Production Management ACSR Flashcards
1
Q
What are the three types of Production Management Engine?
A
Single Engine, Bundle, Cluster
1
Q
Is every Production Management Engine required to be a Central Configuration Server?
A
No
2
Q
What is a limitation of a Bundled Engine?
A
The concurrent client count for any engine bundle is 30
3
Q
What determines how large a usable Production Management database can be?
A
RAM
4
Q
What is a database object?
A
Metadata for an asset in the Production Management database.
5
Q
Where do you look to check on Production Management Engine RAM and cache size usage?
A
Interplay Administrator > Interplay Server > Database > Database Information
5
Q
What makes a highly linked object?
A
Adding one short introductory clip to the beginning of every sequence, that clip might be associated with hundreds of database objects (sequences)
6
Q
What is the disk size in a Clustered Production Management engine system?
A
Depends on the server but could be 480 or 1TB drives
7
Q
What is the RAID in an HPE MSA 2050 storage array?
A
Raid 10 or 1-0
8
Q
Where is the database stored on a single/clustered engine?
A
Single: D:\ drive
Clustered: S:\ drive
9
Q
When is an advanced key required?
A
- Media Central Production Management, with access to Media Central Newsroom Management in the same browser
10
Q
What key enables a Media Composer | Cloud workflow?
A
KEY-LI
11
Q
What are the benefits of Virtualization?
A
- Deploy and operate multiple Avid Applications on a single physical server
- Consolidate hardware to get higher productivity from fewer physical servers
- Reduce power consumption and cooling requirements
- Make it easier to deploy new versions of software in a production enviroment.
12
Q
What is a Hypervisor?
A
A manager of a virtual server
(Server > Hypervisor > Operating system)
13
Q
What is ESXi?
A
in a Type 1 Hypervisor, is the “operating system” of a VM server.
14
Q
What are the requirements for virtualizing Production Management?
A
- Has to be type 1 hypervisor system
- Use Thick Provision Eager Zero disk formatting
15
Q
In a Virtual Environment, where can VMs be stored?
A
Physical Servers, or shared storage for vmotion
16
Q
What is VMWare Tools?
A
A set of drivers and tools that can be installed on Windows VMs
16
Q
Is it possible to virtualize a clustered engine?
A
Yes
17
Q
Which components must join an AD in a cluster install?
A
Production Management Engine, NEXIS,
17
Q
What non-Avid network services may be required for your Production Management installation?
A
Active Directory (only required for clustered engines), DNS (required for all installations), Time Sync
18
Q
What service account authenticates the Production Management Engine?
A
Server Execution User (SEU)
19
Q
Where must the SEU account be properly configured for a cluster install?
A
- On the Active Directory Server (done manually before install)
- As a domain user on both production management engines (done automatically during engine install
- In the production management engine software
- on Nexis with read/write to all workspaces with Avid media.
- Backup locations (NAS) that will need to access the database engine (done manually)
20
Q
Where must the SEU account be properly configured for a single or bundle install?
A
On Windows
21
Why is using FQDN important in Production Management?
A single computer name is ambiguous, there could be several computers with the same name.
FQDN requires the Hostname + Domain Name
22
What is the preferred method of time synchronization?
Avid Framework, Active Directory, or NTP Time Server. Internet-base NTP servers are not recommended.
23
Where is time synchronization set in avid service framework?
Avid Service Configuration tool (Avid Framework) > Hosts > Avid Time Synchronization Service
24
What is a Source ID?
Identification of an entire source clip. The unique Source ID is generated at the time of ingest
25
What is the maximum supported number of files that can be indexed?
5 Million, with 120GB of RAM
26
What is a Mob ID?
Individual media channels within a clip have MOB IDs. E.g. V1 and A1 could be associated with the same Source ID (clip), but they will have a different MOB ID (media object ID)
27
How many Media Indexers are allowed in the NOMI?
2
27
What could an active standby Media Indexer be used for?
- Redundancy
- Creating a backup database
28
What system generates the .SPAAF files?
The database check in system (e.g. Media Composer)
29
What is a .SPAAF file?
Allows checking in of OP1a formats within Media Composer. An sparse AAF file containing the source audio channels so MOB IDs can be created
30
Does Media Indexer require Avid Service Framework?
No. Not past ASF 3.5
30
Does Media Indexer require workspaces to be mounted?
No. It requires Nexis Client Manager to be installed, but the connections to the Nexis are done in the background
31
How would you restart the Media Indexer Service?
Shut down the MI in the web browser, then restart the computer to restart the interplay indexer windows service
32
When you connect to a client's local MI via the WebUI, What indexed locations can you see?
Avid MediaFiles databases that are local to the system (not on any network), and indexed location locations on the MI server.
33
How do you determine what kind of storage you are looking at when in the WebUI?
Web UI > Storage Browser > There is a folder tree on the left hand side which displays the locations of the databases, and the various icons
34
How is the hierarchy established within a NOMI?
You can set the order of storage locations. Moving up/down specified locations within the list. The first workspace is the one the MI will scan during a re-index or a re-scan.
