The Mac Observer

Skip navigational links

You're viewing an article in TMO's historic archive vault. Here, we've preserved the comments and how the site looked along with the article. Use this link to view the article on our current site:
South Park Relies on Xserve Products

South Park Relies on Xserve Products

by , 9:30 AM EST, January 3rd, 2006

When South Park first aired on Comedy Central nine years ago, its creators had no idea it would run so long. As the in-house production needs have grown, the data storage systems haven't been able to keep up, so they turned to Apple. This year, South Park Studios replaced its aging digital linear tape library and direct-attached disk storage systems with three Xserve RAID disk arrays from Apple, and a linear tape open system from Exabyte in Boulder, Colorado.

In an interview with Computerworld, J.J. Franzen, South Park Studio's technology supervisor, said that switching hardware lets them perform four incremental backups a day, versus one a day with the old system. In the event of a catastrophic failure, the studio would lose four hours of work, instead of a whole day's worth.

With the tight weekly production schedule for South Park, losing a day spells disaster.

Tape-based backups were even slower. "The last backup we did on the DLT7000s took about two weeks straight -- yes, two weeks," commented Mr. Franzen. "Now that we're at a little over 2TB, we needed something faster."

The South Park crew is pleased with the performance it has seen from the Xserve RAIDs. It plans to add an additional two Xserve RAIDs, bringing the total storage up to 15 terabytes.

With the added storage and speed the Xserve RAIDs offer, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman should have plenty of room to keep growing.

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Guest
Subject: Obligatory response...

"Aw dude that is sooo schweeeeeet!"

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Losing a whole day's work.

How? Why? Has this happened to them more than once?

What are these folks using instead of an operating system?

. . . surely not . . . Windoze.

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Quote
Guest wrote:
What are these folks using instead of an operating system?
. . . surely not . . . Windoze.


You can lose a day's work on any OS. Hard drives can croak at any time. Users can delete the wrong version of a file.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Dude, so totally kewel !

WinBlows? Windoze?

Screw you guys, I'm go-ing h o m e.

Cartman

Comment on this Article


You cannot edit your comments.   You cannot delete your comments.

Comments are currently closed. Please email the author instead.


Recent Headlines - Updated July 6th

Mon, 5:28 PM
News - Arlington Police Release Video of Apple Store Shooter
4:40 PM
Deal Brothers - Apple Mac Pro 2.66GHz Intel Xeon Quad Core for $2,274.00 Delivered A/R
4:12 PM
Product News - Babylon Upgrade Adds New Translation Features to Mac Dictionary App
11:17 AM
Ted Landau's User Friendly View - Apple’s LED Cinema Display: A Too Short Story
11:11 AM
Product News - Photo Recovery for Mac Adds Photoshop Support
10:39 AM
Hot Forum Topic - iPhones in Education
8:47 AM
News - Apple Employee Injured in Store Shooting
Fri, 10:29 AM
News - Apple Warns of Learning Interchange Security Breach
7:30 AM
News - Happy Fourth of July!
Thu, 6:07 PM
TMO Scoop - Psystar Moves to Drop Bankruptcy Ahead of Apple Legal Battle
5:37 PM
News - Uncomfirmed Reports Say Apple & Nvidia On The Outs
4:57 PM
News - Microsoft Sick Over Barf Ad

The Mac Observer Reader Specials

  • Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
  • OWC: OWC Mercury On-The-Go FW400/800/USB2/eSATA Portables. High Performance A/V Rated. Bus Powered. Up to 500GB in the Palm of your Hand. Macworld Editor's Choice. CNET 'Very Good.' From $75.99!
  • Poker Mac If you're using a Mac, then you've gotta check out Full Tilt Poker for Mac. This Full Tilt Poker bonus code does the unthinkable, it actually rewards!
  • RamJet Memory: MacBook and MacBook Pro 4GB kits for $57.99! Mac Pro 4GB Kits $99.99! iMac and Mac mini 4GB Kits for $57.99! 1TB SATA Hard Drives for $109.99! Click here
  • For the latest Apple products use Ciao, a price comparison website, to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate mobile phones like the Apple iPhone.

  • Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.
  • __________
  • Buy Stuff, Support TMO!
  • Podcast: Mac Geek Gab
  • Podcast: Apple Weekly Report
  • TMO on Twitter!