R Longwell
Level 1 (70 points)

Q: FCS using copy command "cvcp"

For anyone using Xsan (or Stornext) based systems, have any of you tried convincing Final Cut Server to use the cvcp command for all copying (archive, restore, move, etc)?

We're really like to find a way to get cvcp integrated into FCS. Presently FCS is beating up our SAN causing quite a lot of fragmentation. If it were using cvcp which is an Xsan (Stornext) based multi-threaded, preallocated copy mechanism, and usually faster than a standard cp copy to boot, the vast majority of our media fragmentation would disappear.

thanks!

Intel Mac Pros and Intel XServes, Mac OS X (10.6.6), Xsan, StorNext, XServe RAIDs, Final Cut, Final Cut Server, oh my...

Posted on Feb 10, 2011 3:49 PM

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R Longwell

Q: FCS using copy command "cvcp"

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  • by John F. Whitehead,

    John F. Whitehead John F. Whitehead Feb 10, 2011 8:48 PM in response to R Longwell
    Level 2 (380 points)
    Feb 10, 2011 8:48 PM in response to R Longwell
    There's no way to do this at a low level, unfortunately. I agree there's a need.

    I filed a bug/feature request on it a while ago--I encourage you to do the same. (There's a feedback link in the FCSvr client app menus.)

    You could figure out what automations could actually happen with an external script. Some simple ones (like move) may be easy to implement. Others (like archiving to a contentbase device) may be harder or impossible to implement.

    One approach that may alleviate the problem a little is to separate the Devices you may be copying between. For instance, put your primary reps on one volume, your archive on another, and general moves and copies to an export device on another volume.

  • by R Longwell,

    R Longwell R Longwell Feb 11, 2011 12:45 PM in response to John F. Whitehead
    Level 1 (70 points)
    Feb 11, 2011 12:45 PM in response to John F. Whitehead
    We have 3 volumes currently, and that's exactly what we're doing. However FCS is still one of our big culprits for fragmentation.

    Really wish Apple paid some attention to its customers lately. I'll file a report. Thanks!!

  • by jamesheliker,

    jamesheliker jamesheliker Feb 15, 2011 12:43 PM in response to R Longwell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 15, 2011 12:43 PM in response to R Longwell
    Hi -

    We use perl scripts launched from FCS "responses" to perform multi-threaded copies using cvcp, all the time. Having Apple implement cvcp in my mind is akin to having them implement Rhozet, Episode, and Ateme transcoder API's too - it's very specific to third party systems that may or may not be useful to the majority of clients Apple services.

    Believe me, I have many problems with FCS that I have continually harped on Apple for - not the least of which is that under load, the product is simply unreliable, with random error messages and failures - however I don't feel that cvcp is something that will end up as a very high priority for them.

    Feel free to email me if you have more specific questions on how this or other functions can be implemented, any time.

    - James Heliker
    Digital Media Engineer,
    Disney / ABC Television Group
    James.X.Heliker@disney.com