Dell OneFS 8.x User Manual

H17701.2

Best Practices

Dell EMC Isilon: OneFS 8.x Best Practices for
Collaborative Workflows on DaVinci Resolve
15–16.x

Abstract

This document describes best practice optimizations for Black Magic Designs®
DaVinci Resolve® 15–16.x with the Dell EMC™ Isilon™ OneFS™ operating
system version 8.x, and provides guidance for designing, configuring, and
maintaining systems.

March 2021

Revisions

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Revisions

Date

Description

June 2019

Initial release

March 2021

Updated inclusive language notification

Acknowledgements

Author: Gregory Shiff, [e-mail]

This document may contain certain words that are not consistent with Dell's current language guidelines. Dell plans to update the document over
subsequent future releases to revise these words accordingly.

This document may contain language from third party content that is not under Dell's control and is not consistent with Dell's current guidelines for Dell's
own content. When such third party content is updated by the relevant third parties, this document will be revised accordingly.

The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this
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Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

© 2021 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other
trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners. Published in the USA. [3/26/2021] [Best Practices] [H17701]

Dell believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

Table of contents

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Table of contents

Revisions............................................................................................................................................................................. 2

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................................. 2

Table of contents ................................................................................................................................................................ 3

Document scope and audience .......................................................................................................................................... 4

About DaVinci Resolve ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

DaVinci Resolve and Dell EMC Isilon ................................................................................................................................. 4

1 Before you begin .......................................................................................................................................................... 5

1.1 Multi-platform support ......................................................................................................................................... 5

1.2 Environment design and optimization ................................................................................................................ 5

1.3 Video and audio codec choice ............................................................................................................................ 5

1.4 Isilon sizing guidelines ........................................................................................................................................ 6

2 DaVinci Resolve file system access profile .................................................................................................................. 7

2.1 File types ............................................................................................................................................................ 7

2.2 Access profiles .................................................................................................................................................... 7

2.3 Workflow phases ................................................................................................................................................ 7

2.4 Optimizing for collaboration ................................................................................................................................ 8

2.5 Representative project and sequence ................................................................................................................ 9

2.6 Dropped frames test ........................................................................................................................................... 9

3 Isilon OneFS configuration guide ............................................................................................................................... 11

3.1 Quick checklist .................................................................................................................................................. 11

3.2 Unique environments ........................................................................................................................................ 11

3.2.1 Security and access control .............................................................................................................................. 11

3.2.2 Connection protocol .......................................................................................................................................... 11

3.2.3 OneFS optimizations ........................................................................................................................................ 12

4 Resolve configuration guide ....................................................................................................................................... 15

4.1 Disk and PostGreSQL project databases ......................................................................................................... 15

4.2 Resolve settings ............................................................................................................................................... 16

4.2.1 Application settings ........................................................................................................................................... 16

4.2.2 Project settings ................................................................................................................................................. 22

5 Collaborative projects ................................................................................................................................................. 24

5.1 Mapped storage mounts and permissions ....................................................................................................... 25

6 Media management in Resolve .................................................................................................................................. 26

7 Project archive and restore ........................................................................................................................................ 28

8 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................. 29

A Technical support and resources ............................................................................................................................... 30

Document scope and audience

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Document scope and audience

This document provides guidance to system administrators and architects designing and configuring Black
Magic Designs® DaVinci Resolve® to be used with Dell EMC™ Isilon™ storage. The document covers
configurations and optimizations for both the DaVinci Resolve application and Isilon systems.

This document touches on such topics as network and workstation design, however the main focus is on
Isilon storage and is not intended as a configuration guide for all infrastructure required to support DaVinci
Resolve. Blackmagic Design (makers of DaVinci Resolve) have produced a hardware guide that details the
supporting infrastructure.

Official hardware configuration guide can be found at in the DaVinci Resolve Configuration Guide.

About DaVinci Resolve

The following information is provided in DaVinci Resolve documentation:
DaVinci Resolve integrates editing, compositing, and motion graphics, color correction, audio recording and

mixing, and finishing within a single, easy to learn application. The editing, compositing, grading, and audio

tools found in DaVinci Resolve should be immediately familiar to experienced artists who’ve used other

applications, but they’re also approachable to folks who are new to post-production.

And you can go further, using the collaborative features of DaVinci Resolve to enable multiple artists, for
example, an editor, a colorist, and assistants to work together on the same timeline simultaneously, for the
ultimate integrated workflow.

DaVinci Resolve and Dell EMC Isilon

DaVinci Resolve is a powerful application that brings together many workflow elements from post-production
through finishing into a single place with robust collaboration tools. Performant shared storage is an essential
foundation of any collaborative workflow, and Dell EMC Isilon may be deployed with DaVinci Resolve for
streamlined and efficient operations:

• DaVinci Resolve supports collaborative production workflows using shared project files and
connected user-designated storage locations for assets.

• DaVinci Resolve allows users to edit native files directly from their storage for greater speed and
efficiency and a simplified infrastructure. Working in this way demands the high performance
delivered by Dell EMC Isilon.

