Apple Final Cut Server - Manual (Page 17)

Chapter 1 Overview of Final Cut Server 17
I
A storage area network (SAN) allows multiple computers to connect to a storage device
as if it was a locally connected device. This allows you to use the media on the storage
device (typically a RAID) exactly as if it was on a local hard disk.
Final Cut Server includes the ability to configure a storage device that is part of a SAN
as an edit-in-place device. Clients that are directly connected to edit-in-place devices
have the advantage of direct access to the device’s media—the clients do not need to
cache a local copy of an asset before being able to use it in a Final Cut Pro project. This
can be a huge advantage when working with large video files.
Note: SAN-connected devices are not the only ones that can be configured as edit-in-
place devices. However, they are the most common types of devices that can support
the high performance required.
Apple has available a set of products that can be easily configured to provide these
features. These include Xserve, Xserve RAID, and Xsan. See
http://www.apple.com/
xserve for more information.
See “ Using the Final Cut Server Installer ” on page 21 for more information on creating
the default devices using the Final Cut Server installer, Chapter 5, “ Using Device Setup
Assistant ,” on page 59 for information on creating devices using Final Cut Server
System Preferences, and Chapter 12, “ Managing Devices ,” on page 163 for information
on creating devices using the Administration window of the Final Cut Server client.
Basic Final Cut Server Administration Tasks
An administrator must configure a variety of settings in Final Cut Server before the
system can be used. Additionally, other settings need to be changed as additional
users, resources, and productions are added to your workflow. These include settings
that relate to the following tasks:
 Installing and setting up Final Cut Server: See Part I of this manual, “ Installation
and Configuration ,” for details on installing and setting up Final Cut Server.
 Managing users and groups: Final Cut Server can use either local users and groups or
groups based on Mac OS X Open Directory to validate users. You use either the
Accounts pane in System Preferences or the Mac OS X Server Workgroup Manager to
add users and groups to the computer. You then import the groups into
Final Cut Server, applying a suitable permission set to each group to define its level of
access to the Final Cut Server catalog. See Chapter 4, “
Adding Users and Groups ,” on
page 47 and Chapter 10, “ Groups and Permissions ,” on page 125 for more information.
 Managing devices: Final Cut Server uses devices to store all the assets and
productions in its catalog. Devices can be as simple as folders on the computer’s
internal hard disk or they can be from a wide variety of networked computers. See
Chapter 12, “
Managing Devices ,” on page 163 for more information.