Working Paths are the folders used by the Blackmagic / Megarip / Veripress Server to store and process jobs. There are four paths:-
Raster – holds all the imaged and rendered previews, jobs and print files while they are live in the system.
Spool – the folder to which jobs are spooled prior to processing.
Temp – the folder to where the jobs are moved after spooling ready to be worked on.
Drop – the default location for asset and drop folders
Users wishing to improve the performance of Blackmagic / Megarip / Veripress installations should consider utilising a Solid State Drive (SSD) for Working Paths.
It is often the case that the Server is able to image and render jobs faster than they are able to be written to disk. For workflows submitting great numbers of jobs or large files, an SSD improves overall performance by removing hard disk speed as a limiting factor in processing times.
IMPORTANT NOTE – while most SSDs have very fast Read speeds of around 500+MB/sec, cheaper drives have significantly slower Write speeds of around 100-200MB/sec. In order to best make use of an SSD, it is advisable to install one that has sequential Read AND Write speeds of 500+MB/sec.
To configure an SSD for Working Paths:-
1. Install and format an SSD in the computer on which the Blackmagic / Megarip / Veripress Server is running.
2. Create four separate directories on the drive for each of the working paths, for example:-
/Serendipity/raster
/Serendipity/spool
/Serendipity/tmp
/Serendipity/drop
2. Start up the Serendipity Server and Client. Then go to Server Menu > Server Settings > Working Paths.
3. Click on each of the Raster, Spool, Temp and Drop buttons. Use the pop-up chooser to navigate to and select the desired folder on the solid state drive. Take note of the Warning Message and click Yes to proceed.
4. Click OK to exit Server Settings. A message stating a Server Restart is required to implement the Working Path changes will appear.
5. Shut down, then Restart the Server and Client.
6. Check Server menu > Server Settings > Working Paths to check the new working paths on the SSD have been applied.