Final Cut Server is a fine asset management system. Its real promise, though, lurks within its system for watching for arbitrary events and triggering actions. At WWDC this June, Apple wowed a few hundred people with a demonstration of this capability. Apple has now released the code and documentation of this demo.

Download the documentation and code in the "Web-Based Review & Approval" section of the Final Cut Server Resources page.

Here's the demo, in short. Using the FCS Client, click an asset's "Send to Web for Review" checkbox. This triggers FCS to compress and export a version of the movie, then add a record to an external database. A Ruby-on-Rails app reads the database and displays the movie in a web page for approval. Once approved, the Rails app sends XML to a drop folder, which is read by FCS, recording approval and completing the round trip.

It is a bit of work to get it working, but the demo touches all facets of FCS. It's a great eduction.

I've now had a enough opportunities to work with Qlogic 9000 series switches and Xsan to know that there are major snags with these switches that the integrator community should be aware of.

For those of us who have worked with Qlogic's 5000 series of stackable switches, we have taken for granted two features on these switches that are turned on by default.

First, 5000 series switches are set to Soft Zoning by default. This allows a large number of ports or WWNs to be grouped together without any issue. In large stacks of 5 switches, this means that putting all 96 ports into one zone isn't a problem. Soft Zoning is defined as a "virtual zone," which encourages entities to see just themselves, but does not limit them from contacting other entities if they know of their whereabouts in the fabric. Think of it as a zone made out of waist-high stanchions: the entities are focused on each other, but if they were aware of other entities before the stanchions were placed around them, they can still contact those other entities. That is why, after rezoning on 5000 series switches, we always need to reboot the storage and computers so that they "forget" about the entities that they knew about before the establishment of the zone.

Second, 5000 series switches have a default zone. The default zone simply states that if no zones exist, then all ports see each other in one large zone. Soft zoning and default zones go hand in hand because, again, soft zones allow a large number of entities.

9000 series switches have neither of these features on by default. Read the rest of this article to fix this.

Promise has released a new Apple-specific Quick Start Guide for their VTrak E & J-Class units. This QSG is more tailored to Mac environments -- and should be an improvement over -- the previous QSG which has been shipping with the units.

Be sure to check out our Promise Storage Forum for some excellent community discussion on these units.

Here's how to reliably reinstall the Java Client on a Mac.

1. Delete the Java Applet, usually found on the Desktop. (Sometimes an end-user has placed this in their Applications folder.)
2. Delete the following folders (directories):
   
   ~/Library/Caches/Java/
   ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.finalcutserver/
3. Delete the following file:
   
   ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finalcutserver.plist
   
   (Note: ~ means the user's home folder, ie. /Users/<username>)
4. Now, go back to the URL of your Final Cut Server box:
   
   http://<ip or domain here>/finalcutserver

...and the reinstall should go well.

I was on a short vacation last week, so I missed Apple's first update to Final Cut Server. Note that both the server and clients must be updated to QuickTime 7.5 before this release. If you are using Final Cut Pro, you must update to Pro Applications Update 2008-02 as well. There have been significant changes to how FCS handles FCP projects, so all cataloged FCP projects should be reanalyzed by the FCS administrator after upgrading.

As a nice change, Apple has published release notes for Final Cut Server.

• Final Cut Pro project files are now delivered as binary XML files on checkout, which is one bit better than text.
• Checked-out FCP projects can now be returned with additional media, and that media will be added to Final Cut Server automatically. (Other apps, such as Motion or Soundtrack Pro, need to have additional media added manually.)
• FCS no longer eats double-byte metadata, so you CJK users can type away.

Please discuss in the FCS 1.1 forum thread begun by djdan...

We're happy to announce that Eric Cardinale, Promise Technology's Apple support specialist, is in the house.

Eric has offered to help out with Xsanity's new Vtrak storage forum, answering any questions about Promise's RAID products for Mac & Xsan. (He especially likes the kinds of questions known as "pre-sales".) I've already consolidated some of our recent Promise questions into the new forum, so please head over and welcome Eric to our community.

Relatedly, Apple has posted recommended procedures for replacing a Vtrak controller. These aren't hot-swappable, so you may want to bookmark the link.

[Update: Maybe I should read the articles I link to? Of course they are hot-swappable.]

I missed the news by a few weeks, but last month Quantum released StorNext FX 2, their Windows, Unix, and Linux client for Xsan-hosted SANs. The update brings bug fixes, Windows Vista compatibility, and support for 64-bit operating systems. It is a free upgrade from previous versions.

Apple's migration guide says that yesterday's Xsan 2.1 update is supported, too.

More information can be found on the SNFX Support Site. Quantum handles requests for software updates online.