Guys, I thank you so much for this video. I just setup almost the same. It was quite expensive, sure. But after messing around with some Synologies, Qnaps and Docker Containers, etc. this solution now is really stable and professional. I am totally happy. I did some alterations since I live in Germany and not all parts have been available: - 2 Macbooks Pro M2 - Mac Mini M2 with 10Gbit Ethernet - 2x Sonnet Solos for the Macbooks (just make sure you make the settings in your mac according to the manual - then it works fine without interruptions) - 1x Terramaster 5 Bay Thunderbolt with currently only 3 SSD drives 8TB each, connected to Mac Mini as the working drive for the projects - Synology DS1621ds+ (with 16TB Drives and 2TB SSD) as the "Project Archive Storage" and Backup - CloudBackup from Synology to Wasabi - Hyperbackup from Synology to my "old" 4-Bay Synology I work with Finalcut and Davinci Resolve. For Resolve I installed the project server on the mac mini. Again, I just cannot thank you guys enough. I did so much research and there is so much BS out there. If I would see you on the street I might hug you :-) This all works very well. Also the remote access from the macbooks to the Mac Mini Server. The instructions in your videos have been so detailed and just perfect!! All the best from Germany! You generated a lot of positive energy in this world :-)
I was wondering if I could get a list of everything you have for the storage server. Also, a step by step on how to hook everything up and/or photo diagrams. Thanks.
Are you able to create separate folders on your server storage and make separate passwords for each folder for clients and only those clients with that password can access that folder. Thanks.
Great setup. Loved that its all macOS built. Couple of questions! How do you deal with the archival? Do you delete footage of delivered projects and keep only the masters? How are you dealing right now with drop box shutting off the unlimited storage solution? I looked into AWS, but the economics didn't make sense to me. Also, how are you dealing with the expandability if you're on raid 5 already? I built a homelab with truenas and a bunch of HDD for an archive server type of thing, but I'm already having to delete stuff, which I hate.
Awesome build, will definitely implement some of the things you mentioned on a much smaller scale for a one man setup. Just found your channel, I live in Vienna too :)
I might test this solution ! Thanks for this a some video. Let’s say I go for the mac studio as the server to also edit remotely from anywhere in the world, then this Mac Studio should have premiere pro with its dedicated licence I suppose? 😅
Hey long time no uploads in a while! 😂 I was actually looking into investing NAS and as I was watching your video.. my 🧠 is having trou catching up.. 😅
I get the impression that you are manually copying the files to the HDD bay, am I wrong ? If so, you should think about having a script run on the SSD bay to automatically copy everything on the HDD bay. It would save you time when injesting footage
From a networking side, I would have gone with the switch and a LAG to the server. Then all your staff can share 20gbit* to the server. Do your research, though.
Hey Damien! Hope you're well, thanks for this video. I have a question -- I'm about to do a very similar setup, but my question is: Do you think a 2.5GB ethernet connection to the Macbook Pros is enough, or is the 10GBe necessary? If there is 10GBe from Mac Mini to a 10GBe switch, and then from the switch 2.5G to the Macbook Pros, is the 2.5G enough for 4k editing? Trying to see if I really need the OWC thunderbolt-10gbe adapters.
Awesome video and thank you for sharing your experience with this set up. Planning to build something like this next year and will be referring back to this video and the Areca videos frequently.
Nette Idee, auf professioneller Ebene würd ich mich aber nicht auf so ne "Pfusch" Lösung verlassen wollen. 😅 Einziges wirkliches Argument für dein System ist dast das Thunderbolt RAID einfach abstecken und mitnehmen kannst, bei allem Anderen bist 100% besser aufgestellt mit nem "richtigen" Server. Muss ja auch nicht wiest sagst nen lautes 19" Ding sein, Server Hardware gibt's auch im normalen ATX Format und wenn man weiß was man tut kriegst so nen Hybrid NAS mit bis zu 18 HDDs und paar SSDs auch komplett problemlos in ein Desktop PC Gehäuse gequetsch! 😉 (btw. würd mich auch mal interessieren wie viel % Endurance deine SATA SSDs in den RAID Boxen noch über haben, sind ja für so nen Usecase nicht wirklich ausgelegt und der Fakt das die Areca RAID Karten kein TRIM können macht die RAID Boxen für Nutzung mit SSDs auf längere Sicht auch nicht unbedingt besser...)
