Reading the previous (inverted) thread. I'm wondering. I'm waiting for an offer for a new MediaArriay ZX from my avid reseller. I could also buy a used Lanshare from them which is cheaper but they told me avid will not sell the mediarray software and dongle seperately. I guess this is true.

As I have never owned a mediarray. What is the difference in software and dongle between a Lanshare EX and mediarray ZX?

But I thought of another option. I could also choose to buy the used lanshare EX and have two lanshares in one network using different ip's. In the connection manager on the clients I will choose the lanshare to connect too. But is this possible? Can the asante switch handle this? Can I expect conflicts? User settings etc...? And last but not least is this supported by Avid?

Mediarray ZX chasis is just a a bunch of drives used in LANShare or Unity. LANShare will include File Manager, various other server apps and the license to actually make it to behave as SAN. Depending on your model and configuration you can add one mediarray to expand your LANShare storage.

2 LANShares? It is possible but I am not sure if Avid supports it officially. What you describe is exactly how you do it. 2 IPs on the same switch

 Thanks Dom,

I don't completely understand. As you write it I understand that with my Lanshare I already have all the software needed to make a mediarray from a lanshare EX. But I think I understand you wrong. 

 

 

You need to have a dongle that is blessed for LANShare.

Theoretically you can convert it. You have to make sure that the box has enough RAM (1GB vs 3GB), CPU (1 vs 2 proc) and FC card (3321  vs 3300).

jveekeres:

As I have never owned a mediarray. What is the difference in software and dongle between a Lanshare EX and mediarray ZX?

As said earlier MediArrays are simply chasis w/ drives and OS. Don't know the difference of LP/EX Lanshare, but we had some experience of configuring LanshareLP on MediArray LP chasis, though don't think Avid supports that. You should give it a try and buy simply MediArray trying to install and use your old Lanshare dongle. In case of failure order the used one or if the Lanshare supports, upgrade your Lanshare w/ that chasis. (You simply need to look in the specs for hardware and manage out the difference Lanshare/MediArray chasis that can be modified ,))

jveekeres:

In the connection manager on the clients I will choose the lanshare to connect too. But is this possible? Can the asante switch handle this? Can I expect conflicts? User settings etc...?

As for me there shouldn't be any problems of having two Lanshares w/ different IPs on same switch and configuring workstations to use 'em separately. Unfortunately I can't remember if Asante have 2 1Gbit ports. And if it has, then it's surely OK for it to handle the Lanshares traffic.

Just to confirm. I want to change a Lanshare into a mediarray not the other way around. So enough memory it already has. Enough CPU it already has. FC card has to be changed. (why actually?) It needs a mediarray dongle and the software I already have....., correct?

There is no such thing as "mediarray dongle".
You already have all you need for this conversion.

 Thx Andrei.

And with that answer I'll go back to my reseller and ask them why they/avid will not sell me this lanshare ex unit as a mediarray. I'll let you all know.