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Thursday, January 07, 2010
Promise invades video DAS RAID market with SmartStor DS4600
Allan Tépper | 01/07
Endorsed by Apple for FCP; 4TB RAID5 for US$799; Look ma, no controller card!
I have been aware of Promise Technology for decades. I installed their IDE cards way back in the Amiga (Commodore) days; I configured a Promise NAS (Network Attached Storage) connected with Gigabit Ethernet for a local Miami client in 2008; and Apple recently replaced their XserveRAID line with Promise’s VTrak E-Class Fibre Channel RAIDs for SAN (Storage Area Network) applications, which start at US$7,499. However, it was only recently that I became aware of Promise’s powerful yet inexpensive SmartStor DS4600 RAID for DAS (Direct Area Storage). I was intrigued to see Apple’s endorsement for its use with FCP, and I was impressed with the price performance, considering that an Apple-certified 4TB (gross, 4x1TB) RAID5 configuration costs US$799 with inboard controller and free shipping. (A comparable Fusion D400QR5 model from Sonnet costs US$1,595.) Learn more about eSATA, RAID5, the SmartStor DS4600 and its “partnership” with Apple in this article.
Promise’s SmartStor DS4600
 The SmartStor DS4600 is currently available either empty (BYOD, or Bring Your Own Drives) for US$399, or as an Apple bundle with four 1TB drives inside for US$799 with free shipping in the USA. If you prefer the former, make sure you use the Enterprise drives that Promise has approved. Here’s the official list. Either way, here are the main features:
- Four removable slots for drives
- Option to configure it with RAID0 (for the absolute highest performance), RAID1 (for redundancy without high performance), or RAID5 (for high performance with redundancy)
- Inboard hardware RAID controller (as opposed to requiring a PCIe card in your computer)
- Multiple ports: eSATA (1x), FireWire800 (2x for loop-ability), FireWire400 (1x), and USB 2.0 (1x)
- Published performance of 200MB/s when connected via eSATA
- Compatible with NTFS or HFS+
The increased importance of RAID5 in the tapeless video acquisition era
As you know, when you shoot tapeless, there is no “original tape” which serves as your inexpensive and permanent archive. Producers and editors really should backup the original material before editing, but with their hectic schedule and rush to get to editing, many don’t do that before re-using the chip or disk used in the original recording. With RAID5, there is redundancy. If one of the four drives in the array fails, an alarm alerts the editor about which drive is bad, and s/he replaces it with a spare. After some time goes by, the RAID5 system writes the missing data on the new drive, so only time is lost, not data. If we weren’t dealing with multilayer HD video, we might be able to get away with RAID1, but for multilayer HD, RAID1 isn’t good enough: We need the high performance together with the redundancy, even though we sacrifice some space: The 4TB becomes about 2.7TB when formatted as RAID5 in HFS+.
Regarding your spare drive
For best results, all of your drives in any RAID5 should be identical. If you buy the Apple bundle, it is best to wait until you have the DS4600 before ordering your spare drive, since Apple doesn’t publish the exact model of drives they include (presumably, to be able to change the models used at any time, due to cost and availability). My friend Jorge González of Acquest Multimedia bought a DS4600 last week from Apple, and his came with Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 drives, but we can’t count on Apple maintaining the same drive inside with future deliveries. This Hitachi drive model that Jorge received is indeed one of the approved ones on Promise’s list.
Benefits of an inboard RAID controller
Many low-cost RAID5 options, like G-Technology’s G-SPEED-eS (US$1,399.99 with 4x1TB and the obligatory PCIe controller card) require a tower computer with a PCIe slot. This excludes the possibility of using a G-SPEED-eS with a computer that lacks a PCIe slot, and occupies a slot in those that do. The fact that the DS4600 has its RAID controller inboard allows it to have all of the ports listed above, which means that it can connect to almost any computer. Obviously, to reach the published 200MB/s spec, you have to use the eSATA port, but many non-Apple computers have them directly visible on the back panel. The other ports are convenient and sensible:
- For a quick Sneakernet connection.
