Pinnacle Systems Unity MediaNet - 2.0 Management Guide

Avid Unity™ MediaNet

Management Guide

Release 2.0

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Trademarks

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Avid Unity MediaNet Management Guide • Part 0130-04884-01 Rev. A • July 2001

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi

About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii

If You Need Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Related Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

If You Have Documentation Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xiv

Chapter 1 MediaNet Management Overview

Management Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Configuring Your Workgroup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Overall Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Setting Up and Managing Your Drive Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Assigning Drives to Allocation Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Creating and Sizing Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Data Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

Access Control (Users and Access Privileges) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6

Management Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7

Setup Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7

Administration Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8

Monitor Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9

Chapter 2 The Setup Manager

Setup Manager Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Starting the Setup Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

Using the Setup Manager in a Failover Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

Failover Configuration Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

Determining the active File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

Starting and Stopping the File Manager Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

Chapter 3 Configuring General, Failover, and Remote Error

Notification Parameters

Configuring General Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Configuring File Manager Failover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4

Failover Configuration Procedure Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5

Step 1: Setting Up the Failover Connection on the First

File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5

Step 2: Setting Up the Failover Connection on the Second

File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6

Step 3: Validating the Failover Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8

Step 4: Starting the First and Second File Managers. . . . . . . . . . 3-8

Setting Up Email Error Notification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9

Configuring the Email Error Notification Service . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9

Setting Up Email Error Notification Contacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10

Chapter 4 Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

Creating a New Drive Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

Using The Configuration Assistant to Create a Drive Set . . . . . 4-2

Manually Creating a Drive Set. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Adding New Storage to Your MediaNet workgroup . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5

Adding Active Data Drives to an Existing Drive Set. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6

Adding Drives That Were Previously Used as Data Drives

in Another Drive Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6

Adding Drives That Have Been Previously Used With

Another Application (For Example, MediaShare F/C) . . . . . 4-7

Creating Data Drives from Raw Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8

Removing Drives From Your MediaNet workgroup . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9

Removing Active Data Drives From an Existing Drive Set. . . . 4-9

Physically Removing Storage from Your MediaNet

workgroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10

Setting Drive Mode Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11

Deleting an Existing Data Drive Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12

Rebuilding an Existing Data Drive Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12

Bringing the Drive Set Online and Taking It Offline . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13

Bringing the Drive Set Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13

Taking the Drive Set Offline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14

Identifying a Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14

Chapter 5 The Administration Tool

About the Administration Tool User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

User Interface Component Descriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

User Interface Tab Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4

Getting Help With the Administration Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Starting The Administration Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Logging Into the Administration Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Administration Tool Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6

Setting Administration Tool Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6

Exporting and Importing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-10

Setting the Administration Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11

Setting Workspace and Monitor Graph Bar Colors. . . . . . . . . . 5-12

Changing Your User Account Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-13

Changing Your Workspace Tab Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-14

Changing Your Monitor Tab Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-16

Reestablishing the Administration Tool’s Connection

to the File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-17

vii

Chapter 6 Managing Allocation Groups

Allocation Groups Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Allocation Group Usage Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3

Creating a New Allocation Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4

Adding Drives to an Existing Allocation Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-5

viii

Removing Drives from an Existing Allocation Group . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7

Renaming an Allocation Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-8

Deleting an Allocation Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9

Chapter 7 Managing Workspaces

The Workspace Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

The Workspace List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

Context-Sensitive Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6

Creating New Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7

Duplicating Existing Workspaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8

Changing Workspace Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9

Increasing Workspace Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10

Decreasing Workspace Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10

Workspace Resize Utility Feature Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-11

Renaming Workspaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-12

Deleting Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13

Protecting Workspaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-14

Enabling Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-14

Enabling Protection of New Files Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-15

Disabling Protection of New Files Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-16

Protecting All Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-16

Unprotecting All Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-17

Optimizing Workspaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-17

Moving a Workspace to Another Allocation Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-18

Chapter 8 Managing User Accounts and Access Privileges

The User Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

The Guest Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-3

Creating User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-3

Duplicating Existing User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-4

Renaming User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-5

Changing User Passwords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-6

Deleting User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7

Workspace Access Privileges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-8

Access Privilege Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9

Changing Workspace Access Privileges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9

Enabling and Disabling Workspace Resize Privilege. . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11

Enabling Workspace Resize Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11

Disabling Workspace Resize Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11

Chapter 9 Monitoring System Usage and Messages

The Monitor Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

Changing the Monitor List Graph Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Selecting Linear or Logarithmic Graph Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Scaling the Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Saving Your Monitor List Graph Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-4

The Log Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-4

Viewing and Managing the Log File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5

Appendix A Managing Drive Problems

Identifying Bad Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-2

Repairing the Drive Set by Swapping Out a Bad Data Drive . . . . . . A-2

To Repair the Drive Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-3

Replacing Bad Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-5

Appendix B Advanced Support Tools

Server Log Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-2

Text Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-2

Disk Error Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-2

NtStatDump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-3

RecoverDisks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-3

Avid Unity Profiler

™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-4

Appendix C Remote Administration Using the Text Console

Running the Text Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-2

Installing a Telnet Server on the File Manager System for

Remote Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-2

Running the Text Console Remotely Via Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-2

Running the Text Console Locally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-3

Using the Text Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-4

Command Categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-4

User Command Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-6

Workspace Command Category. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-6

On/Offline Command Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-8

Disk Command Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-8

Stats Category Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-9

Index

Using This Guide

Congratulations on your purchase of Avid Unity™ MediaNet Release

2.0, a high-performance distributed file system that provides high-capacity shared media storage for a workgroup of connected

systems.

Av id

Who Should Use This Guide

This reference guide is intended for MediaNet system administrators responsible for the setup and day-to-day management of a MediaNet workgroup. You should already have a basic understanding of how to use and manage Windows NT

Server systems.

Before you read this guide, you should already be familiar with the basic MediaNet concepts described in the Avid Unity MediaNet System Overview.

About This Guide

This guide is intended to provide a task-oriented guide to configuration, management, and basic troubleshooting of your MediaNet workgroup.

xii

The Contents lists all topics included in the book which are presented with the following overall structure:

• Chapter 1 provides an overview of the MediaNet configuration process.

• Chapters 2 through 4 introduce the Setup Manager and describe how to use it to configure your MediaNet workgroup parameters and configure your drive hardware as a drive set.

• Chapters 5 through 9 introduce the Administration Tool and describe how you use it to perform initial workspace configuration and day-to-day management tasks.

• The Appendices describe how to manage drive problems and the MediaNet advanced support tools.

Symbols and Conventions

Using This Guide

The MediaNet documentation uses the following special symbols and conventions:

1. Numbered lists, when order is important.

a. Alphabetical lists, when the order of secondary items is

important.

• Bulleted lists, when the order of the items is unimportant.

- Indented dashed lists, when the order of subtopics is

unimportant.

t One arrow in a list indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple

arrows in a list indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

A note provides important related information, reminders, recommendations, and strong suggestions.

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to your computer or cause you to lose data.

If You Need Help

If you are having trouble using MediaNet, you should:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in your MediaNet documentation.

2. Check the documentation that came with your hardware for maintenance or hardware-related issues.

3. Check the Customer Service and News and Publications sections of the Avid Web site at http://www.avid.com for the latest FAQs, Tips & Techniques, Film + Television Update, and other Avid online offerings.

4. Check the Avid Bulletin Board, “Avid Online,” for information on product and user conferences. If you do not find the solution to your problem, you can exchange information with other Avid customers and Avid Customer Support representatives.

5. Contact your local Avid Reseller; in North America, you may contact Avid Customer Support at 800-800-AVID (2843).

xiii

For general information, call your local Avid Reseller; in North America, call the Avid Customer Relations Desk at 800-894-5654.

Related Information

The following documents provide more information about your MediaNet workgroup:

• Avid Unity MediaNet System Overview

You should be familiar with the basic MediaNet concepts described in the Avid Unity MediaNet System Overview before proceeding with this guide.

• Avid Unity MediaNet for Windows Clients Quick Start Card

• Avid Unity MediaNet for Macintosh Clients Quick Start Card

xiv

• Avid Unity MediaNet Site Preparation Guide

• Avid Unity MediaNet Setup Guide

• Avid Unity MediaNet Release Notes

• Avid Products Collaboration Guide

The most recent update of the Avid Products Collaboration Guide is available in the Documentation section of the Avid Customer Service Knowledge Center. To access the Avid Customer Service Knowledge Center, click the Avid Customer Service link at www.avid.com and select Knowledge Center.

MediaNet also provides Help systems that provide complete information about using the Setup Manager, the Administration Tool, and the Monitor Tool.

If You Have Documentation Comments

Avid Technology continuously seeks to improve its documentation. We value your comments about this manual or other Avid-supplied documentation.

Simply e-mail your documentation comments to Avid Technology at

TechPubs@avid.com

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Using This Guide

CHAPTER 1

MediaNet Management Overview

The MediaNet workgroup allows you to centrally manage very large amounts of storage that multiple MediaNet clients can access to share video, audio, and effects media in an intuitive, collaborative workgroup.

This chapter provides an overview of the tasks that you will need to perform, the factors you should consider when configuring MediaNet, and the tools you will use to manage your workgroup.

Topics in this chapter include:

• Management Tasks

• Configuring Your Workgroup

• Management Tools

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Management Tasks

As a MediaNet administrator, you are responsible for:

• Initial setup and configuration of the workgroup — You m ust configure the drive set, one or more allocation groups, workspaces, and user accounts before MediaNet can be used.

• Day-to-day administration — You will probably need to frequently reconfigure MediaNet (for example, by creating, deleting, or resizing workspaces; by creating and deleting user accounts; and by changing access privileges) to accommodate new users and evolving projects.

MediaNet also provides comprehensive monitoring functionality that allows you to check total MediaNet activity as well as that of each connected client.

• Troubleshooting — When problems occur with the storage hardware, the File Manager, or a client, you will need to try and diagnose the problem and, if possible, fix it. MediaNet provides easy-to-understand error messages that inform you of problems in your MediaNet workgroup as well as tools that help you diagnose and fix problems.

Configuring Your Workgroup

Ensuring that the MediaNet workgroup is always configured to optimize workflow in what can be a rapidly changing working environment is the primary responsibility of a MediaNet administrator.

This section provides information that will enable you to make the appropriate decisions to efficiently perform this task.

MediaNet Management Overview

Overall Considerations

The following strategic considerations will determine your priorities when making configuration decisions and trade-offs (possibly impacting more than one aspect of your configuration):

• What is your site type?

In-house and rental editing suites will probably require very different administration requirements, particularly in terms of workspace access restrictions and how often you need to reconfigure workspaces and users.

• Does your workgroup include dual-stream uncompressed

clients?