35
Which tab is used in the WebUI to add a new storage location for indexing?
Configuration > Storage locations > Add Storage Location
36
What setting must be configured in Interplay Administrator to allow clients to see media?
Interplay Administrator > Interplay Server > Site Settings > Server Hostname Settings = Workgroup and Media Indexer Settings
37
Should client indexers be configured to join to the NOMI?
No
37
What are some things you should check first before specifically troubleshooting Media Indexer?
- Shared storage locations are mounted on the client and the user has read/write privileges.
- Indexers without mounted NEXIS workspaces must use letterless drive mapping
- The editing application is logged into the Production Management Engine with a user that has sufficient privileges.
- The Windows Firewall is disabled
- Possible to ping the machine that runs the shared storage production management Media Indexer by IP address and by name from the editing system, and Vice Versa.
38
What does a Rescan do?
Will scan for changes only and add new metadata as required
39
What does a Reindex do?
Will delete all the metadata and rebuild the entire cache for this location from scratch.
40
Is it better to rescan or reindex?
Reindex. But media will become offline
41
What is the server component of Avid Service Framework?
Lookup Servers
42
How do you add an active-standby Indexer to the NOMI?
MI web ui > Configuration > Cache and NOMI info > Select standby MI > Give it a lower weight to the slave.
Ensure it is not connected to the NOMI
43
Explain the discovery process on ASF
When a host first comes online, it registers itself with all available lookup servers. This registration includes all the ASF services the client is running and this what actions it can perform in the framework.
44
What are the ASF applications?
- Avid Diagnostics
- Avid Health Monitor
- Avid Service Configuration
- Avid Workgroup Properties
45
What is the workgroup properties application used for?
- Used for configuring a localhost machine to join the ASF
- For starting and stopping services on that host machine
46
What are some things that can cause slow ASF population?
- Unused NIC ports on windows (Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections)
- DNS issues
- Windows Firewall
46
What function does the Production Services engine provide?
- Store and manage Avid WG database
- Store and manage user account data
47
Name some of the provider services and explain their purpose
- Send To Playback (STP) Encode: Lets you offload time-consuming processing involved in exporting and transferring of Long GOP OP1a media, during a send-to-playback request from an Avid Media Composer
- Interplay Consolidate: Uses the in and out marks specified in a loaded clip or subclip to create a new media asset.
- Interplay Production Services Automation: Handles the logic of chaining a Consolidate job and a Delivery job. It triggers a Consolidate job and monitors its status. If the Consolidate job is successful, it triggers a Delivery job.
48
What two folders are backed up during an automatic database backup?
- _Database
- _PropertyStore
49
Which provider(s) might be required for Media Central systems?
- Interplay production services automation
- Interplay Consolidate
49
How many simultaneous jobs can a transcode provider handle?
1
50
What could cause "Connection refused by Broker"?
- SQL not installed - Reinstall Production Services Broker Engine from the root of the C: drive
- No connection to the Production Management Engine
- Production Service Engine is not Licensed.
51
Why isn't the default location the best place for backups?
Is on the same drive as the active database, no physical separation.
52
What access does the SEU need to process a backup?
The SEU needs access to the NAS storage to copy the files to that mapped location
53
What is the difference between an incremental and differential backup?
Differential: Creates copies of database files that were added to the database since the last complete backup.
Incremental: Creates copies of the database files that were added to the database since the last complete backup, incremental backup, or differential backup
54
What folder are non-Avid assets stored in? Is it automatically backed up?
The _Master folder
Not backed up
55
Where are the user accounts kept?
The _InternalData folder
56
What was the first Production Management engine to support software licensing?
Production Management Version 3.3
(That was also the same version to support Virtualization)
57
What are the three jobs of a Media indexer?
1. Building a database of the file location
2. Serving the database to clients
3. Scanning files's metadata/format
58
How does the Media Indexer get notified about new media?
Through the Nexis Client Manager
59
How many IP addresses are in a Production Management Cluster?
6 in total.
- 1 private, 1 public IP for each cluster node
- Cluster IP
- Virtual production management engine IP
60
What is a virtual production management engine IP address for?
Used to redirect clients to the active cluster node. If connecting to a cluster IP and failing over, the connection won't work, so we connect to a virtual production management engine IP
61
What is Multicast?
The way Media Indexers talk to eachother.
62
Is multicast traffic available in Microsoft Azure?
No, Multicast is blocked.
63
Do you need to join a network of Media Indexers (NOMI) even with a single Media Indexer?
Yes, every MI that clients can connect to should be in the NOMI. The one exception is with an active standby MI.
64
Will copying the file to a Media Indexed workspace result in Media Indxer flagging the file as corrupt and not indexing the file?
No.
1. Copying file to the indexed workspace via OS
2. MI sees the file is growing
3. Puts the file into the ignored list
4. Once the file has finished being written the last modified date is changed, and the MI will put the file back into the active workspace
65
What is a Resync
Comparing the Production Management database with the Media Indexer database. Triggered from Avid Interplay Access.
