BARCO ICMP vs DOLBY DSL 100

[Allan Barnes]

Is it possible to link a DOLBY DSL100 to a BARCO ICMP.1? Reason- just looking for ALOT of ready storage space. I will up-size the ICMP to 2TB drives soon... but I have alot more DCPs.

Advice and abuse welcomed in equal measure. Is this a coke vs pepsi battle?.

[Carsten Kurz]

Should be possible to setup the DSL100 as an FTP ingest source on the ICMP.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Doesn't it make more sense to invest in a NAS instead of using your old DSL100? Does the DSL100 even support 2TB drives?

[Steve Guttag]

The DSL100 does support 2TB drives with later software (that will update older RAID controllers). I've run a DSL100 on 2TB drives. That said, it is amazing how much faster a DSL200 is to a DSL100 for most any of its normal functions.

[Leo Enticknap]

I've put 4TB drives in a DSL100 before, and they've worked fine - something like 11.5 TB of usable space.

It's totally possible to repurpose a DSL100 as a NAS for an ICMP. You'd simply set it up as an ingest source in the ICMP, logging in as "dolbyftp" and setting /generatedPackages as the remote path. However, we're talking about a computer that is at least around a decade old. The usual caveats apply: power supply modules, fans, etc. are likely to break. The CRU reader and RAID cards are other potential failure points. It might be an idea to clean the processor heatsink and replace the thermal grease.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Well, that's the thing... It's a pretty old machine by all standards and a modern NAS will probably outperform it by all means, will come with fresh warranty and doesn't cost an arm and a leg either. A NAS is also more versatile in getting your files on and off.

[Leo Enticknap]

If Allan already has the DSL100, there could be an argument for doing this, as long as he is prepared to roll with some reliability punches.

IMHO, dedicated NAS hardware is not cheap for what it is. You're looking at $150 for a two-drive consumer unit with no drives in it, up to $2-3k for a rack mount, four-drive enterprise grade system (e.g. the QNAP or Netgear ones that Dolby offer, with customized software, as an option with their IMSes).

If you already have a DSL100, then 2TB enterprise drives are now only $100 or so. Let's say $500 for refurb costs, if it needs a power supply module and a fan or two. You also have the plus that the Show Manager software will validate DCPs as they're ingested, and organize them in a user-friendly way.

If and when my little Buffalo NAS kicks the bucket, I don't intend to replace it with a dedicated one, but will likely repurpose an old PC and use one of the freeware NAS software packages out there (e.g. Open Media Vault). Wouldn't want an old Dolby server in my home office, though - too frickin' noisy.

[Carsten Kurz]

You could actually buy current 4TB drives with the plan to reuse them in a NAS device later. For this application, I would use at least a 4drive unit, as it offers more options for storage configuration and extension. A while ago I bought a Synology DS 416j and paid around 250€/US$ for the bare unit. Usually I am not fond of dedicated devices, as there is always a risk of losing data because after a while, if the unit goes dead, it could be hard or impossible to source replacement parts. A standard PC, even one with a tiny special Micro-ATX board, running a standard NAS package, will always allow to replace parts or the whole system for very little cost. It will typically just consume more power than a streamlined NAS device with it's low power/standby modes. Whatever, if the DSL100 is there and working, why not give it a few more years.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It all depends on how much money and time you want to spend on it. Years back, I was hacking myself around into bare-bones ZFS code, just to keep our storage afloat. Now, I'm pretty done with that kind of playing around. We simply buy "storage appliances". Sure, it highly depends on what you can afford. You don't need to pay yourself, but eventually, you need to make a living.

As for my home needs, I simply bought a small Synology, spent like EUR 250 on the unit without disks and the thing is rolling along fine. I'm making a delta-based backup every day, which you should do anyway for any data you intend to keep. The thing is still under warranty, so if it dies, it's a warranty case. The backup destination is a rack-mountable version I bought a few years ago for around EUR 500 without disks and which has been humming along inside a datacenter for about 4 years now. My maintenance overhead for those buggers has been close to zero.

The problem with home-brew solutions is that any problem with it will become exclusively your problem. So, once it fails, you need to put in the time and effort to fix it, which is fine if you do have the time and energy to put into it, but if you just want something that works, then you're probably better off, buying something that just works.

I wouldn't want to run my production on a DSL100, any availability of spare-parts of that machine are just based on pure luck and the performance of those machines is really pretty awful, compared to modern NAS devices, especially since another $500 will buy you a modern NAS, which will outperform that more than 15 year old hardware any day.

[Allan Barnes]

REVISED QUESTION.... CAN A BARCO ICMP and DOLBY DSS200 BE CONNECTED ON THE SAME NETWORK? ASSUMING DIFFERENT IP ADDRESSES?

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yes they can. Both on the same Layer 2 broadcast domain and Layer 3 network (same base IP address and subnet mask).

[Leo Enticknap]

But make sure that you're using the correct NIC on both devices (so Theater or Remote on the DSL, and Ethernet 1 or 2 on the ICMP).

[Steve Guttag]

I've found that, even without a TMS, one can have different server brands cohabitate on the same network/booth and transfer content amongst themselves. Now, it may not always be "pretty." For instance, the DSS line of servers does NOT put up "pretty names" when looking through a folder with UUIDs. You have to know what you are going after. However, I've found other servers can look through Dolby's "generated packages" folder and indeed put up the pretty names to make choosing content easier.

[Carsten Kurz]

The ICMP scans the full directory path (if so configured, multiple folders deep), looks into metadata files and displays CPL names, it will also automatically ingest OV assets for VFs. So that's convenient enough for a mixed set.

[Pete Naples]

Something I've done with some old DSS/DSL100 boxes, remove the Dolby OS and install one of the FreeNAS solutions.

One of my back up servers here at home is a DSS100 re-purposed this way. Running 2tb drives in RAID 10. Works like a charm. The FreeNAS solutions are very flexible.