design. If the IMB was powered by the storage part, the server would essentially remain a separate entity. Then again, I'm not a fan of the IMB system to begin with.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-06-2014 03:07 PM                     Steve... It has never personally been a problem for me or my customers where things become corrupt on the SX-3000. What's there to become corrupt? The data the server has just sent to the IMB to be decrypted? That's about it! It's still fine on the media drives as is the OS! A reboot of both devices takes care of any data connection issues. In fact when you power down an NEC projector with an SX-3000 on board the projector almost always goes down first. For sure the ICP does. Lately, I also have not found it to be a problem on the larger servers either. I believe that GDC has taken care of this sort of thing in SA-SX firmware updates which are likely based on what the SX-3000 is doing. You can teach your customers the shutdown sequence till your blue in the face but someone is going to forget that at some point in time and do it the wrong way anyway. I can't speak for Doremi and their firmware. It is highly likely a huge issue for Qube since they are Windows based. Nor can I speak for how an SX-3000 behaves in a Barco or Christie. But it is a non issue for me. My customers have been powering up their NEC projectors and SX-3000's and powering them back down daily without shutting the server down first for well over a year with zero issues at all. They just flat out work. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-06-2014 03:48 PM                     I never had a problem either...but GDC absolutely insists that the server be shut down BEFORE the projector (with an IMB) be shut down or it will become corrupt. My systems are SX-2000ARs and that may be a difference. I agree, it is a stupid design to depend on people to do things in a certain order. We do have some systems where the automation takes care of it (boot up and shutdown in the right order)...but I would rather leave the servers up 24/7...with or without the IMB being alive.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-06-2014 04:59 PM                     Yes, they used to insist on it... And there may be reasons even I am not aware of to still do it but not doing it has not been an issue... Mark  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-06-2014 11:07 PM                     Okey.. here we go (again), but this time Dolby shows its ugly face with a DSS200 and a CAT745 IMB in a Barco 32B: Same thing: right in the middle of "Trans 4:Age", feature freezes solid. Told the assistant manager to reboot the Dolby with shutting down the UPS that it's receiving power from and turning it back on and wait almost 10 minutes for a full reboot. While waiting for a reboot on the Dolby, go kill the power to the projector in the breaker panel. Wait a few seconds and power up the projector. They were back on screen in 10 minutes ... and I just did a full reboot three days earlier. What gives, invaded by gremlins or similar? -Monte  |  IP: Logged

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