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Final Cut Server and Qmaster Cluster Storage

After a week off from work, I found Final Cut Server and the Xserve where it’s setup very slow. I realized that it was because the system hard drive was full. I used an excellent tool called WhatSize to find out what was the problem. It was because of the size of the folder /var/spool/qmaster. I’ve never realized before that qmaster was copying all the files there in order to start the encoding requested by Final Cut Server.

So I changed the settings in Qmaster preferences to a temp folder created on the same Volume where we store the source files. Not only I did empty a lot of space on the System Hard Drive but now the encoding starts within a shorter time because it copies the files on a much faster Volume (Xraid).

Tags: Final Cut Server, Qmaster, Video, Workflow

Tool to draw your workflow

In case you would like your workflow to look more interesting than boxes and lines (Microsoft style) you might want to have a look at Omnigraffle (Apple style).

It’s a good diagram software but its big advantage is to have an Apple oriented library. If you look at graffletopia.com you’ll be able to download Apple hardware icons, Leopard icons, Apple Storage and Servers icons (called stencils) … and for free!

You might not want to go for the pro version if you don’t need the extra import/export features. I’m actually working on the UNICEF workflow using that software, I will post it here to show what it looks like once I’m done.

Tags: Software, Video, Workflow