If so, you will need to set up special hardware and allocation group configurations.

• How large is your drive set and does it include more than one

drive type?

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If your drive set is very large, or has different drive types, you will probably need to assign your data drives to more than one allocation group.

• Will your client users be working on individual projects with

their own media or will they be collaborating on team projects that use the same source media?

These factors affect how you should allocate workspaces and user accounts.

• Is security or ease of access more important at your site?

Individual password user accounts combined with tightly controlled workspace access privileges provide the most security at the cost of restricting user flexibility.

The following sections provide a high-level overview of the configuration implications of your answers to these questions.

Configuring Your Workgroup

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Setting Up and Managing Your Drive Hardware

Setting up your hardware to create a drive set is very straightforward and should only need to be done during the initial setup of your MediaNet installation, unless you want to add or remove drives later.

The most important decision you must make is how many spare data drives to allocate so that they can be rapidly swapped in for faulty data drives. Avid recommends that you allocate at least one spare drive for each drive size in your drive set.

For more information, see Chapter 4.

Assigning Drives to Allocation Groups

MediaNet requires you to assign the data drives in your drive set that you want to be available as storage to one or more allocation groups. Because MediaNet handles the drives in each allocation group as a separate unit, creating multiple allocation groups allows you to:

• Support dual-stream uncompressed clients (also requires a special hardware configuration).

• Break up very large drive sets into smaller units that reduce the scope of data loss in the event of a drive failure in an unprotected environment (see “Data Protection” on page 1-5).

• Efficiently accommodate drives of different speeds and sizes.

For more information about creating and managing allocation groups, see Chapter 6.

Creating and Sizing Workspaces

Because workspaces are virtual rather than physical partitions, they are very easy to create, resize dynamically, and delete to accommodate your workgroup’s needs. This flexibility allows you to tailor your

MediaNet Management Overview

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workspace allocation to accurately meet the current needs of your workgroup. You can reconfigure your workspaces later to accommodate future projects or users because it is not inconvenient or time consuming.

First, you must consider how you want to allocate workspaces. For example, do you want to allocate them to accommodate projects, teams, individual users, or a combination of one or more of these?

Once you have determined how you plan to allocate workspaces, you’ll need to determine how much storage each workspace will require (a function of media duration and, for video, resolution) and allocate space accordingly.

Data Protection

When sizing workspaces in a multiple workspace configuration, you should consider reserving some space rather than assigning all of it immediately. Once space is allocated, it tends to be filled quickly and you might need space later to accommodate a new project or user or to extend or protect an existing workspace. In these situations, it tends to be much easier to use space held in reserve than to take it away from an existing workspace.

When allocating and sizing workspaces, you should also consider whether access restrictions are required and whether protection for data integrity is necessary for each workspace. For more information, see “Data Protection” on page 1-5.

For more information about allocating and sizing workspaces, see Chapter 7.

Protection is a technique that offers high levels of data integrity by ensuring that two copies of media data are written onto different physical drives to avoid data loss in the event of drive failure. This allows workspaces that are protected to be repaired very quickly with no data loss upon drive failure.

Configuring Your Workgroup

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The disadvantage is that protected workspaces use twice as much space as an unprotected workspace. However, because of the data protection and recovery speed that protection offers, Avid recommends that you always protect your workspaces. New workspaces are therefore protected by default unless you specify otherwise in your preferences.

For more information, see Chapter 7.

Access Control (Users and Access Privileges)

User accounts control access to MediaNet and its workspaces. Access privileges associated with the user account determine whether a client user can mount a given workspace and, if so, whether the user has full access (read/write) or read-only access to it.

To determine how you want to set up user accounts and access privileges for your workgroup, you first need to weigh the importance of access control against user inconvenience and administration effort (particularly in a workgroup where users and projects frequently change).

Once you have decided the importance of security, you can decide upon an access control strategy that best meets your needs.

Example strategies include:

• Create a user account for each user.

• Create a user account with appropriate access privileges for each

MediaNet Management Overview

This strategy offers optimum security, allowing each user access to the appropriate workspaces regardless of the MediaNet client at which they are working.

project (multiple users can use the same account simultaneously).

This strategy offers moderate security and convenience, giving users working on each project appropriate access and requiring far less administrative effort than individual user accounts.

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• Create a user account with appropriate access privileges for each

client.

This strategy offers moderate security and convenience, provided that users work at clients that provide access to the workspaces they need to use.

Passwords are optional. If you want to provide users with access to only appropriate workspaces but security is not an issue (that is, you trust users not to use other user’s accounts), you can use any of the previously described strategies without assigning passwords for user accounts.

For more information, see Chapter 8.

Management Tools

MediaNet provides several tools that you will use to configure and perform day-to-day management of your MediaNet workgroup:

• Setup Manager

• Administration Tool

• Monitor Tool

The following sections give an overview of each of these tools.

Setup Manager

You use the Setup Manager to perform storage hardware management tasks, including:

• Creating and managing a drive set

• Specifying drives as data drives or spare drives

• Starting and stopping the File Manager service to perform system

maintenance

Management Tools

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• Adding drives to and removing drives from the drive set

• Performing drive maintenance and error recovery operations

Help button

Figure 1-1 Setup Manager

The Setup Manager runs only from the File Manager. For a detailed overview of the Setup Manager, see Chapter 2.

Administration Tool

The Administration Tool is the primary tool for initial setup and day-to-day administration of allocation groups, workspaces, and users. It also allows you to monitor storage activity. Using the Administration Tool, you can:

• View, create, rename, and delete allocation groups

• Add drives to allocation groups

MediaNet Management Overview

• View, create, rename, resize, protect, and delete workspaces

• View, create, edit, and delete user accounts (with optional

passwords) and assign user access privileges

• Monitor system usage, including total system bandwidth use,

how many MediaNet clients are active, and how much bandwidth each client is consuming

• View a list of error, warning, and informational messages

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Monitor Tool

Figure 1-2 Administration Tool

You can run the Administration Tool from the File Manager or from any MediaNet client, in which case it communicates with the File Manager through the Fibre Channel network.For a detailed overview of the Administration Tool, see Chapter 5.

The Monitor Tool provides low-level performance-monitoring functions. Using the Monitor Tool, you can view:

Management Tools

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• The current status of each drive, including name, number, available storage, percentage of storage used, and the number of affected files, if any

• A list of the workspaces that exist on the MediaNet workgroup

• The status of communications between the File Manager and the

MediaNet clients

• Information on the metadata maintained by the File Manager

• File Manager memory usage

• Counts and service times for MediaNet client requests

You can also use the Monitor Tool to start and stop the File Manager service and to set some advanced MediaNet features, such as clearing the administrator’s password.

To start the Monitor Tool:

t From the File Manager console, click the Start button, point to

Programs, point to AvidUnity, and then click Server Monitor.

The Monitor Tool opens, displaying File Manager Status information and controls.

MediaNet Management Overview

Figure 1-3 Monitor Tool

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For more information about the Monitor Tool, see the tool’s Help system. To access the Help system, click the Help button.

Management Tools

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MediaNet Management Overview

CHAPTER 2

The Setup Manager

This chapter introduces the Setup Manager and describes its basic operations.

To find out how to use the Setup Manager to set general and File Manager failover parameters, see Chapter 3. For detailed descriptions of how to use the Setup Manager to manage and troubleshoot your drive hardware, see Chapter 4 and Appendix A.

This chapter discusses:

• Setup Manager Overview

• Starting the Setup Manager

• Using the Setup Manager in a Failover Configuration

• Starting and Stopping the File Manager Service

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Setup Manager Overview

You use the Setup Manager to set general and File Manager failover parameters, to configure and manage your drive set, and to start and stop the File Manager service. You also use the Setup Manager to add drives and to perform drive maintenance and error recovery operations.

This section provides an overview of the Setup Manager and the operations that you can perform from it.

Drive group list (Click an entry to select a

group to display in the drive list.)

Information area

Figure 2-1 Setup Manager Example Display

Menu bar

Drive list

The Setup Manager

The Setup Manager divides all drives present in the MediaNet workgroup into one of three groups, reflecting their current usage allocations and state. The three drive groups are:

Drive Group Description

Data Drive Set Shows active data drives and spare drives in the drive set.

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Other FibreChannel Drives

Raw Drives Shows raw drives that have been marked for use by the

Shows drives that have not been appropriately initialized for use in the MediaNet workgroup (for example, drives that were previously part of a MediaShare™ F/C installation). These drives may be used for other purposes in your environment.

MediaNet workgroup but that have not been allocated for a specific purpose. Raw drives cannot be used until allocated.

You select the drive group that you want to view by clicking its entry in the drive group list. All the drives in that group then appear in the drive list, which displays the name, size, status, unit number, and other technical information about each drive. You might need to scroll right to see all the information. The drive list supports multiple selections by using standard Windows NT modifiers (Shift+click to select a list of consecutive entries, Ctrl+click to add individual entries).

You access all Setup Manager functions from the various menus in the menu bar.

The information area provides information about the drive set and the status of the File Manager.

To access a comprehensive Help system that provides step-by-step procedures and reference information for all features of the Setup Manager, click the Help button (Question Mark icon) or choose Help Topics from the Help menu.

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Starting the Setup Manager

To start the Setup Manager:

t From the File Manager desktop, click the Start button, point to

Programs, point to Avid Unity MediaNet, and click Setup Manager.

Until you initialize the email error notification service (see “Setting Up Email Error Notification” on page 3-9), the Setup Manager will display the Email Configuration dialog box asking you whether you want to do so each time it starts. Click OK to stop the dialog box from appearing again.

Until you configure your drive set, the Setup Manager information area will contain a message warning you that it is not connected to the File Manager or that the File Manager is not running. This is normal; the File Manager does not come online until you create a drive set.

Using the Setup Manager in a Failover Configuration

If your MediaNet workgroup has a failover configuration with redundant File Managers, one File Manager assumes the active role and the other the passive role when the cluster comes up.

Failover Configuration Guidelines

The Setup Manager

In failover configurations, you should always:

• Stop the passive File Manager before performing any hardware management tasks that involve stopping the File Manager service (such as adding drives to the drive set or when performing a software upgrade).

• Perform MediaNet hardware management tasks using the Setup

Manager on the active File Manager.

Determining the active File Manager

To determine the active File Manager:

1. On both File Managers, click Start, point to Programs, point to Avid Unity MediaNet, and then click Setup Manager. The Setup Manager window opens.

2. Check File Manager status on the lower-left side of the Setup Manager window.

One File Manager should indicate Running; this is the active File Manager. The other File Manager should indicate Standby Mode; this is the passive File Manager.

