Server Recommendation for Automation Engine 10

[FlexoArt]

Can anyone recommend a server for AE 10 and Nexus. I received a quote from my Esko rep on their recommended Gold server - it's a Dell in a T710 chassis with everything installed. It seems like it may be a little overkill since I'm a single client operation. I'm using Nexus and DeskPack, and my only plugin that uses the server is PowerLayout (formerly StepX). I checked Dell's website, but I'm a little overwhelmed by all the options and really have no idea what the different Hard Drives are, different RAM, etc. I was told that I could have a new server drop-shipped to Esko and they would do the installation for $800...sort of thought they would do it free since I have a maintenance contract.

Any info or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mattbeals]

That can be a pretty monster sized box. If you need help configuring your own server give me a call and we can see what we can come up with. There definitely are a lot of options depending on what you need and the expected useful lifespan of the server is.

 

[WI-Flexo]

FlexoArt

We are running AE10 on a Dell T410 with 2008sp2 works VERY well. No complaints so far. We put in 16GB of memory (8x2GB). Running AE10 with 3 dispatchers, color engine, proof client. Also used as a viewing station. One thing to keep in mind that we didnt realize when we purchased is the integrated video card does not support widescreen monitors (i.e. 1680 x 1050). We still need to get a new video card for ours.

 

[FlexoArt]

Thanks for the info. I really didn't think Esko's T710 configuration was necessary.

There are a few things that were specced out by Esko in their system that I question that I would need. Keep in mind that I'm a single client operation. Their system is showing:

Dual E5530 Processors - I'm assuming I would be okay with a single?

8 GB Memory - I'll probably stick with this if I can. Under Dell's Customize options, it shows RAM going from 4 to 16...no 8 in the T310, T410, and T610. I still wonder if I would be fine with 4 GB. Also, any input on RDIMM vs UDIMM?

RAID-1 and RAID-5 with 5 146GB 15K RPM SAS - this is probably my biggest question??? For 1 client, do you really need RAID striping along with 15K RPM SCSI drives? Or, would I be fine with, let's say, four 7.2K RPM SATA drives using RAID-1 mirroring? I did a little googling, and it sounds like striping doesn't really give that much of a speed increase. Is this used more for serving multiple clients?

I still need to do a little more research on RAID controllers - looks like there's H200, H700, PERC 6/i, etc. I have no idea yet what all this means yet. I did notice that anything under a T610 doesn't have Hotplug drives. Is this really a big deal, or are cabled fine. My current Proactive Tech server has Hotplug drives, but I can't say I ever had to take one out.

Thanks again!

 

[WI-Flexo]

I would recommend dual processors and max out your memory. Memory is cheap now days and of course you want your RIP as fast as possible. Since your a single client you may be able to get away with 4GB.

As for the RAID I would stay away from SCSi drives due to cost. You would be fine IMO with 7200rpm SATA drives. You can probably get some more educated recommendations on this. We use Drobo Pro RAIDs for our file servers and love them so cannot really comment on running a file server RAID from the RIP.
Hope this helps.

 

[mattbeals]

The SAS drives are nice because of SCSI. But with SATA2 if you can get 10k RPM drives that would be best. Faster the drives, faster the access to the data. SCSI is still 320Mb/sec SATA can be up to 6Gb/sec (Megabit, Gigabit not Mega BYTE Giga Byte). The drive technology itself isn't quite as much of an issue as it was years ago.

What is important is the RAID level. Use mirrors instead of stripes. You can do stripped mirrors, mirrored stripes, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID with online spares etc. There are a lot of different philosophy's about which RAID level works best for which application.

The old standby is that RAID 5 is the best choice for mixed use. It's not super fast reads or writes but it gives very good protection against data loss because of drive failures. RAID 6 expands upon RAID 5 by adding a second parity. But in reality you can probably go with two mirrors. One mirror set for the OS an one mirror set for the data. If you go with the mirror then get the fastest drives you can. For stripping you are splitting the data across N-number of drives. Which speeds up data transfers but also significantly increases the likelyhood of data loss. With mirroring you are limited to the speed of the drives. So 10k RPM SATA II drives at 6GB/sec are you best choice for SATA an 15K RPM SCSI are best for SCSI.

Having hot swap drives is a real big advantage simply because of the convenience. Must you have them? No, but it sure does make life a lot easier when a drive fails.

Which RAID card to use? Well, preferably one with a cache. But the PERC 6 card is perfectly fine for mirroring or basic stripping. If you want a bit more "oomph" then go with a higher end card. But as a practical matter the higher end cards aren't going to give you much extra benefit in performance. Maybe in RAID management if they support online spare drives.

On the memory, go with 8GB now and add more later if you need to. But 8GB is a heck of a lot of memory if you applications are not native 64bit. 32bit applications can use about 2GB of memory max. If you can have multiple instances of the same 32bit app then you would be able to use n X 2GB of memory.

On the processor, if you populate the one with a quad core processor then you can wait and see what you need. If you need an additional processor then you can order a processor kit that matches the exact speed and model of the existing processor. Never tried this before but you might be able to order two processor kits and upgrade both at the same time. But the processors would have to be supported by the mother board and the server model.

You could also turn this machine into your primary prepress server depending on how you want to configure it.

Like I said, if you want to talk about it then feel free to give me a call. There are a lot of choices to be made that can affect the servers useful lifespan.

 

[madmac]

From what we have been advised here in the UK you shouldn't have both AE10 and Nexus on the same box or Flexrip.

Also be careful as AE10 is supported on 2008 R2 but I don't think Nexus is best is to check out the specs on the esko web page AE 10 and Nexus

As for RAID you want RAID 5 so you are covered for redundancy / drive failure. If you files are on another file server then then you wont need a great amount of storage space but you do need to think about keeping the whole thing up and running.