Our new Xserve arrived yesterday.  I got all the initial configuration done and got it racked.  Apple definitely makes some “Pretty” servers.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be getting Open Directory and Update Services configured and rolled out to all of our Mac workstations.  At some point, we’ll also be installing Final Cut Server.  I’ll be post updates as we get all of this configured.  In the meantime, here’s a few pics:

I have a LOT of really cool and unique projects either in the works or in the planning stages. I can’t believe I get to have this much fun at work! I had a nice chat with John in our media area yesterday about how we can improve our storage, archiving, and workflow in video world.

We produce a LOT of videos. Most of the raw footage these days gets shot directly to hard disk, and archiving and managing all of that digital footage is becoming a big problem. It’s on local disks in edit stations, on removable hard drives, on volumes on our Equallogic SAN - it’s everywhere - and it’s all full or quickly filling up. Then there’s the whole management and workflow issues. How do we find a specific clip or project? How do we allow multiple people to work on the same project simultaneously?

We’ve pretty well decided Final Cut Server is the solution to the content and workflow management portion of the project. It will allow us to group and organize clips with thumbnails and previews, drag and drop directly into final cut, share and collaborate on projects, and even allow Windows machines to view the catalog and watch clips.

Now for the fun part - storing all of that data. How much data are we ultimately talking about? 1TB? 10TB? 100TB? I really don’t know the exact answer to that, but I can tell you this: It’s certainly way more than 1TB and probably way more than 10TB.

The obvious answer is Apple’s XSAN. I’ve definitely explored this, and have implemented and used XSAN in the past. It’s a nice product, but I’m not sure it’s the best solution for our needs. With the Fibre Channel switches, associated cabling, and metadata controllers, the initial implementation cost is high, and, let’s face it: Fibre Channel, although it probably has a few years left, is a dieing technology.

Here’s what I believe I’ve settled on:

Studio Network Solutions has a product called SANmp that allows multiple machines, across platforms, to access iSCSI volumes at the block level. With direct block level iSCSI to each edit station, with appropriate network infrastructure in place - Catalyst 6500 series at the core and probably an HP 2810 series at the edge, I should be able achieve transfer speeds approaching that of Fibre Channel for a fraction of the cost.

Promise has a line of iSCSI SATA arrays that seems like the ultimate solution for our scenario. Their 16 bay unit, loaded with 1TB disks, will give us 16TB of raw storage for a very reasonable price.

The networking side will require pulling a few additional gigE drops and replacing one switch, but most of the network infrastructure is already in place.

For the media asset management side of things, Final Cut Server will run on top of the above infrastructure on an Apple Xserve.

I’m curious if anyone else out there has implemented a similar solution. If so, I’d love to hear from you.

Currently, our network at JFBC is about 15% Mac. One of the big ongoing projects I’ve been working on is better integration and management of the growing number of Macs in our environment. We currently leverage Active Directory for single signon, but, beyond that, there are no real management tools in place for Macs.

Some things are possible by extending the Active Directory schema to add some of the apple-specific LDAP attributes. However, this moves the AD environment into a somewhat “unsupported” configuration and still doesn’t provide for full control when it comes to Mac management.

The best way to fully manage the Mac clients - including centralized update management and general settings, including appearance, shortcuts, scripting, etc. is through the use of Apple’s Open Directory system. There was definitely some effort put forth on Apple’s part here, because Open Directory can fully integrate with Active Directory. Basically, AD gets used for authentication, then AD users and groups can be linked to OD groups. Specific management settings can then be applied to the OD groups.

I’ve just ordered a new Apple Xserve to handle this task, which should arrive next week. I’m excited about being able to take integration and management of our Mac environment to the next level.

Other Mac stuff on my radar:

• OS X Leopard deployment (Jonathan has agreed be my next victim beta tester).
• Office 2008 deployment.
• Possible Final Cut Server implementation (Already briefly discussed with our media team, will be exploring this further, including storage requirements).
• Migration of our closed circuit TV announcements from PowerPoint on Windows to Keynote on Mac (Currently working with our communications team on this).

Expect lots of Mac related posts in the coming weeks/months!

David Drinnon posted an interesting quote about Mac users and the IT deparement:

PCs are owned by IT and users use them. Macs are owned by users and IT supports them.

That seems to be the attitude from Mac users in a lot of organizations. BUT, why is it like that? I think it primarily stems from the fact that IT departments have been really slow at accepting the Mac as a valuable tool that has it’s place in their environment.

I am a firm believer in picking the right tool for the job. We run Windows, Mac, and Linux, and each has their place in our environment. When it comes to Video Editing, Graphics, and Music, Macs are king. It’s our job to provide those users with and support the tools they need just like we would for any other user.

Not to mention the fact that I LOVE OUR MAC USERS! They are awesome people and great to work with!