You should not be using the Finder for these file copy operations. You need to be using `rsync` from the terminal. If you are super paranoid you use `rsync` followed by `rsync -c` to verify it again. This "Hedge" software you mention is not useful.
I’ve been thinking about doing something like this. Like you I’ve been put off by the noise and some of the limitations of a nas system, especially the cost.
Hey Damien. Brand new subscriber here. Great video. Thank you. We are starting from scratch. Like the idea of purchasing the new Mac Studio for our server. We will also be purchasing 2 brand new 16 inch Mac book pros this summer, 2024 when the newer versions are announced. Would like to build your set up with a new Mac studio for our server. What additional information can you please provide to us to also host our own website with all of our own video content, so that we do not Need to use any web hosting services ? Please let us know. Thanks very much and keep up making great content
This video is fantastic. I am going through the exact same challenges right now collaborating on FCP projects. However I still don’t know how you work simultaneously on projects from different machines. Did I miss it? Do you use resolve for this? Please elaborate.
That works flawlessly. Let’s say I do the raw cut. I close it. My other editor opens it, does the color grading and a third might do the music. Just as an example. You just can’t open the same library at the same time
9:45 You know that sharing folders is not an exclusive mac thing right? I can connect an external drive to my synology and share it without any trouble.
Honestly this seems like way too much work to only have 20TB of storage space. That is like one single hard drive's worth of space. I think you really need to consider upgrading to a real solution that is not this limiting. You mention the consideration of noise; if you use a standard PC case as the basis of your file server then you can basically negate all noise issues. I have a 140TB HDD based file server that is running continuously and there is zero noise because its in a Fractal Define 7 case with standard 140mm PC fans, not a rack-mount system with screaming 40mm fans. However this does bring other considerations for the software choices since you need to configure your Linux distro yourself both for the internal storage configs and the connection back to the client systems (your editing macbooks). But the gist is that you dont need to choose between quiet vs capacity, you can get monster capacity in a dead silent system.
Is there a reason you don’t connect your macs via active thunderbolt cables rather than 10GBe? Would cut out the 10GBe adaptors. Is there a limit to running active TB that is less than the lengths you need?
Was the issue of the EDITING SW about CACHING?? on the PC , I used CyberLink PowerDirector and it was CACHING the files involved in editing on HDD , I turned off CACHING since I'm not using an SSD ( was this FINAL CUTS problem?? ) then PD behaved like normal under an HDD Also CACHING was eating up huge amount of HDD space
Wait… in the beginning of the video where he’s explaining why he’s doing all of this, didn’t he say they didn’t want to take SSDs with them? Then he mentions “oh we can just take the 20TB SSD RAID array with us to edit off of”?
I think we all have been there, but this is not a great solution at all. If is working for you, good. but i wouldn't recommend it. * zfs file system / truenas
I was somewhat onboard till he said he shares the internet from the Mac mini to all the laptops. Internet modem - switch - Mac mini (attach storage to Mac mini if they aren’t networkable) - wire all the laptops to the switch.
Do you want to build your own server too?
Dont need it right now but in the future
Yep
Yep
I am considering this. But, how do you file share your RAID in MacOS from your Mac Mini? Natively, MacOS doesn't allow this.
Wow, I love how in the end everything will be silent and you're really taking advantage from a setup like this. This is impressive!
Selten so ein ein unnötig kompliziertes NAS Setup gesehen. Aber wenn ihr damit zurecht kommt. chapeau.
Guys, I thank you so much for this video. I just setup almost the same. It was quite expensive, sure. But after messing around with some Synologies, Qnaps and Docker Containers, etc. this solution now is really stable and professional. I am totally happy.
I did some alterations since I live in Germany and not all parts have been available:
- 2 Macbooks Pro M2
- Mac Mini M2 with 10Gbit Ethernet
- 2x Sonnet Solos for the Macbooks (just make sure you make the settings in your mac according to the manual - then it works fine without interruptions)
- 1x Terramaster 5 Bay Thunderbolt with currently only 3 SSD drives 8TB each, connected to Mac Mini as the working drive for the projects
- Synology DS1621ds+ (with 16TB Drives and 2TB SSD) as the "Project Archive Storage" and Backup
- CloudBackup from Synology to Wasabi
- Hyperbackup from Synology to my "old" 4-Bay Synology
I work with Finalcut and Davinci Resolve. For Resolve I installed the project server on the mac mini.
Again, I just cannot thank you guys enough. I did so much research and there is so much BS out there. If I would see you on the street I might hug you :-)
This all works very well. Also the remote access from the macbooks to the Mac Mini Server. The instructions in your videos have been so detailed and just perfect!!