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Starting and Stopping the File Manager Service

The MediaNet File Manager software runs as a Windows NT service that starts automatically whenever the server system comes online. However, various maintenance and administration functions require that you stop the MediaNet File Manager and then restart it, so these functions are made readily available from the Setup Manager.

Starting the MediaNet File Manager

To restart the MediaNet File Manager service after it has been manually stopped or has failed for any reason:

t Choose Start File Manager from the Setup Manager’s File

Manager menu.

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Stopping the MediaNet File Manager

In a failover configuration, you must stop the passive File Manager before stopping the active File Manager whenever you perform operations that require you to stop the File Manager. Otherwise, the system will failover to the passive system in the middle of the shutdown.

To stop the MediaNet File Manager service:

1. Ensure that no clients have workspaces mounted. To do this, check client access from the Monitor tab of the Administration Tool, and then ask any client with workspaces mounted to unmount them.

2. Choose Stop File Manager from the File Manager menu.

The Setup Manager

CHAPTER 3

Configuring General, Failover, and Remote Error Notification Parameters

You can use the Setup Manager to set general MediaNet workgroup parameters, configure File Manager failover, and to set up remote error notification by email.

This chapter discusses:

• Configuring General Settings

• Configuring File Manager Failover

• Setting Up Email Error Notification

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Configuring General Settings

General configuration settings allow you to fine-tune system performance by allowing you to limit the number of open files as well as specify how the File Manager writes metadata and interprets available or missing drives during startup.

Inappropriate configuration of the settings described in this section could result in degraded system performance. Contact Avid Customer Support before attempting to change these settings.

To configure general settings:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to AvidUnity, and then click Setup Manager. The Setup Manager window opens.

2. Choose General Configuration from the File Menu.

The General Configuration Options dialog box appears.

3. To give the File Manager a name to represent it to clients that is different from the Computer Name defined in the system’s Network properties, specify it in the Virtual File Manager Name text box.

Configuring General, Failover, and Remote Error Notification Parameters

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In a failover configuration, you must specify the same virtual File Manager Name for both File Managers.

4. Enter a number for the maximum open files allowed by the system. The default is 4000.

In general, you should use the default figure for maximum number of open files allowed by the system. For large and active systems, you can raise this figure as needed.

5. Choose the number of drives that you would like the system to use for writing metadata. The default setting allows the system to write metadata across all available drives. Avid recommends that you use the default setting.

Your choice for the number of metadata save drives is a trade-off between throughput optimization and the time it takes to write the metadata. If you limit the metadata save drives to a small number, for example, the remaining drives will be freed up for the reading and writing of media files only, which will optimize throughput. The system, however, will take longer to write the metadata.

6. Enter the number of missing drives to allow when the File Manager starts. If more drives than the number specified are missing from the drive set, the File Manger will not start. Entering a higher number allows the File Manager to start even if it cannot find the expected number of drives.

The File Manager can function with one drive missing by default when all workspaces are protected. If more than one drive is missing or some workspaces are not protected, the system will report errors.

7. Enter the number of seconds for the system to wait for the last drives to appear during startup. A higher number of seconds causes the File Manager to continue searching for drives for the specified duration during startup.

This option allows the system to accommodate the various power-up times required for different drives on the system.

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Configuring File Manager Failover

If properly configured with a redundant File Manager, MediaNet supports automatic failover to the passive File Manager in the event that the active File Manager fails. Communication using the first three drives in the drive set as well as polling over two cross-connected Ethernet paths ensures that any lack of response from the initially active File Manager is because it has really gone offline and is not due to a failure of network connections between the two File Managers.

In a failover configuration, neither File Manager is assigned to a primary or backup role — the first system to come online becomes the active File Manager and the second to come online becomes the passive File Manager. If both systems come online at the same time, the active role is negotiated arbitrarily between the two systems. For this reason, Avid recommends that you physically label and refer to your first and second File Managers FM1 and FM2.

For information on installing a second File Manager and setting up the IP addresses, see the Avid Unity MediaNet Setup Guide. The recommended IP addresses are listed here in Table 1 for your reference. If you use different addresses, be sure to note them and have them available before proceeding.

Table 1 Avid-Recommended Failover IP Addresses

Physical Host

IP Address

192.168.1.1 FM01A Primary File Manager built-in

192.168.2.1 FM01B Primary File Manager Network

Name

Description

Interface Card (NIC)

192.168.1.2 FM02A Backup File Manager built-in

192.168.2.2 FM02B Backup File Manager NIC

Configuring General, Failover, and Remote Error Notification Parameters

Failover Configuration Procedure Overview

Configuring File Manager Failover requires the following steps:

• Step 1: Setting Up the Failover Connection on the First File Manager.

• Step 2: Setting Up the Failover Connection on the Second File Manager.

• Step 3: Validating the Failover Connections

• Step 4: Starting the First and Second File Managers.

Step 1: Setting Up the Failover Connection on the First File Manager

To set up the failover connection on the first File Manager:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to AvidUnity, and then click Setup Manager. The Setup Manager window opens.

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2. Stop the File Manager service by choosing Stop File Manager from the File Manager menu.

3. Choose File Manager Failover Configuration from the File menu. The File Manager Failover Configuration dialog box appears.

4. Make sure that the Enable redundant operation box is checked.

5. Type a virtual server name into the Virtual Server Name text box. This name must be the same on both the first and second File Managers.

6. Leave the Monitor port set to 5000. If you have another application that uses port 5000, change the Monitor port to an available port number. This port number must be the same on both the first and second File Managers.

7. In the First network path area, choose the built-in Ethernet adapter from the Network Adapter pull-down menu.

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8. Type the first File Manager built-in IP address into the Local Machine First path IP address text box. This should be the first IP address from the list of recommended failover addresses (see Ta bl e 1 ).

9. Type the second File Manager built-in IP address into the Remote Machine First path IP address text box. This should be the third IP address from the list of recommended failover addresses (see Ta bl e 1 ).

10. In the Second network path area, choose the first port of the Ethernet NIC from the Network Adapter pull-down menu.

11. Type the first File Manager Ethernet NIC IP address into the Local Machine Second path IP address text box. This should be the second IP address from the list of recommended failover addresses (see Table 1).

12. Type the second File Manager Ethernet NIC IP address into the Remote Machine Second path IP address text box. This should be the forth IP address from the list of recommended failover addresses (see Table 1).

13. Leave the Setup Manager and the Failover Server Configuration dialog box open.

Step 2: Setting Up the Failover Connection on the Second File Manager

To set up the failover connection on the second File Manager:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to AvidUnity, and then click Setup Manager. The Setup Manager window opens.

2. Stop the File Manager service by choosing Stop File Manager from the File Manager menu.

3. Choose File Manager Failover Configuration from the File menu. The File Manager Failover Configuration dialog box appears.

4. Make sure that the Enable redundant operation box is checked.

Configuring General, Failover, and Remote Error Notification Parameters

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5. Type a virtual server name into the Virtual Server Name text box.

This name must be the same on both the first and second File Managers.

7. In the First network path area, choose the built-in Ethernet adapter from the Network Adapter pull-down menu.

8. Type the second File Manager built-in IP address into the Local Machine First path IP address text box. This should be the third IP address from the list of recommended failover addresses (see Ta bl e 1 ).

9. Type the first File Manager built-in IP address into the Remote Machine First path IP address text box. This should be the first IP address from the list of recommended failover addresses (see Ta bl e 1 ).

10. In the Second network path area, choose the first port of the Ethernet NIC from Network Adapter.

11. Type the second File Manager Ethernet NIC IP address into the Local Machine Second path IP address text box. This should be the forth IP address from the list of recommended failover addresses (see Table 1).

12. Type the first File Manager Ethernet NIC IP address into the Remote Machine Second path IP address text box. This should be the second IP address from the list of recommended failover addresses (see Table 1).

13. Leave the Setup Manager and the Failover Server Configuration dialog box open.

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Step 3: Validating the Failover Connections

To validate connections for File Manager Failover:

1. Click the Validate Receive button on one of the File Managers. The Validate failover connections dialog box opens.

Numbers appearing in the Packets Received text boxes indicate the number of packets received from the first File Manager.

2. Click the Validate Send button on the other File Manager. The Validate failover connections dialog box opens.

Numbers appearing in the Successful Round Trips text boxes indicate successful communication with the second File Manager and a valid connection. The indicator box, under Waiting for response, should also be green.

If you have data traveling over only one of the failover network paths, recheck your configuration. This indicates that you probably have a network configuration problem.

3. Exit the Setup Manager on both File Managers.

Step 4: Starting the First and Second File Managers

To start the first and second File Managers:

1. On the first File Manager, click Start, point to Programs, point to AvidUnity, and then click Monitor Tool. The Monitor Tool window opens.

2. Click Start File Manager.

3. On the second File Manager, click Start, point to Programs, point to Trilligent, and then click Monitor Tool. The Monitor Tool window opens.

4. Click Start File Manager.

Configuring General, Failover, and Remote Error Notification Parameters

Setting Up Email Error Notification

MediaNet storage can be configured to notify you when problems occur. This error notification functionality is performed by a Windows NT service that regularly polls the client log file (UnityClientLogs.txt) and, if any errors are logged, sends a concise summary of those errors to one or more email accounts and/or sounds an audible alarm on the File Manager.

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If you subscribe to an appropriate text messaging service, you can configure the error notification service to send messages to your alphanumeric pager. To find out how to send a message to your pager using email, contact your paging service provider.

Configuring the Email Error Notification Service

To configure the MediaNet Storage error notification service:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to AvidUnity, and then click Setup Manager. The Setup Manager window opens.

2. Choose Email Configuration from the File menu. The Email Configuration dialog box appears.

3. Configure the General parameters appropriately:

Enable Email — Set this option to enable the email error notification service.

Poll Frequency — Specify the frequency (by setting an interval in seconds) with which the error notification service should check for problems.

Wait Period — Specify the time period you would like to pass between messages. Unless you specify a period, the system will send messages each time it polls for problems or errors.

Enable Alarm — Set this option to enable an audible alarm on the File Manager to warn you of any logged errors. When the alarm sounds, click the Turn Off Alarm button to stop the sound.

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SMTP — Specify the IP address or host name of your SMTP server. If you are unsure of this address, contact your network administrator.

Port — Specify the port number of your SMTP server. If you are unsure of the port number, contact your network administrator. The default value (25) should be appropriate in most instances.

4. Specify the list of contacts that you want the error notification service to email when a logged error occurs. For more information, see the following section.

Setting Up Email Error Notification Contacts

You can add, edit, and delete contacts that you want the error notification service to email when a logged error occurs.