• DaVinci Resolve supports native workflows — where source material can be incorporated and
manipulated in its native form, without the need for transcoding. Working with native and high­resolution material can make heavy demands on the supporting infrastructure, and requires the high
performance, capacity and scalability of Dell EMC Isilon.

Before you begin

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1 Before you begin

This section describes a few important points to review before you begin optimizing your solution.

1.1 Multi-platform support

DaVinci Resolve is a cross-platform application, and versions are available to support Linux®, macOS, and
Microsoft® Windows®. Before making any application optimizations, generic platform optimizations should be
addressed, details of which may be available in other guides (refer to your Dell EMC support representative).
It should be noted however that some application configurations contained in this guide may vary according to
platform.

1.2 Environment design and optimization

Before making any application optimizations, the specific requirements for operating environments should be
addressed. For example:

• Networking optimization

• Network Interface device configuration and optimization

• Workstation RAM, CPU, and GPU

• Consideration of the full workload

DaVinci Resolve and Dell EMC Isilon are capable of supporting very high throughput workflows - including
multiple streams of uncompressed 4K DPX. When designing and configuring a solution to work with high
throughput, it is important to pay close attention to the solution as a whole.

It must be recognized that the overhead of supporting any remote storage is different to the overhead of
supporting local or direct-attached storage. When iterating through optimizations, there is only minimal value
in comparing the performance of any application as it interacts with different types of storage. Instead, it there
is more value in measuring improvements.

Similarly, whilst speed-test utilities may help with initial “ball park” optimizations, care should be taken to
optimize with the target application. This is because not all applications and test utilities access the storage in
the same way – and may (for example) use a different number of concurrent threads, or different protocol
calls. Instead, there is more value in measuring improvements when using the target application. Blackmagic
Design make just a such a tool, the Blackmagic Design Disk Speed Test for Windows and macOS as well as
a Disk IO binary for Linux. This tool too needs to be used with care as it’s read/write caching can give
misleading results.

1.3 Video and audio codec choice

The choice of video and audio codec can have an impact on the performance of the application. Different
codecs have different benefits, and present different challenges to each part of a system. Fundamentally,
there are three key parameters - and a system can be optimized for any two, at the expense of the third.

• Data rate

• Encode and decode overhead

• Image quality

Before you begin

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For example, an uncompressed DPX sequence is very high quality and has a very low decode overhead, but
it has a relatively high data rate. A high quality XAVC clip will have a relatively low data rate, but a much
higher decode overhead.

Quality, data rate, and decode overhead comparison

It is important for systems architects to understand where the limits are in their systems. For instance, a
workstation’s resources may be overwhelmed playing back multiple streams of ProRes 422HQ 4K 60fps
content long before Isilon’s maximum throughput has been achieved.

1.4 Isilon sizing guidelines

This document does not provide detailed guidance regarding the sizing or node-type specification of Dell
EMC Isilon that should be most appropriately used for any throughput or workflow.

Other documents are available that detail the performance requirements for certain workflows (for example,
uncompressed 4K/UHD, or compressed HD editing). Care should be taken to size the storage correctly for
performance and capacity - which may be calculated based on the requirements of the installation.

DaVinci Resolve file system access profile

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2 DaVinci Resolve file system access profile

This section includes a brief background on designing storage systems for media applications.

2.1 File types

For the most part, DaVinci Resolve reads and writes media files that tend to be large (often multiple GB in
size). These files need to be located on a storage system with consistent, low latency because media
playback is a temporal operation. The performance of any application that uses media files tends to benefit
from configurations that are optimized for streaming filesystem access.

All filesystem interaction from applications that is rapid and frequent benefits from the optimizations that are
brought about by filesystem metadata acceleration (an option within Isilon OneFS). Rapid and frequent
access is characteristic of real-time growing media files, transcoding of media files, and frequent updating of
filesystem metadata.

DaVinci Resolve includes options to read and write different type files to different directories on Isilon storage,
and this feature may be used in conjunction with Isilon configuration options to make optimal choices for the
different access profiles of the application. Guidance is provided later in this document.

2.2 Access profiles

DaVinci Resolve (in common with many applications of the same type) accesses files on storage in a specific
manner that is very different to typical enterprise applications.

• Streaming video and audio - with latency critical read profiles.

• Video frame-based file access

• Read-ahead application caching

Video and audio files represent moving images and audio. A key characteristic of a video or audio file is that
when the file is being consumed, the contents must be temporally consistent with expectation. That is, the
frames of video or audio must be displayed or presented at the right time, in sequence.

For example, a moving video is typically described as having a number of still image frames per second ­which might be fixed at 25, 30, 50 or 60 (or more), or might be variable. In all cases, the metadata information
embedded in the file will contain information about the exact timing required for each frame. When the
application reads those files, it must access the data for each frame in time for it to be displayed.