- When you know you’ll be upgrading your computer in the near future, and want to buy a RAID that will be on the par of your new computer, but be able to connect it to your current computer today.
How to connect the SmartStor DS4600 via eSATA to a Mac Mini
If you Google-search for Mac Mini eSATA, you will find many articles that show how to hack your Mac Mini for eSATA as a substitute for the internal drive. If you do that in order to use an eSATA RAID for video, then you’ll need another external drive as for your system. If you do this, it is at your risk. Neither ProVideo Coalition, TecnoTur, or Allan Tépper is responsible for what may happen while you do this surgical operation on your Mac Mini! Having said that, the operation doesn’t seem to be too complex for those people who dare to crack open their Mac Mini for any other reason.
How to connect the SmartStor DS4600 to an old Apple G5 tower via eSATA
Several manufacturers, including CalDigit, FirmTek, Highpoint Technologies, and Sonnet manufacture eSATA cards for Mac. Be sure to check whether your G5 has PCI-X or PCIe before choosing your card. If you have a G5 with a standard PCI slot, there are cards that are compatible, but in my experience, you might as well use FireWire800, since the throughput of the standard PCI bus itself is only about the same as FireWire800 anyway.
As stated earlier, Jorge González of Acquest Multimedia just purchased a SmarStor DS4600 to use it (initially) with his old G5, which has the old PCI-X slot. Jorge was able to make the unit work with a leftover FirmTek PCI-X card. See the PCIe card compatibility section, ahead.
How to connect the SmartStor DS4600 to a MacPro tower via eSATA
The good news is that there are two “hidden” SATA ports on the MacPro’s motherboard, and Newer Technology offers an eSATA Extender Cable for only US$24.95 that helps you access the one or two “hidden” ports externally. The not-so-good news is that the installation process in a MacPro is very cumbersome and requires an almost complete disassembly of your computer (same disclaimer as above). On the same web page, Newer Technology has links to reviews, which rave about the product while covering the painstaking installation process in detail. Even though this solution does not use an PCIe slot, it does take up the opening that would normally be used by a PCIe slot (unless you dare to leave the computer machine open while you edit, or drill holes in the MacPro’s side panel).
The other option —of course— is to install a PCIe eSATA controller card in your MacPro tower, although that will cost you at least US$199.95 for a good one, as opposed to only US$24.95. However, at that price, the card will give you many more eSATA ports than Newer Technology’s eSATA Extender Cable will.
For those who choose to buy a card for the MacPro tower, the one I currently have in my sights is the FirmTek SeriTek/2ME4-E because of its extremely high ratings by third parties, and its extremely low price for its specs. Released in October of 2009, the SeriTek/2ME4-E has Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard 64-bit and 32-bit modes, excellent performance according to both BareFeats.com and DigiLloyd.com, and sells for only US$$199.95, which is about 33% less than other high-performance cards I know and have used personally.
About PCIe card compatibility
As a person who in a prior life configured external SATA RAIDs, I know that sometimes there are incompatibilities between certain combinations of SATA controllers and the rest of the system. For that reason, I recommend that you buy an eSATA card from a vendor which has a good return policy, especially if you use a Mac. Strangely, Apple doesn’t recommend any particular card to match the DS4600, and Promise’s compatibility list only includes Windows eSATA controller cards. Last week, I wrote Promise for a recommendation for an eSATA card for Mac. At first, Promise responded with a link to the same list. I responded thanking them, and explaining that their list includes no Mac cards. Promise immediately apologized, sent me a link to a Sonnet card, and then added: “It is not yet supported, so please research with them as well.” Unbelievable… especially considering Promise’s strong relationship with Apple, both in general, and with this product!