To add an email account to the contact list:

1. Click the Add button. The Add Contact dialog box appears.

2. Specify a Name for the contact account.

3. Specify the Email address (in the standard person@domain.com format) to which the message should be sent.

4. Click the Add button to add the account to the contact list and clear the Name and Email fields.

5. To add more accounts, repeat steps 2 through 4. When you are done, click the Close button to close the Add Contact dialog box.

To edit an existing contact:

1. Select its entry in the Contact list and click Edit. The Edit Contact dialog box appears.

2. Change the Name and Email information as appropriate.

3. Click Change to commit the changes.

To remove a contact:

t Select the contact entry in the Contact list and click Remove.

Configuring General, Failover, and Remote Error Notification Parameters

CHAPTER 4

Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

This chapter describes how to configure and manage your drive hardware as a MediaNet drive set.

You perform all drive management operations described in this chapter from the Setup Manager. For more information about how to start and use the Setup Manager, see Chapter 2.

This chapter describes:

• Creating a New Drive Set

• Adding New Storage to Your MediaNet workgroup

• Adding Active Data Drives to an Existing Drive Set

• Removing Drives From Your MediaNet workgroup

• Setting Drive Mode Pages

• Deleting an Existing Data Drive Set

• Rebuilding an Existing Data Drive Set

• Bringing the Drive Set Online and Taking It Offline

• Identifying a Drive

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Creating a New Drive Set

After all the hardware and software that comprise a MediaNet workgroup are installed, you must create a drive set, which is the set of physical drives that provides the large virtual MediaNet file system. A drive set consists of:

• Data drives

• Optional spare data drives (Avid recommends at least one spare

drive of each drive size in your drive set)

The easiest way to create a drive set is to run the Setup Manager’s Configuration Assistant, which automatically creates a drive set consisting of a group of active data drives and a single spare data drive.

However, if you have specific requirements about how you want your drive set configured (for example, if you want to specify how many drives should be designated as spares), you will need to create your drive set manually.

This section first tells you how to use the Configuration Assistant and then tells you how to configure your drive set manually.

Using The Configuration Assistant to Create a Drive Set

To enable you to set up a drive set as quickly as possible, the Setup Manager provides a Configuration Assistant that will automatically create a basic drive set consisting of:

• Active data drives (all but one of the available drives)

• A single spare data drive

Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

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Avid recommends that you leave at least one spare of each data drive size in your drive set (for example, if you have 18-GB and 50-GB drives in your drive set, you should leave at least one spare of each size). Therefore, if you have mixed drive sizes, you should create your drive set manually.

To run the Configuration Assistant:

1. Choose Configuration Assistant from the Setup Manager Quick Start menu. A dialog box appears, describing the drive set that the Configuration Assistant is going to create.

2. Click OK to proceed.

When the configuration operation is complete, your working drive set will come online ready for you to perform further configuration from the Administration Tool.

Manually Creating a Drive Set

This section describes how to create a drive set consisting of data drives and optional spare data drives manually.

Manually Creating a Data Drive Set From Raw Drives

To create a data drive set from Fibre Channel drives that are in a raw state:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Avid Unity, and then click Setup Manager. The Setup Manager window opens.

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2. If the Raw Drives group is not already selected in the drive group list, click its entry to display all the attached raw drives in the drive list.

3. Select a minimum of four raw drives that you want to become data drives in your new drive set.

4. Choose Create Data Drive Set from the Drive Set menu to create a drive set from the selected raw drives.

A progress indicator appears, indicating that the Setup Manager is building the drive set.

When the drive set has been successfully built, the File Manager and drive set come online automatically.

To use the new drive set, use the Administration Tool to assign the data drives to one or more allocation groups. For more information, see “Adding Drives to an Existing Allocation Group” on page 6-5.

Manually Creating Spare Data Drives from Raw Drives

Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

To create a spare data drive:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Avid Unity, and then click Setup Manager. The Setup Manager window opens.

2. If the Raw Drives group is not already selected in the drive group list, click its entry to display all the attached raw drives in the drive list.

3. Select a drive from the Raw Drives group.

4. Choose Make Drive Spare from the Drives menu.

The drive becomes a spare data drive and is moved from the Raw Drives group into the Data Drive Set.

A spare data drive is required before you can replace a failing drive (see “Repairing the Drive Set by Swapping Out a Bad Data Drive” on page A-2).

For information about adding a new spare drive to the MEDIArray, see “Adding New Storage to Your MediaNet workgroup” on page 4-5.

Adding New Storage to Your MediaNet workgroup

To physically add new MEDIArray drives to your MediaNet environment:

1. Stop the File Manager service (see “Starting and Stopping the File Manager Service” on page 2-5). In a failover configuration, stop the passive File Manager before stopping the active File Manager. Otherwise, the system will failover to the passive system in the middle of the shutdown.

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2. Shut down and power off the File Manager system. In a failover configuration, shut down both File Managers.

3. Turn off power to the MEDIArray enclosures.

4. Add the new MEDIArray drives, installing new MEDIArray enclosures to accommodate the drives if necessary as described in the Avid Unity MediaNet Setup Guide.

5. Turn on power to the MEDIArray enclosures.

6. Reset the Fibre Channel switch.

7. Restart the File Manager system. In a failover configuration, restart only a single File Manager.

8. Restart the Setup Manager.

The newly added drives should appear in the Raw Drives group, the Other FibreChannel Drives group, or in an additional Data Drive Set group, depending on how they have previously been used.

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If the newly added drives create an additional Data Drive Set group, you must delete that new drive set (and, optionally, add the new drives to your existing drive set) before attempting to bring MediaNet online. See “Deleting an Existing Data Drive Set” on

page 4-12.

If the new drives are not listed, there is probably something wrong with their physical connections; do not go any further in the procedure and see the Avi d

Unity MediaNet Setup Guide.

9. Add the new drives to the Drive set (see “Adding Active Data Drives to an Existing Drive Set” on page 4-6).

10. In a failover configuration, restart the second File Manager.

Adding Active Data Drives to an Existing Drive Set

The Setup Manager allows you to enlarge your drive set by adding more active data drives to your existing MediaNet drive set. Available drives can appear in the Raw Drives group, the Other FibreChannel Drives group, or the Data Drive Set group, depending on whether they are newly added and how they were previously used.

If you are adding new, previously unused drives, proceed directly to “Creating Data Drives from Raw Drives” on page 4-8.

Adding Drives That Were Previously Used as Data Drives in Another Drive Set

If the drives you want to add to your drive set were previously used in another drive set, two Data Drive Set entries should appear in the drive group list:

• The Data Drive Set entry that contains the newly added drives should contain the number of drives that you have added from

Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

4-7

another drive set and probably indicate that many drives are missing.

• The other Data Drive Set entry should be indicative of your

existing drive set.

You must delete the data drive set containing the newly added drives before you can use the new drives in your existing drive set.

To add data drives previously used in another drive set to your current drive set:

1. Select the Data Drive Set group that contains the drives that you want to add to your drive set. All the drives in that group appear in the drive list.

Do not proceed unless you are absolutely sure that you have selected the correct data drive set. Deleting the Data Drive Set group will cause all data on that drive set to be lost.

2. Choose Delete Data Drive Set from the Drive menu.

The data drive set is deleted and all the drives in it become raw (and are therefore displayed in the Raw Drives group).

3. Proceed to “Creating Data Drives from Raw Drives” on page 4-8.

Adding Drives That Have Been Previously Used With Another Application (For Example, MediaShare F/C)

If the drives you want to add to your drive set have been previously used in an environment other than MediaNet (for example, MediaShare F/C), they should appear in the Other FibreChannel Drives group.

To add the drives to your drive set:

1. Select the Other FibreChannel Drives group. All the drives in that group appear in the drive list.

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2. Select the drives from the drive list that you want to add as data drives to your drive set.

3. Choose Make Drive Raw from the Drive menu to remove any existing formatting and information on the drives.

Making the drives raw will cause all data on the selected drive set to be lost.

4. Proceed to “Creating Data Drives from Raw Drives” on page 4-8.

Creating Data Drives from Raw Drives

To create data drives from raw drives:

1. Select the Raw Drives group. All the drives in that group appear in the drive list.

2. Select the raw drives from the drive list that you want to add as data drives to your drive set.

3. Choose Make Drive Spare from the Drives menu. The raw drives are added to the Data Drive Set group as spare data drives.

4. Select the newly created spare data drives from the Data Drive Set group.

5. Choose Add Additional Drives from the Drive Set menu.

A progress indicator appears. As soon as the drive set has been successfully enlarged, the File Manager and drive set come online automatically.

6. To use the newly added drives, use the Administration Tool to assign them to one or more allocation groups. For more information, see “Adding Drives to an Existing Allocation Group” on page 6-5.

Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

Removing Drives From Your MediaNet workgroup

You can remove drives from your drive set, as long as the following conditions will still be met after you have done so:

• The drive set will still contain at least four drives.

• The drive set will still contain enough drives to support the space

allocated to your workspaces. Note that this is the total amount of storage allocated to the workspaces, not the actual amount of data stored on the workspaces.

• The drive set will still contain at least the number of drives

currently required to store the file system’s metadata.

The process for removing drives involves removing the drives from the drive set (which requires that you first remove them from any allocation groups to which they are assigned), then physically removing them from the MEDIArray enclosure.

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Removing Active Data Drives From an Existing Drive Set

To remove active data drives from an existing data drive set:

1. Use the Administration Tool to remove the drives from any allocation groups to which they are assigned.

When prompted to optimize all workspaces on the allocation group, click Yes to optimize the workspaces and move all data off the drives you want to remove. For more information, see “Removing Drives from an Existing Allocation Group” on page 6-7.

2. In the Setup Manager, select the Data Drives Set group. All the drives in that group appear in the drive list.

3. Select the drives that you want to remove. (Tip: In addition to the drive name, a good way to confirm that a drive is not in an allocation group and therefore available for removal is that its % Used is 0.00%.)

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4. Choose Remove Selected Drives from the Drive Set menu to remove existing formatting from the drives.

5. Click Yes to confirm the removal.

6. Click Yes when you are informed that the drive set must be taken off-line. The Server Offline Control dialog box appears.

7. Enter the number of seconds to wait until the server goes off-line and click OK.

8. When the drive set comes back online, check that the drives have been removed by selecting the Raw Drives group in the Setup Manager; the drives you removed from the drive set should now appear there.

You can now physically remove the MEDIArray drives (see “Physically Removing Storage from Your MediaNet workgroup” on page 4-10).