All the best from Germany! You generated a lot of positive energy in this world :-)
I was wondering if I could get a list of everything you have for the storage server. Also, a step by step on how to hook everything up and/or photo diagrams. Thanks.
I've been watching several videos like this and I'm wondering why no smart UPS? It always feels like an omission.
Are you able to create separate folders on your server storage and make separate passwords for each folder for clients and only those clients with that password can access that folder. Thanks.
Great setup. Loved that its all macOS built. Couple of questions!
How do you deal with the archival? Do you delete footage of delivered projects and keep only the masters?
How are you dealing right now with drop box shutting off the unlimited storage solution? I looked into AWS, but the economics didn't make sense to me.
Also, how are you dealing with the expandability if you're on raid 5 already?
I built a homelab with truenas and a bunch of HDD for an archive server type of thing, but I'm already having to delete stuff, which I hate.
Thanks for sharing, Damien ❤.
Thanks @damiencooper always appreciate your informative and stylish content. Much appreciated.
Awesome build, will definitely implement some of the things you mentioned on a much smaller scale for a one man setup. Just found your channel, I live in Vienna too :)
oh, greetings back to Vienna then ;)
I’ve got a mini and some raid drives, so this is an interesting option!
I might test this solution ! Thanks for this a some video. Let’s say I go for the mac studio as the server to also edit remotely from anywhere in the world, then this Mac Studio should have premiere pro with its dedicated licence I suppose? 😅
yeah, licenses are an issue. You do need a lot of those! :D
how do you access it remotely?
Hey long time no uploads in a while! 😂 I was actually looking into investing NAS and as I was watching your video.. my 🧠 is having trou catching up.. 😅
I get the impression that you are manually copying the files to the HDD bay, am I wrong ? If so, you should think about having a script run on the SSD bay to automatically copy everything on the HDD bay. It would save you time when injesting footage
If all your media is on an SSD, will it make plex run faster?
what do u recommend if you use both windows and mac
autosave in internal ssd drives
How do you get the HDD raid to automatically back up both of the SSD raids?
From a networking side, I would have gone with the switch and a LAG to the server. Then all your staff can share 20gbit* to the server. Do your research, though.
Hey Damien! Hope you're well, thanks for this video. I have a question -- I'm about to do a very similar setup, but my question is: Do you think a 2.5GB ethernet connection to the Macbook Pros is enough, or is the 10GBe necessary? If there is 10GBe from Mac Mini to a 10GBe switch, and then from the switch 2.5G to the Macbook Pros, is the 2.5G enough for 4k editing? Trying to see if I really need the OWC thunderbolt-10gbe adapters.
Awesome video and thank you for sharing your experience with this set up. Planning to build something like this next year and will be referring back to this video and the Areca videos frequently.
I think you covered this but I just missed it. How did you get to access this remotely? Is it through screen sharing or is it something else?
Local network: screen sharing
Outside: parsec
This spaghetti of crutches costs more than if you do it properly with TrueNAS and ZFS
Thanks for the info
for a 8gb Mac mini to run like butter I recommend to not login into your appleID, it uses a lot of ram...
How does butter run? Why does everybody want everything to be like butter? 🤡
butter is yummy and nutritious!@@billgates3699
@@billgates3699my shit runs like a top 😂
Nette Idee, auf professioneller Ebene würd ich mich aber nicht auf so ne "Pfusch" Lösung verlassen wollen. 😅
Einziges wirkliches Argument für dein System ist dast das Thunderbolt RAID einfach abstecken und mitnehmen kannst, bei allem Anderen bist 100% besser aufgestellt mit nem "richtigen" Server. Muss ja auch nicht wiest sagst nen lautes 19" Ding sein, Server Hardware gibt's auch im normalen ATX Format und wenn man weiß was man tut kriegst so nen Hybrid NAS mit bis zu 18 HDDs und paar SSDs auch komplett problemlos in ein Desktop PC Gehäuse gequetsch! 😉 (btw. würd mich auch mal interessieren wie viel % Endurance deine SATA SSDs in den RAID Boxen noch über haben, sind ja für so nen Usecase nicht wirklich ausgelegt und der Fakt das die Areca RAID Karten kein TRIM können macht die RAID Boxen für Nutzung mit SSDs auf längere Sicht auch nicht unbedingt besser...)