In the next few days I will be configuring an FCP system for JCD & Associates Ltd of Trinidad, who has chosen the Promise SmartStore DS4600 together with a MacPro, a SeriTek/2ME4-E, and an AJA KONA LHi. JCD purchased the entire system from Midtown Video, a leading Miami dealer and rental house. In the remote and unlikely case that the DS4600 doesn’t agree with the SeriTek/2ME4-E, I’m sure that Midtown Video will allow an exchange for another card for JCD. As soon as I finish the configuration and exhaustive tests, I will update this article with confirmed compatibility information and performance tests with the AJA speed test. Stay tuned!
Allan Tépper’s articles and seminars
Get a full index of Allan Tépper’s articles and upcoming seminars at AllanTepper.com. Listen to his podcast TecnoTur, together with Tanya Castañeda, Rubén Abruña, and Liliana Marín, free via iTunes or at TecnoTur.us.
Disclosure, to comply with the FTC’s new rules
None of the manufacturers listed above is paying Allan Tépper to write this article, and so far, none has send him any samples or demonstration items.
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Hi Allan, Thanks for this review. Can I sneaker-net this between a Mac and a Windows machine?
Thanks
Posted by wsmith on 01/07 at 03:33 PM
WSmith,
I am glad you liked the article. Yes you can do Sneakernet between Windows and Mac! The best way do to it is to install MacDrive on the Windows machine and format the RAID as HFS+ MacDrive will give HFS+ read, write, and formating capabilities to the Windows machine. MacDrive is inexpensive and is the best way to do it.
Allan Tépper
Posted by Allan Tépper on 01/07 at 05:46 PM
The Mercury Elite AL Pro (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/RAID/Desktop/ ) is pretty much the same raid but even cheaper….
Posted by cordvision on 01/10 at 04:43 AM
Hey Allan,
Cool Product! I was just wondering if you can stripe two of these babies together to have a 8TB RAID 50 unit for more capacity and even faster read/write speeds?
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Jason Friedman
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/11 at 10:05 AM
peaktechnique, if you look at the Mercury Elite AL Pro that cordvision refers to above you’ll see that they have an 8TB unit.
Cordvision is indeed correct about the even lower price for the 4TB unit.
Thanks cordvision!
Posted by wsmith on 01/11 at 10:43 AM
Word of warning to everyone: eSATA on the mac is totally nontrivial. I’m on to my fourth card, trying to find one that doesn’t create kernel panics. Cross your fingers.
The disadvantage of the internal sata port is that it’s not hot-swappable. The OS considers that port an internal drive, and if you try to plug a drive in (or remove a drive—or the drive fails for any reason, or powers down), you’ll have a kernel panic that will probably require a hard reboot.
Just my two cents, and quite a few more dollars in expensive experimentation. Hope your luck is better than mine. (Don’t bother with any eSATA cards cheaper than $199, that’s all I can say.)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/11 at 11:14 AM
Jason,
I don’t see any reason why not. The individual RAIDs would be RAID5, and seen by the computer as individual volumes. Then the computer would create soft RAID0, which would really be a RAID50, as you said.
You could just buy the BYOD version and install your own 4x2TB drives.
In Windows, you need to have a Windows 64-bit version to allow that size.
Allan Tépper
Posted by Allan Tépper on 01/12 at 10:06 AM
Allan,
Thank you for your feedback!
Sincerely,
Jason Friedman
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/12 at 02:27 PM
Does the current mac pro line (nehalem) still have the “hidden” eSata ports? They are either removed or moved from the documentation I’ve found online, because I have yet to find them.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/13 at 11:58 PM
Mark,
I have not looked for it personally, but the Newer Technology website which is linked in the article does specifically mention the Nehalem models. I am not surprised that Apple doesn’t document it.
Allan Tépper
Posted by Allan Tépper on 01/14 at 05:40 AM
This device is grossly misrepresented. We attempted to install a DS4600 on a Intel Quad and upon not being able to configure it came to find out via Promise tech support that Promise does not support e-SATA for Mac. What??? This is being marketed as an external e-SATA RAID array yet it’s not supported for Mac. No marketing literature eludes to this fact. Surprised not to see it mentioned in your piece above Allan? Promise blaming Apple. Apple blaming Promise bla bla bla….....same old.