Physically Removing Storage from Your MediaNet workgroup

To physically remove MEDIArray drives from your MediaNet workgroup:

2. Shut down and power off the File Manager system. In a failover configuration, shut down both File Managers.

3. Turn off power to the MEDIArray enclosures.

4. Remove the new MEDIArray drives (and MEDIArray enclosures, if required) as described in the Avid Unity MediaNet Setup Guide.

5. Turn on power to the MEDIArray enclosures.

6. Reset the Fibre Channel switch.

Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

7. Restart the File Manager system. In a failover configuration, restart both File Managers.

8. Restart the Setup Manager. In a failover configuration, restart the Setup Manager on both File Managers and determine the active File Manager (see “Determining the active File Manager” on page 2-5). You must use the Setup Manager on the active File Manager to perform the remainder of the steps in this procedure.

9. Check that the drives no longer appear in the Raw Drives group.

Setting Drive Mode Pages

Mode pages are a configurable part of the drive firmware that determines how the drive handles data. When you create data drives, the Setup Manager configures the mode pages to efficiently handle media data in the MediaNet workgroup.

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If drive mode pages ever become incorrect (for example, if changed by another application), the Setup Manager warns you by changing the Mode Page column value from Okay to Incorrect.

To reconfigure drives with the correct mode pages:

1. Select the appropriate drives.

2. Choose Set Mode Pages from the Drives menu.

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Deleting an Existing Data Drive Set

To delete an existing drive set:

This procedure will cause all data on the drive set to be lost.

1. Take the drive set offline (see “Taking the Drive Set Offline” on page 4-14).

2. If the Data Drives group is not already selected in the drive group list, click its entry to select it.

3. Choose Delete Data Drive Set from the Drive Set menu. A dialog box appears prompting you to confirm this choice.

A progress indicator appears, showing that the Setup Manager is deleting the drive set.

After the drive set is deleted, all of the data drives previously in your drive set will appear in the Raw Drives group.

Rebuilding an Existing Data Drive Set

To rebuild an existing drive set:

This procedure will cause all data on the drive set to be lost.

1. Delete the existing drive set (see “Deleting an Existing Data Drive Set” on page 4-12).

After the drive set is deleted, all of the data drives will appear in the Raw Drives group.

2. If the Raw Drives group is not already selected in the drive group list, click its entry to display all the attached raw drives in the drive list.

3. Select all the raw drives that you want to become data drives in the new drive set.

Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

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4. Choose Create Data Drive Set from the Drive Set menu to rebuild the drive set.

A progress indicator appears, showing that the Setup Manager is building the drive set.

As soon as the drive set has been successfully built, the drive set comes online automatically.

Bringing the Drive Set Online and Taking It Offline

Some hardware operations (for example, repairing the drive set) require that you first take the drive set offline and then bring it online again. You can also take the drive set offline to prevent client access to all your workspaces.

Drive set sharing status is indicated in the information area of the Setup Manager, and by the Take Offline (available when the drive set is online) and Bring Online (available when the drive set is offline) entries in the Drive Set menu.

Bringing the Drive Set Online

To bring the drive set online:

1. If the Data Drives group is not already selected in the drive group list, click its entry to select it.

2. Choose Bring Online from the Drive Set menu.

The drive set comes online.

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Taking the Drive Set Offline

Identifying a Drive

Before taking the drive set offline, you should identify any clients that have workspaces mounted using the Monitor Tool Active Client tab and warn the clients that you are taking the drive set offline.

To take the drive set offline:

1. If the Data Drives group is not already selected in the drive group list, click its entry to select it.

2. Choose Take Offline from the Drive Set menu.

A dialog box appears, prompting you to specify the delay that you want to occur (in seconds) before the drive set is brought offline so that any clients that have not already done so can unmount all workspaces.

3. Specify the required delay or accept the default (30 seconds) and then click OK.

After the specified delay, the drive set goes offline.

The Setup Manager provides a function that can flash the LED on a selected drive to physically identify it in its MEDIArray drive enclosure.

To see the drive being identified, you must be close enough to the physical drives so you can see which drive is flashing. An alternative method is to have someone watch the drives while you perform this function.

To identify a drive:

1. Select one or more drives you want to identify.

2. Choose Identify from the Drives menu.

Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

4-15

The LED on the selected drive blinks immediately for 15 seconds after you choose Identify. To cancel the identify function, press Esc.

When determining the identified drive, be aware that normal MediaNet activity causes random drives to blink every 20 seconds as metadata is written to them.

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Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

CHAPTER 5

The Administration Tool

The Administration Tool is the primary tool for initial setup and day-to-day administration of allocation groups, workspaces, and users. It also allows you to monitor MediaNet activity.

This chapter provides an overview of the Administration Tool and describes the basics of how to use it (starting the tool, logging in, setting preferences, and so on).

This chapter discusses the following topics:

• About the Administration Tool User Interface

• Starting The Administration Tool

• Logging Into the Administration Tool

• Administration Tool Preferences

• Reestablishing the Administration Tool’s Connection to the File

Manager

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About the Administration Tool User Interface

The Administration Tool, which you can run on the MediaNet File Manager or any client, has a tab-based user interface (UI) in which information and controls are grouped together by function and are presented together on tabs in a single window.

Menus corresponding to each tab offer many of the same functions (with corresponding shortcut keys), but are only active when that tab is selected. At all other times, the menu and its entries appear dimmed, indicating that they are unavailable.

Tabs (Click to select.)

List opener

List area

Figure 5-1 Administration Tool Example Display

Help button

Message area

Contextsensitive buttons

Information

area

The Administration Tool

User Interface Component Descriptions

This section provides a brief description of each component of the Administration Tool UI.

Message Area

The message area typically shows the File Manager status or any existing error conditions. Informational messages that enter the message log are also displayed in the message area for several seconds.

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List Area

Error messages that appear in the message area are often rapidly overwritten by status messages. You should check the Log tab on a regular basis if you are concerned about problems with MediaNet. For more information, see “The Log Tab” on page 9-4.

The contents of the list area are different for each tab, but each list behaves in a similar manner, supporting (as applicable):

• Collapsible views. Any item with nested items is indicated by a list

opener. Open and close these items by clicking the list opener.

• Selection of a single item by clicking.

• Where applicable, selection of multiple items by Shift+clicking.

• Where applicable, selection of multiple items by clicking a

selection box and dragging it.

• Where applicable, renaming of an object by clicking on its name

and typing.

Clicking an icon in the list area selects the associated item without making the name editable. Clicking directly on an item’s name makes the name editable as well as selecting the item.

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Context-Sensitive Buttons

Each tab has a collection of context-sensitive buttons that provide access to the most common operations with a single click. Where button action is only applicable under certain conditions or when a particular item or items are selected, that button is only active in those circumstances and appears dimmed at all other times. All button actions are duplicated as menu commands.

Information Area

Where applicable, the information area shows information about items selected in the list area.

User Interface Tab Descriptions

Each of the five user interface tabs groups information and controls together by functions.

The Administration Tool

Ta b Allows You To

User View, create, edit, and delete user accounts (with optional

passwords) and to assign users access privileges to workspaces.

Workspace View, create, rename, resize, protect, optimize, and delete

workspaces.

Allocation Group

Monitor Monitor system usage, including total system bandwidth use,

Log View a list of error, warning, and informational messages.

View, create, rename, and delete allocation groups. It also allows you to add and remove drives from existing allocation groups.

how many clients are active, and how much bandwidth each client is consuming.

Getting Help With the Administration Tool

The Help system provides step-by-step procedures and reference information for all features of the Administration Tool. To access the Help system, click the Help button (Question Mark icon) in the Administration Tool window to view information about the current tab displayed.

Starting The Administration Tool

You can run the Administration Tool from the File Manager console or any Windows client and in more than one location simultaneously. This allows you to monitor usage and to perform other administrative tasks from the most convenient location without having to return to another running copy of the Administration Tool to shut it down before doing your work. However, performing administrative functions on more than one Administration Tool at the same time can cause unexpected results. For example, if two administrators are deleting the same user account at the same time, a second user account might also be accidentally deleted.

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Logging Into the Administration Tool

If you have specified an administration password (see “Setting the Administration Password” on page 5-11), the Administration Tool prompts you to supply that password to log in. If you enter the wrong password, an error message appears and the tool closes.

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Administration Tool Preferences

The Administration Tool allows you to set preferences that specify a wide range of options that affect the operation of the tool itself (such as the administration password, user interface colors, and graph display options) and the MediaNet configuration that you use the tool to create (such as default names and access privileges for new workspaces and users).

You can also export entire sets of preferences. Such exported preference sets can be imported later and applied. For more information, see “Exporting and Importing Preferences” on page 5-10.

Setting Administration Tool Preferences

You set preferences from the Preferences window.

The Administration Tool

To open the Preferences window:

t Choose Preferences from the File menu with any tab selected.

Tabs (Click to select.)

Click to revert to factory default settings.

Click to revert settings to their last saved state.

Click to apply your preference

changes.

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Click to apply your preference changes and exit.

Click to cancel your preference

changes and exit.

Preference Tabs

Figure 5-2 Preferences Window

The Preferences window contains several preference tabs (listed in Table 5-1), each containing options and default values related to a particular aspect of Administration Tool functionality. To display a preference tab, you click its tab at the top of the window.

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Table 5-1 Preference Tabs

Ta b Specifies

Administration Administrator password. See “Setting the Administration

Password” on page 5-11.

User Default name, password, and access privileges for new

users. View preferences (iconic/text) for access privileges. See “Changing Your User Account Preferences” on page 5-13.

Workspace Default name, access privileges, and size for new

workspaces. Workspace graph view (linear/log) and scaling options. See “Changing Your Workspace Tab Preferences” on page 5-14.

Color User interface colors. See “Setting Workspace and Monitor

Graph Bar Colors” on page 5-12.

Monitor Monitor graph view (linear/log) and scaling options. See

“Changing Your Monitor Tab Preferences” on page 5-16.

Reverting or Cancelling Preference Changes

If you need to undo any changes you have made, the Preferences window offers three options to revert to earlier values or cancel your changes:

• Click the Revert Panel button to revert the preferences on the current preference panel to their last saved values.

• Click the Factory Settings button to revert the preferences on the current preference panel back to the original values set at installation time.

• Click the Cancel button to close the Preferences window immediately without saving your changes.

The Administration Tool

Saving Preference Changes

If you want to view appearance changes immediately or if you want to apply some changes and then continue changing these or other preferences, click the Apply button. This saves your changes immediately without closing the Preferences window.

When you have finished making preferences changes, click OK. This saves all your changes and closes the Preferences window.

Preferences are saved locally to a file on the system on which you are running the Administration Tool. Table 5-2 shows the location of the preferences file on different system types.

