General best practices for using Productions on shared storage

Understand Adobe Premiere Productions' shared storage guidelines, including NAS connections, cross-platform paths, cache rules, and required network speeds.

Here are the key best practices for using shared storage with Premiere Productions:

• Network Attached Storage (NAS) Connections: NAS systems provide multiple connection protocols. Always prefer SMB over AFP or NFS for connecting to shared storage.
• Path Translation in Premiere: Premiere manages path differences between macOS and Windows. For best results:
  • On macOS, ensure the same volume name is used across all systems.
  • On Windows, map the share to the same drive letter on all systems.
• Proprietary shared storage systems: Systems using proprietary file systems or client applications can work with Productions if they update the file system in a manner Premiere recognizes. Verify support with the storage provider.
• Scratch disks: It is safe to place scratch disks (Auto Save, Preview Files, and so on) on shared storage. Production's default setting is to use scratch disks beside the Production folder; this location can be adjusted in Production settings.
• Media cache files and database: Keep Media Cache Files and Media Cache Database in their default location on the system boot drive or on a separate, fast, directly attached SSD per workstation. Adobe does not recommend or support placing them on shared storage.
• Connection speed requirements: Faster connections improve performance, like traditional hard drives.
  • Minimum: 1Gbps per workstation for Productions.
  • Recommended: 10Gbps or faster for greater than HD frame sizes, larger Productions, or multiple simultaneous users. Scale storage and network speed with the number of concurrent users.
• Consumer file syncing services: Storing a Production in services like Dropbox or Google Drive is safe but not recommended for simulating shared storage. Production collaboration isn't designed for these services.