Boxed up and shipping back today. We don’t mind testing beta products but not when they are being marketed as retail units!
Promise tech support couldn’t have been more apathetic.
J
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/19 at 06:07 PM
J:
I am sorry for your troubles, but I already have several clients who are successfully using the unit with the Mac. Two different ones are using eSATA cards by FirmTek to connect the DS4600 to the Mac. One of them I configured myself, and will soon be publishing the impressive performance it provided during my configuration.
Allan Tépper
Posted by Allan Tépper on 02/19 at 07:15 PM
I’m glad to here that Allan but the point remains that Promise is not endorsing or supporting e-SATA on Mac even though it’s being promoted as a Mac solution. Apple’s it self is advertising it as such?
When you say “successfully using the unit with a Mac” is the Promise software smartNAVI recognizing the unit via e-SATA protocol? If not (& Promise are saying it’s not possible) there is no way to configure, monitor health/temp via e-SATA.
J
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/19 at 08:20 PM
J,
To use the smartNAVI, you need to connect a USB cable temporarily. However, that is not necessary at all if you buy the Apple bundle, since it already arrives in RAID5, HFS+. However, I connected the USB cable just to familiarize myself with the software. For daily use, there is no reason to use the USB cable. Only the eSATA cable.
Apple doesn’t mention the eSATA, probably because so few Macs can have eSATA, but the eSATA mode does work very well on the Mac with the FirmTek cards we used, even when the unit is purchased from Apple (which doesn’t mention the eSATA in its advertising).
Allan Tépper
Posted by Allan Tépper on 02/19 at 08:30 PM
eSATA 3G for the DS4600 touted by Apple here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/TX711VC/A
If the above works for you great Allan but its ‘a work around’ and for a device that is specifically designed for redundancy & safety of critical data it’s not acceptable.
Curious to know if used as you describe above wether the unit spins-down (sleeps) & wakes automatically via the Mac OS? Ours did not. It would spin-down and have to be re-booted to activate.
J
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/19 at 08:43 PM
J,
I don’t know why you say that it is not acceptable. The redundancy and safety of the critical data does not depend in any way on the use of the configuration software on the Mac.
Whenever I setup Macs for editing, I set them never to allow the drives to sleep.
Allan Tépper.
Posted by Allan Tépper on 02/19 at 08:50 PM
Allan,
Curious if you have any update on this DS4600 since you wrote the article. Yours was really the one review I found helpful. I’m very interested in this hardware but it seems so new that I’m a little gunshy.
If I got one, I would put 4 2G Hitachi drives immediately. My backup system (although not nearly super critically needed) is more of a pain than a problem. I wouldn’t mind investing in a solution that will work for me for awhile.
Paul
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/03 at 04:56 PM
Paul,
It has worked very well for everyone I know who are using It also beat the performance spec published by G-Technology for their closest unit, which is much more expensive, using the exact same AJA speed test tool in the exact same model. it. If you are not going to buy the Apple bundle, then make sure to use drives that are on the approved list.
Allan Tépper
Posted by Allan Tépper on 05/03 at 05:00 PM
Thanks for the quick response. 2 months ago, I looked at the approved list of drives and called Promise. The list has been updated to include the drives that I prefer. So all is good - except for the impending hit to my wallet. But in all seriousness, it is such an inexpensive solution compared to other options.
Paul
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/03 at 06:02 PM
Hi Allan,
You mentioned earlier that you were going to post some eSATA speed test results for this unit. If you’ve done that, I can’t find them. If you have the time, I’d love to know what sort of speeds your clients are getting (presumably through the FirmTek card?), particularly in an 8TB RAID-5 configuration if anyone is doing that.
Thanks,
- David
Posted by David Heidelberger on 08/20 at 04:52 PM
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