Table 5-2 Preference File Locations

System type File Location

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File Manager or Windows NT client

Macintosh client System Folder:Preferences:Avid Unity Preferences

MediaNet installation directory (d:\Program Files\Avid Technology\AvidUnity by default).

If you want to make preferences available on other clients, you need to export your preferences to a shared drive, workspace, or floppy disk (see “Exporting and Importing Preferences” on page 5-10).

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Exporting and Importing Preferences

The Administration Tool can export and import preferences, allowing you to save multiple preference sets to accommodate different MediaNet usage situations, multiple administrators, or to provide consistent settings across multiple systems on which the Administration Tool can be run.

Additionally, you can export preference sets to a shared drive (or workspace if you know that it will not be deleted) so that they can be imported into the Administration Tool on any client in the MediaNet workgroup.

Exporting a Preference Set

To export your current preference set:

1. Choose Export Preferences from the File menu. A file selection dialog box appears.

2. Specify a location and name for the exported preferences file that you want to create and then click OK.

Importing a Preference Set

To import a preference set:

1. Choose Import Preferences from the File menu. A file selection dialog box appears.

2. Navigate to and select the preferences file that you want to import and then click OK.

The Administration Tool

Setting the Administration Password

The Administration preference tab allows you to specify an administration password to restrict access to the Administration Tool (see “Logging Into the Administration Tool” on page 5-5).

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To protect your MediaNet configuration from being damaged by unauthorized client users, Avid recommends that you specify an administration password the first time that you use the tool after you have created your drive set. If security is not an issue, and you do not set an administration password, anyone can gain instant password-free access to the tool.

To set the administration password:

1. If necessary, open the Preferences window by choosing Preferences from the File menu.

2. Click the Administration tab to select it.

3. Enter the current administration password (if any) and the new administration password twice (the second time for verification purposes).

4. Save your new password by clicking Apply. You are immediately prompted to supply the new password.

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If you set an administration password, be sure to remember it. If forgotten, you can only regain access to the Administration Tool by resetting the password from the Monitor Tool.

Setting Workspace and Monitor Graph Bar Colors

The Color preferences tab contains controls that allow you to change the color of the workspace and monitor graph bars in the Administration Tool’s UI.

To set the workspace and monitor graph bar colors:

1. If necessary, open the Preferences window by choosing Preferences from the File menu.

2. Click the Color tab to select it.

Preview bars

The Administration Tool

3. Select the graph bar element that you want to change from the Change Color pop-up menu.

4. Select the red, green, and blue color component values that you want by moving the corresponding sliders. As you alter the values, you can see the color of the selected graph bar element change on the preview bars.

5. Select and change other graph bar elements by repeating steps 3 and 4 as necessary.

6. Save the color changes by clicking Apply or OK (as appropriate). Alternatively, you can revert to your previous color preferences or cancel out of the Preferences window altogether.

Changing Your User Account Preferences

The User preference tab allows you to specify a default user name, password, and access privileges for newly created user accounts (as well as the Guest user account). Another option allows you to specify whether access privileges default to being displayed as icons or text in the user list display. For more information, see Chapter 8.

To change your user preferences:

1. If necessary, open the Preferences window by choosing Preferences from the File menu.

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2. Click the User tab to select it.

3. Type the default name that you want to appear when you create a new user account in the Name text box.

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4. Type the default login password for newly created user accounts in the Password text box.

5. Select default access privileges to workspaces for newly created user accounts (No Access, Read Access, or Read/Write Access) from the Access Privileges pop-up menu.

6. Select whether you want access privileges to be displayed as text, colored squares, or icons in the user list display by selecting the appropriate User Access Icons option.

7. Save your changes by clicking Apply or OK (as appropriate). Alternatively, you can revert to your previous user preferences or cancel out of the Preferences window altogether.

Changing Your Workspace Tab Preferences

The Workspace preferences tab allows you to specify the default name, access privileges, and size for newly created workspaces. You can also specify default scaling settings for the workspace list on the Workspace tab. For more information about the Workspace tab, see Chapter 7.

The Administration Tool

You can also set your workspace graph scaling preferences by setting them dynamically and saving them from the Workspace tab.

To change your workspace preferences:

1. If necessary, open the Preferences window by choosing Preferences from the File menu.

2. Click the Workspace tab to select it.

3. Set new values for the preferences that you want to change:

• Type the default name for newly created workspaces in the Name text box.

• Type the default size (in GB) for newly created workspaces in the Size text box.

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• Select default access privileges for newly created workspaces (No Access, Read Access, or Read/Write Access) from the Access Privileges pop-up menu.

• If you do not want protection to be enabled by default for newly created workspaces, deselect the Protection Enabled option.

• Select the default graph scale type (linear or log) for the workspace list from the Type pop-up menu.

Linear scaling provides a typical decimal scale graph. Log scaling provides a logarithmic scale graph that allows larger data values to fit into a smaller space.

• Type the default division size (in GB) for the workspace list in the GB per Division text box.

• Type the default overall size to be displayed (in GB) in the workspace list in the Zoom text box.

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4. Save your changes by clicking Apply or OK (as appropriate). Alternatively, you can revert to your previous Workspace tab preferences or cancel out of the Preferences window altogether.

Changing Your Monitor Tab Preferences

The Monitor preferences tab allows you to specify default scaling settings for the Monitor tab graph display. For more information about the Monitor tab, see Chapter 9.

You can also set your monitor graph scaling preferences by setting them dynamically and saving them from the Monitor tab.

To change the default Monitor tab preferences:

1. If necessary, open the Preferences window by choosing Preferences from the File menu.

2. Click the Monitor tab to select it.

3. Set new values for the preferences that you want to change:

The Administration Tool

• Choose the default graph scale type (linear or log) for the

monitor list from the Type pop-up menu.

• Type the default division size (in MB) for the monitor list display in the MB per Division text box.

• Type the default overall size to be displayed (in MB) in the monitor list display in the Zoom text box.

4. Save your changes by clicking Apply or OK (as appropriate). Alternatively, you can revert to your previous Monitor tab preferences or cancel out of the Preferences window altogether.

Reestablishing the Administration Tool’s Connection to the File Manager

If the Administration Tool’s connection to the File Manager service on the File Manager is disrupted during a session (for example, because the File Manager service is stopped and restarted), the tool does not poll for and attempt to reconnect to the server automatically. However, you can reestablish the connection manually.

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To reestablish your connection to the File Manager:

t Choose Establish Connection from the File menu.

The Administration Tool attempts to reconnect to the File Manager. If it succeeds and an administration password has been set, you will be required to log in (see “Logging Into the Administration Tool” on page 5-5) before regaining access to Administration Tool functionality.

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The Administration Tool

CHAPTER 6

Managing Allocation Groups

Allocation groups are MediaNet partitions that each contain several (four or more) assigned data drives from the larger drive set. This chapter describes how to create and manage allocation groups in your MediaNet file system, describing how to create, rename, and delete allocation groups as well as how to add and remove drives from them.

This chapter describes:

• Allocation Groups Tab

• Allocation Group Usage Guidelines

• Creating a New Allocation Group

• Adding Drives to an Existing Allocation Group

• Removing Drives from an Existing Allocation Group

• Renaming an Allocation Group

• Deleting an Allocation Group

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Allocation Groups Tab

All operations related to allocation groups are performed from the Allocation Groups tab in the Administration Tool. From here you can create and delete allocation groups and assign drives to them.

This section provides an overview of the Allocation Groups tab and the operations that you can perform from it. The remainder of this chapter contains detailed, task-oriented descriptions of all allocationgroup-related operations.

Allocation group list

Check to select drive

Contextsensitive buttons

Drive list

For more information, scroll right.

Figure 6-1 Allocation Groups Tab Example Display

The Allocation Groups tab contains two sections. To the left is a selectable list containing the MediaNet drive set and all existing allocation groups. To the right is a drive list whose contents are determined by the item that you select in the allocation group list.

Managing Allocation Groups

If the drive set is selected, the drive list shows all data drives in the drive set, with drives that are already assigned to allocation groups shown in yellow. If an allocation group is selected, the drive list shows all the data drives in that allocation group.

The context-sensitive buttons that appear to the right of the drive list duplicate entries in the Allocation Group menu. When active, they allow you to create a new allocation group, to delete a selected allocation group, to identify a selected drive physically in its MEDIArray enclosure by flashing its drive light for several seconds, to remove a selected drive from the allocation group, and to add a new drive to the selected allocation group.

Allocation Group Usage Guidelines

You can assign all of your data drives to one large allocation group, but because MediaNet handles the drives in each allocation group separately, you can use allocation groups to configure your file system to optimize performance.

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If your MediaNet workgroup must support MediaNet clients with very high bandwidth requirements to access uncompressed media, you will need to set up specific hardware and allocation group configurations to support them. For more information, see the Avid Unity MediaNet Release 2.0 Supported Configurations Guide.

In such an environment, you can use allocation groups to isolate MediaNet clients that need very high bandwidth and thus eliminate the competition from other MediaNet clients trying to access the same drives. For example, when uncompressed media is in its own allocation group and a single MediaNet client is using the uncompressed media, that MediaNet client is serviced independently from any other MediaNet clients in the MediaNet workgroup. This logic can also be applied to separating audio and video media.

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In other situations, allocation groups are more flexible, allowing you to assign drives in your MediaNet file system configuration to allocation groups with few limitations other than the following guidelines:

• Use only one drive type (size and speed) per allocation group.

• Use a minimum of four drives per allocation group.

• It can be a good idea to break very large drive sets (over 60 drives)

into more than one allocation group to minimize the risk of two drives used in a protected workspace failing at the same time.

Creating a New Allocation Group

An allocation group is a set of physical drives that form a subset of the drive set to accommodate different drive types, clients with different data rate requirements (for instance, clients that use compressed and uncompressed media), and so on.

Managing Allocation Groups

To create a new allocation group:

1. Click the Allocation Groups tab in the Administration Tool to access the allocation group functions.

2. Select the drive set in the allocation group list.

3. Select all the drives that you want to assign to the new allocation group (four-drive minimum) by clicking the check boxes beside their drive names. (Tip: To check all unassigned drives, choose Select All Drives from the Allocation Groups menu; to deselect all checked drives, choose Deselect All Drives from the Allocation Groups menu.)

In cases where you are creating allocation groups containing specific drives in the MEDIArray enclosures:

a. Click Identify Drive or choose Identify Drive from the

Allocation Group menu.

b. If the identified drive is physically the drive you wanted in the

MEDIArray enclosure, click the check box beside the drive name. If it is not the drive you wanted, identify another drive.

c. Repeat steps a and b until you have selected all the drives you

want in the allocation group.