The requirement for this behavior demands that files must be read with a consistent latency, and with a
latency that permits real-time playback. This is in contrast to a standard enterprise requirement where reading
files in a less consistent way may be tolerated. For more background information, please review:

https://www.emc.com/collateral/whitepaper/h16818-wp-uncompressed-high-resolution-workflows-isilon.pdf

2.3 Workflow phases

There are four key workflow phases when interacting with DaVinci Resolve:

• Import Media – Introduce media to the application

• Work with Media – The Creative Process

• Deliver – Exporting the competed product to the next stage in the workflow

DaVinci Resolve file system access profile

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• Media lifecycle management – Archive and delete

Each phase of the workflow makes different demands on the storage, and requires different optimisation.
Typically, a solution will be designed to optimise for the most important or demanding phase - the creative
process.

At the import phase, the application may just be pointed at existing media files - but low latency filesystem
access can be important when the application is required to index a high number of files. This is particularly
important when working with image sequences (such as DPX), where there are a very high number of files.

Where the import phase consists of using the application to acquire linear media (SDI or IP Video), then
performance and latency again become critical.

During the creative process, it is important to maintain a high-quality user experience. When designing a
system, architects will need to consider both quantitative and subjective requirements.

• Throughput

• Latency

• Demands of different codecs

• Scrubbing

• Multi-track

• Subjective “feel”

Though hardest to quantify and measure, the subjective “feel” of an application as it is used by a Creative
Artist is arguably the most important measure of a successful system design. An Artist may describe a system

that responds well and is easy to use as “snappy”, whilst a system that does not respond well and is difficult
to use may be described as “sluggish”.

For a system to be “snappy”, the storage component must deliver data to the application in a way that doesn’t

interrupt the creative process.
When fulfilling the delivery phase, the immediate user experience of the application is less apparent.

However, DaVinci Resolve makes high demands as it writes completed files. Depending on the nature of the
file format being created, the demands may be significant - particularly for high resolution images, image
sequences, and codecs that demand many small write operations.

The archive and deletion phase demands a high performance and responsiveness, as the application moves
and deletes files.

2.4 Optimizing for collaboration

DaVinci Resolve simplifies collaborative workflows by seperating management of project files from the media
files that are referenced within those projects (as explained in section 2 above). Nonetheless, care should be
taken to avoid unexpected behavior when multiple users access the same media files simultaneously. This is
especially true when the same media file is referenced in several different projects.

In large, busy facilities, filesystem permissions and other forms of access control afforded by Isilon storage
should be implemented to prevent users from accidently moving or deleting data that should onot be
otherwise left alone. Planning is key here: logical folder structures on the Isilon storage should be
implemented and enforced by media managers and storage administrators. This is an area where 3rd party
Media Asset Management software can be of particularly use in automating some of this process of
organizing media files on storage.

DaVinci Resolve file system access profile

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2.5 Representative project and sequence

The first step in optimizing an environment is to build a project and sequence that represents the use case.
This could include:

• Test media clips of the correct format and encoding.

- The clips should be of sufficient duration such that their size they should exceed the available

memory capacity of the workstation. The media should be placed on the Isilon storage cluster, in
a directory that has the desired settings applied (e.g. Streaming profile and Metadata
acceleration, etc).

• Sequences (sometimes also known as a timeline) with an appropriate number of video and audio
tracks.

- The tracks should be layered, and have some effect applied such that all the video tracks are

“visible”. The sequence should match the format of the source material.

- It is important to validate that the workstation is able to support the application, and has sufficient

CPU, GPU and RAM to work with the material being tested.

• Simple and complex sequences should be prepared. A simple sequence has one or more contiguous
portions of media, with few (if any) edits. A complex sequence will have a number of layers, and
complex edits. The purpose of a complex sequence is to challenge the application and its demands
on storage.

The above example pertains to the “Edit” capabilities of DaVinci Resolve. Edit is only 1 available module in
the DaVinci Resolve, but it is a good starting point. Similar representative examples can and should be
created in other DaVinci Resolve modules depending on required uses, for instance the “Color” module.

2.6 Dropped frames test

The ability to play a video track (or multiple video tracks) without dropping frames is a fundamental
requirement.

A perfect scenario is one where there are zero dropped frames at any point in playback. However, it can be
considered acceptable to drop just a few frames during the course of a playback – particularly in the case of a
long or complex sequence.

If the number of dropped frames briefly grows around edit point transitions, but then stabilizes, then that may
be an indication that the application is finding it difficult to open a new file and start streaming in a timely
manner. Consider checking the entire system for latency, and that the OneFS optimizations (as detailed
below) have been applied.

If the number of dropped frames grows only at the start of playback, then that may be an indication that the
system is unable to deal with the playback throughput surge.

If the number of dropped frames on one workstation can be negatively impacted by throughput from a
different workstation, then that may indicate either a system bottleneck (for example, network) or that the
applications are reaching the maximum available throughput of the storage cluster, as the workstations
contend for available throughput.

DaVinci Resolve gives users several ways to detect and understand dropped frames: