We are having problems with the way Mac OS X Server 10.4.7 handles
memory. We use it as file server for video files (DV25 files), so when
I copy from a client (windows or mac, no difference here) any file, it
starts using up physical RAM and it is showed in activity monitor as
Inactive RAM. If I copy a 1GB file, when 100MB has been transmitted,
it shows that there are 100 inactive megabytes, when the client shows
that 500MB has been transferred (50% in the progress bar) there's the
same amount of memory marked as inactive. The problem comes when
copying files over 4GB. That's the physical RAM the server has. After
this critical point, the machine starts paging to virtual memory, and
clients playing files FROM the server start getting pauses while the
file continues to be copied. If we have to "ingest" a 13GB file (one
hour tape) this is a big problem because we can't ingest to the server
while people is editing. There's also a problem when overpassing the
physical limit because OS X Server won't flush later the inactive
memory to become free again. After this happens, even a 10MB file will
make the server pause outgoing video streams as long as the file is
being copied. We are looking for a solution that keeps the server
running smooth even if ingesting material to it, and keeping the
outgoing video streams smooth too. |