4. Click New Group to create a new allocation group containing all the selected drives or click Cancel to stop the operation. A dialog box appears, asking you to confirm that you want to create a new allocation group.

The new allocation group appears in the allocation group list in the Allocation Groups tab.

Adding Drives to an Existing Allocation Group

You can add unassigned data drives from the drive set to an allocation group at any time to increase its storage capacity.

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To add extra drives to an existing allocation group:

1. Click the Allocation Groups tab to access the allocation group functions.

2. Select the allocation group that you want to enlarge in the allocation group list.

3. Click the Add Drive button. The Add Drives to Allocation Group dialog box appears, displaying a selectable list of all active data drives that are not assigned to any allocation group.

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4. Select all the drives that you want to add to the allocation group by clicking the check boxes beside their drive names. (Tip: To check all unassigned drives, choose Select All Drives from the Allocation Groups menu; to deselect all checked drives, choose Deselect All Drives from the Allocation Groups menu.)

In cases where you want to add specific drives from the MEDIArray enclosures:

Managing Allocation Groups

a. Click Identify Drive or choose Identify Drive from the

Allocation Group menu. The drive light flashes on the drive being identified.

b. If the identified drive is physically the drive you wanted in the

MEDIArray enclosure, click the check box beside the drive name. If it is not the drive you wanted, identify another drive.

c. Repeat steps a and b until you have selected all the drives you

want to add to the allocation group.

5. Click Add Drive(s) to add the selected drives to the allocation group or click Cancel to stop the operation.

A dialog box appears, telling you that you must optimize all workspaces on the allocation group and asking you whether you want to do so now:

- Click Yes to add the drives and optimize all workspaces on the allocation group immediately. A progress indicator appears while the optimization takes place.

- Click No only if, because of time constraints, you must add the drives without an immediate optimization of all workspaces on the allocation group. You must manually optimize all workspaces on the allocation group as soon as possible afterwards. See “Optimizing Workspaces” on page 7-17).

The selected drives are added to the allocation group.

Removing Drives from an Existing Allocation Group

You can remove drives from any existing allocation group that has no workspaces on it or that has enough space to accommodate the workspaces on it without the space provided by the drives you want to remove. Drives removed from the allocation group are returned to the drive set’s pool of unassigned data drives.

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To remove drives from an allocation group:

1. Click the Allocation Groups tab to access the allocation group functions.

2. Select the appropriate allocation group from the allocation group list.

3. Select the drive or drives that you want to remove from the drive list by clicking the check boxes beside their drive names.

4. Click the Remove Drive button (only active if at least four drives are not selected and if those remaining drives can accommodate all assigned workspaces).

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A dialog box appears, telling you that you must optimize all workspaces on the allocation group and asking you whether you want to do so now:

- Click Yes to remove the drives and optimize all workspaces on the allocation group immediately. A progress indicator appears while the optimization takes place.

- Click No only if, because of time constraints, you must remove the drives without an immediate optimization of all workspaces on the allocation group. You must manually optimize all workspaces on the allocation group as soon as possible afterwards. See “Optimizing Workspaces” on page 7-17).

All the selected drives are removed from the allocation group.

Renaming an Allocation Group

Managing Allocation Groups

You can rename an allocation group at any time. Any changes you make are automatically propagated to the Workspace and Monitor tabs.

To rename an allocation group:

1. Click the Allocation Groups tab to access the allocation group functions.

The following characters are illegal in allocation group names: \, /, :, *, ?, ", <, >, and | . If you attempt to enter an illegal character, the system beeps and the character is ignored.

2. Click the allocation group name that you want to change and type a new name (maximum 27 characters). Any invalid characters are ignored.

3. Press Enter (Windows NT) or Return (Macintosh) or click elsewhere in the allocation group list to effect the change. If the name is empty, the allocation group will revert to its original

name. If you enter no name or a duplicate name, the name is not changed. The allocation group might move in the list of workspaces, to maintain sorted order by name.

Deleting an Allocation Group

You can easily delete any allocation group that does not have any workspaces on it, returning all drives previously assigned to the allocation group to the drive set’s pool of unassigned data drives.

To delete an allocation group:

1. Ensure that no workspaces exist on the allocation group that you want to delete (see Chapter 7).

2. Click the Allocation Groups tab to access the allocation group functions.

3. Select the allocation group that you want to delete.

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4. Click the Delete Group button. A dialog box appears prompting you to confirm that you really want to delete the allocation group. Click OK to confirm.

The allocation group is deleted.

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Managing Allocation Groups

CHAPTER 7

Managing Workspaces

Workspaces are virtual volumes that exist on allocation groups and can be resized dynamically. Workspaces allow you to easily segment your drive set to accommodate projects and users.

This chapter describes how to create, rename, and delete workspaces. It also tells you how to manipulate the amount of storage allocated to each workspace, how to move a workspace and its contents to another allocation group, and how to protect a workspace against drive failure.

This chapter describes:

• The Workspace Tab

• Creating New Workspaces

• Duplicating Existing Workspaces

• Changing Workspace Size

• Renaming Workspaces

• Deleting Workspaces

• Protecting Workspaces

• Optimizing Workspaces

• Moving a Workspace to Another Allocation Group

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The Workspace Tab

All workspace functions are performed from the Workspace tab, which allows you to:

• Create, delete, and rename workspaces.

• Manipulate the amount of storage allocated to each workspace.

• Protect a workspace against drive failure by duplicating files on

more than one drive (a form of mirroring).

• Monitor how much free space exists on each workspace, and how much unallocated space exists in each drive set.

• Move a workspace and its contents to another allocation group.

Click to access workspacemanipulation buttons.

Workspace list

Managing Workspaces

Click to access graph-scaling buttons.

Allocation group

Numeric size text box

Resize handle

Figure 7-1 Workspace Tab Example Display

This section provides an overview of the Workspace tab and the

Unprotected workspace

Protected workspace

operations that you can perform from it. The remainder of this chapter contains detailed, task-oriented descriptions of all workspace-related operations.

The Workspace List

The workspace list displays all workspaces under the allocation groups on which they reside. For more information, see “Reading the Works pa ce Li st ” on page 7-3 and “Changing the Workspace List Graph Display” on page 7-5.

The workspace list allows you to easily select workspaces for renaming, deletion, and moving to another allocation group. It also allows you to freely manipulate workspace size by pressing and holding the Alt key (on the MediaNet server or a Windows client) or the Option key (on a Macintosh client) and dragging the workspace resize handles or by entering values into the corresponding numeric size text boxes.

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Reading the Workspace List

The workspace list represents drive set, allocation group, and workspace sizes and usage. Color coding (customizable from the Preferences window) allows each bar to represent up to four characteristics for protected workspaces.

Each workspace entry has an icon that shows whether it is protected or unprotected and indicates workspace size numerically and in the form of a graph that indicates space allocation and usage with a customizable linear or logarithmic scale.

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All

Unall

ocated storage

Space allocated for duplicate data but unused

Space used to accommodate duplicate data

Space allocated for original data but unused

Space used by original data

ocated storage

For the drive set and allocation groups, the bar colors represent:

• Allocated storage — Total drive space in the drive set/allocation group (as applicable) allocated to workspaces.

• Unallocated storage — Total drive space in the drive set/allocation group (as applicable) still available for allocation to workgroups.

For workspaces, the bar colors represent (from left to right):

• Space used by original data.

• Space allocated to accommodate original data but unused.

(Protected workspaces only)

(Protected workspaces

only)

Managing Workspaces

• Space used to accommodate duplicate data (measured from the resize handle). Note that if this color zone is smaller than that representing the space used by original data, then the workspace is not fully protected.

• Space allocated to accommodate duplicate data but unused.

Changing the Workspace List Graph Display

The workspace list graph is customizable, allowing you to display drive set and workspace sizes, using either linear or logarithmic scales, and to adjust the scale divisions and the graph view size.

You change the appearance by using the Graph context-sensitive buttons (selectable by clicking the Graph Menu button).

Selecting Linear or Logarithmic Graph Display

The workspace list graph can display the drive set and workspace sizes by using two scales:

• Linear scale — When linear scaling is being used, the Linear Scale

button appears dimmed and the Log Scale button is active. Click the Log Scale button if you want to switch to the logarithmic scale.

• Logarithmic scale — When logarithmic scaling is being used, the

Log Scale button appears dimmed and the Linear Scale button is active. Click the Linear Scale button if you want to switch to the linear scale.

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The linear scale is easier to read because each division of the scale represents an equal amount. The logarithmic scale allows you to view more information in a small space but is less intuitive.

Scaling the Graph

Linear and Logarithmic scale divisions can be increased or decreased by clicking on the Division up and down arrow buttons or by choosing Increase Division or Decrease Division from the Monitor menu.

In either scale, numeric divisions are displayed in GB. You can increase or decrease the size of the graph view by choosing Increase Zoom or Decrease Zoom from the Graph submenu.

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Saving Your Workspace List Graph Settings

If you prefer your modified workspace list graph display to the default display, you can save your settings as the new default values. When you do this, the new settings overwrite those in your preferences and are then used as the defaults for future Administration Tool sessions.

To save your workspace list graph settings, click the Save Settings button.

Context-Sensitive Buttons

The context-sensitive buttons that appear to the right of the workspace list feature two selector buttons at the top that allow you to switch between different sets of related functions. The selector representing the active functions appears dimmed. The two sets of functions are:

• Workspace Menu commands — This set of buttons duplicates frequently used workspace-manipulation commands from the Works pa ce menu.

Managing Workspaces

• Graph Menu commands — This set of buttons duplicates the graph-scaling commands from the Graph submenu of the Works pa ce menu.

Creating New Workspaces

Newly created workspaces inherit their attributes (name, size, and access privileges) from your Workspace tab preferences. For more information, see “Changing Your Workspace Tab Preferences” on page 5-14.

To create a new workspace:

1. Click the Workspace tab to access the workspace functions.

2. Select the allocation group on which you want to create the workspace.

3. If all storage in the allocation group is allocated to existing workspaces, make an existing workspace smaller by dragging its resize handle.

4. Click the New Workspace button to create a new workspace with the default name, access privileges, and size specified in your workspace preferences. If there is no room for a workspace of the default size, the operation fails and displays a “Not enough unallocated space on the partition” error message.

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If there is already a workspace with the default name, the newly created workspace will be named default name 1. If that name is already taken (for instance, if you generate multiple new workspaces at once by repeatedly clicking New Workspace without renaming each one as it is created), the newly created workspace will be named default name 2, and so on.