You should not be using the Finder for these file copy operations. You need to be using `rsync` from the terminal. If you are super paranoid you use `rsync` followed by `rsync -c` to verify it again. This "Hedge" software you mention is not useful.
I’ve been thinking about doing something like this. Like you I’ve been put off by the noise and some of the limitations of a nas system, especially the cost.
yeah, the great thing is that you can start small and build it up huge. But the sound was the biggest issue for me!
Hey Damien. Brand new subscriber here. Great video. Thank you. We are starting from scratch. Like the idea of purchasing the new Mac Studio for our server. We will also be purchasing 2 brand new 16 inch Mac book pros this summer, 2024 when the newer versions are announced. Would like to build your set up with a new Mac studio for our server. What additional information can you please provide to us to also host our own website with all of our own video content, so that we do not Need to use any web hosting services ? Please let us know. Thanks very much and keep up making great content
Started also with mac studio as server looking now for a NAS storage ty for advice
This video is fantastic. I am going through the exact same challenges right now collaborating on FCP projects. However I still don’t know how you work simultaneously on projects from different machines. Did I miss it? Do you use resolve for this? Please elaborate.
Just open the library on one computer. Close it. Open it on another computer
That works flawlessly. Let’s say I do the raw cut. I close it. My other editor opens it, does the color grading and a third might do the music. Just as an example. You just can’t open the same library at the same time
best and most powerful DAS turned into NAS. Power not limited by weak turn-key solution NAS pretending to be powerful server
9:45 You know that sharing folders is not an exclusive mac thing right? I can connect an external drive to my synology and share it without any trouble.
- Nas for filmmaking (แล้ว Nas ที่เหมาะกับ MacOs iPad หล่ะ น่าจะมีข้อจำกัด ของ Program UI ไม่ seamless อยู่นะ)
Honestly this seems like way too much work to only have 20TB of storage space. That is like one single hard drive's worth of space. I think you really need to consider upgrading to a real solution that is not this limiting. You mention the consideration of noise; if you use a standard PC case as the basis of your file server then you can basically negate all noise issues. I have a 140TB HDD based file server that is running continuously and there is zero noise because its in a Fractal Define 7 case with standard 140mm PC fans, not a rack-mount system with screaming 40mm fans. However this does bring other considerations for the software choices since you need to configure your Linux distro yourself both for the internal storage configs and the connection back to the client systems (your editing macbooks). But the gist is that you dont need to choose between quiet vs capacity, you can get monster capacity in a dead silent system.
Is there a reason you don’t connect your macs via active thunderbolt cables rather than 10GBe? Would cut out the 10GBe adaptors. Is there a limit to running active TB that is less than the lengths you need?
Active TB will still only reach a couple of meters.
MacOS 13 SMB file share is so buggy. I use same solution as yours.
yeah, unfortunately you're right... I upgraded my mac and had to use the Raid locally because working on the server wasn't possible anymore
Dongle hell lol
Mac Mini comes with 10gbe as an option. Plenty of older Mac Mini M1s out there with it equipped.
3 2 1, 3 back up, two types, and 1 additional physical location
Was the issue of the EDITING SW about CACHING?? on the PC , I used CyberLink PowerDirector and it was CACHING the files involved in editing on HDD , I turned off CACHING since I'm not using an SSD ( was this FINAL CUTS problem?? ) then PD behaved like normal under an HDD
Also CACHING was eating up huge amount of HDD space
Soooooooo much expensive !!!!
I need "Monkey" without a "k"
Me too
👏🏾👍🏾🙏🏾
Wait… in the beginning of the video where he’s explaining why he’s doing all of this, didn’t he say they didn’t want to take SSDs with them? Then he mentions “oh we can just take the 20TB SSD RAID array with us to edit off of”?
Sorry I wasn’t paying attention. Can you make the video again?
Why are you wearing a hat inside. Are you expecting rain in there.
Why does anyone wear anything inside?
What kind of question is that???? This is completely normal, no matter the country (most of country)
"FilmMaking"? I am pretty sure you mean "Video" whether UHD, HD or whatever. Last I checked there was no film mused on computers
You obviously don’t do video, so why are you here?
I think we all have been there, but this is not a great solution at all.
If is working for you, good. but i wouldn't recommend it.
* zfs file system / truenas
I was somewhat onboard till he said he shares the internet from the Mac mini to all the laptops. Internet modem - switch - Mac mini (attach storage to Mac mini if they aren’t networkable) - wire all the laptops to the switch.