The last new workspace you created appears alphabetically in the workspace list.

5. If necessary, rename any newly created workspace by clicking on its name and typing a new one. For more information, see “Renaming Workspaces” on page 7-12.

6. If necessary, change the size of any newly created workspace from the default value by pressing and holding the Alt key (on the MediaNet server or a Windows client) or the Option key (on a

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Macintosh client) and dragging the workspace resize handle. For more information, see “Changing Workspace Size” on page 7-9.

7. If required, change the access privileges for each newly created workspace. For details, see “Changing Workspace Access Privileges” on page 8-9.

Duplicating Existing Workspaces

Workspaces created by duplication inherit the attributes (name, size, and access privileges) of the workspace from which they were created.

The contents of the original workspace are not duplicated.

To duplicate a workspace:

1. Click the Workspace tab to access the workspace functions.

2. If all storage is allocated to existing workspaces, make an existing workspace smaller by dragging its resize handle.

3. Select an existing workspace.

4. Choose Duplicate from the Workspace menu to copy the selected workspace. The newly created workspace has the same name as the original and the lowest available integer as a suffix (for example, a duplicate of workspace Original Name will be named Original Name 1) and inherits the access privileges and size of the original workspace.

If there is no room for a workspace of the same size as the original, the operation fails and displays a “Not enough unallocated space on the partition” error message.

5. If necessary, rename any newly created workspace by clicking on its name and typing a new one. For more information, see “Renaming Workspaces” on page 7-12.

6. If necessary, change the size of any newly created workspace from the default value by pressing and holding the Alt key (on the

Managing Workspaces

MediaNet server or a Windows client) or the Option key (on a Macintosh client) and dragging the workspace resize handle. For more information, see “Changing Workspace Size” on page 7-9.

7. If required, change user access privileges for each newly created workspace. For more information, see “Changing Workspace Access Privileges” on page 8-9.

Changing Workspace Size

You might want to make a workspace larger to make room for a digitize procedure planned for later in the day or that is already under way. You might want to make a workspace smaller to make space for other workspaces or to reserve storage for another day.

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Avid recommends that you do not resize workspaces while clients are creating files on them.

You dynamically change the size of any workspace by:

t Pressing and holding the Alt key (on the MediaNet server or a

Windows client) or the Option key (on a Macintosh client) and dragging the workspace resize handles.

The corresponding Size text box updates as the size changes. You can also enter a valid value directly by typing it into a workspace’s Size text box.

MediaNet also provides a Workspace Resize utility on client workstations that allows authorized users to resize their workspaces when they need more storage to complete a task. To learn how to grant workspace resize privilege to users, see “Enabling and Disabling Workspace Resize Privilege” on page 8-11. For more information about the Workspace Resize utility, see “Workspace Resize Utility Feature Reference” on page 7-11.

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Increasing Workspace Size

To increase a workspace’s size:

1. Click the Workspace tab to access the workspace functions.

2. If all storage is already allocated, make some workspaces smaller or delete workspaces to make space available.

3. Resize the workspace using one of the following methods:

- Press and hold the Alt (Windows) or Option (Macintosh) key

and drag the workspace resize handle to the right to increase its size. You cannot move the handle beyond the point corresponding to allocating all storage to workspaces. The numerical display of current size updates as you drag the handle. When you release the handle, it stays where placed and the size is set.

- Enter the required size directly. Click the workspace’s Size text

box, type the required value, and then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Macintosh) or click elsewhere in the workspace list to effect the change. If the value is too large or otherwise invalid, the workspace size will revert to its original value.

Decreasing Workspace Size

Managing Workspaces

You cannot reduce workspace size below the amount already allocated to files. For empty workspaces, minimum workspace size is 1 GB.

To decrease a workspace’s size:

1. Click the Workspace tab to access the workspace functions.

2. Resize the workspace using one of the following methods:

- Press and hold the Alt (Windows) or Option (Macintosh) key

and drag the workspace resize handle to the left to decrease its size. The numerical display of current size updates as you drag the handle. When you release the handle, it stays where placed and the size is set.

- Enter the required size directly. Click the workspace’s Size text box, type the required value, and then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Macintosh) or click elsewhere in the workspace list to effect the change. If the value is too large or otherwise invalid, the workspace size will revert to its original value.

Workspace Resize Utility Feature Reference

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The following information is for both Windows and Macintosh clients. The screenshots were taken from a Windows client.

When users log in to the Workspace Resize utility, they see a list of workspaces to which they have access. Each workspace in the list has a row with the following information:

• Workspace Na m e: The name of the workspace along with the icon that indicates whether the workspace is protected.

Protected Workspace

• Capacity: Total storage capacity allocated to the workspace.

• Ava ilable: Amount of the total storage capacity that is still

available for use.

• Used: Amount of the total storage capacity that has been used.

• Maximum: The maximum size that this workspace can be resized

to; the Maximum amount is equal to the current capacity of the workspace plus the total amount of unused storage space in the allocation group.

Unprotected Workspace

The total amount of unused storage space on the drive set is equal to the sum of the Available space for all workspaces on the drive set.

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In addition to the workspace list, the Workspace Resize utility has the following features:

• User: Displays the user account of the currently logged-in user.

• Resize: Displays the Resize Workspace dialog box for the currently selected workspace. This feature is only enabled if the user has been specified for resize access in the Administration To ol .

• Refresh: Refreshes the workspace list with any changes that have been made to the workspaces in the Administration Tool.

• Exit: Closes the Workspace Resize utility.

Renaming Workspaces

You can rename a workspace at any time, even when it is being used by client workstations. The only effect on users is that the workspace name will be different the next time they need to mount it.

Managing Workspaces

The following characters are illegal in workspace names: \, /, :, *, ?, ", <, >, and | . If you attempt to enter an illegal character, the system beeps and the character is ignored.

To rename a workspace:

1. Click the Workspace tab to access the workspace functions.

2. Click on the workspace name that you want to change and type a new name (maximum 27 characters). Any invalid characters are ignored.

3. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Macintosh) or click elsewhere in the workspace list to effect the change. If the name is empty, the workspace will revert to its original name. If you enter no name or a duplicate name, the name is not changed. The workspace might move in the list of workspaces, to maintain sorted order by name.

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If a client has a workspace mounted when its name changes, the user of that system might not see the name change immediately. However, the name change will show up the next time that the workspace is manipulated from that client.

Deleting Workspaces

You can easily delete any workspace that is not currently mounted by any clients.

When you delete a workspace, all media data stored there is lost. You should make absolutely sure that all media on a workspace is either no longer needed, moved, or backed up before deleting a workspace.

To delete a workspace:

1. Ensure that the workspace to be deleted is not currently mounted on any clients. To do this, check access from the Monitor tab and then ask any client with that workspace mounted to unmount it.

2. Click the Workspace tab to access the workspace functions.

3. Select the workspace that you want to delete.

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4. Choose Delete Workspace from the Workspace menu. A dialog box appears, prompting you to confirm that you really want to delete the workspace. Click OK to confirm.

The workspace is deleted.

Protecting Workspaces

Protection offers very high levels of data integrity (at the cost of doubling drive space requirements) by storing duplicates of all media files. This allows drive sets containing malfunctioning drives containing protected media files to be repaired very quickly with no data loss.

Enabling Protection

Protecting new files versus protecting existing files

Managing Workspaces

To enable protection for a workspace:

1. Click the Workspace tab to access the workspace functions.

2. Select a workspace from the workspace list.

3. Click the Enable Protection button to enable protection for the workspace.

The Enable Protection setting only affects files written to the workspace from that point onward; existing files are not affected. When set, all new files written to the workspace are protected; existing files are not affected.

The doubled space requirements of protection mean that you might not always want to protect files written to a workspace. Equally, you might not want to tie up the Administration Tool while large numbers of existing files on a workspace are protected or unprotected when you change the protection state of a workspace.

Pinnacle Systems Unity MediaNet - 2.0 Management Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Using This Guide

MediaNet Management Overview

Management Tasks

Configuring Your Workgroup

Overall Considerations

Setting Up and Managing Your Drive Hardware

Assigning Drives to Allocation Groups

Creating and Sizing Workspaces

Data Protection

Access Control (Users and Access Privileges)

Management Tools

Setup Manager

Administration Tool

Monitor Tool

The Setup Manager

Setup Manager Overview

Starting the Setup Manager

Using the Setup Manager in a Failover Configuration

Failover Configuration Guidelines

Determining the active File Manager

Starting and Stopping the File Manager Service

Configuring General, Failover, and Remote Error Notification Parameters

Configuring General Settings

Configuring File Manager Failover

Failover Configuration Procedure Overview

Step 1: Setting Up the Failover Connection on the First File Manager

Step 2: Setting Up the Failover Connection on the Second File Manager

Step 3: Validating the Failover Connections

Step 4: Starting the First and Second File Managers

Setting Up Email Error Notification

Configuring the Email Error Notification Service

Setting Up Email Error Notification Contacts

Managing Your MediaNet Drive Hardware

Creating a New Drive Set

Using The Configuration Assistant to Create a Drive Set

Manually Creating a Drive Set

Adding New Storage to Your MediaNet workgroup

Adding Active Data Drives to an Existing Drive Set

Adding Drives That Were Previously Used as Data Drives in Another Drive Set

Adding Drives That Have Been Previously Used With Another Application (For Example, MediaShare F/C)

Creating Data Drives from Raw Drives

Removing Drives From Your MediaNet workgroup

Removing Active Data Drives From an Existing Drive Set

Physically Removing Storage from Your MediaNet workgroup

Setting Drive Mode Pages

Deleting an Existing Data Drive Set

Rebuilding an Existing Data Drive Set

Bringing the Drive Set Online and Taking It Offline

Bringing the Drive Set Online

Taking the Drive Set Offline

Identifying a Drive

The Administration Tool

About the Administration Tool User Interface

User Interface Component Descriptions

User Interface Tab Descriptions

Getting Help With the Administration Tool

Starting The Administration Tool

Logging Into the Administration Tool

Administration Tool Preferences

Setting Administration Tool Preferences

Exporting and Importing Preferences

Setting the Administration Password

Setting Workspace and Monitor Graph Bar Colors

Changing Your User Account Preferences

Changing Your Workspace Tab Preferences

Changing Your Monitor Tab Preferences

Reestablishing the Administration Tool’s Connection to the File Manager

Managing Allocation Groups

Allocation Groups Tab

Allocation Group Usage Guidelines

Creating a New Allocation Group

Adding Drives to an Existing Allocation Group

Removing Drives from an Existing Allocation Group

Renaming an Allocation Group

Deleting an Allocation Group