Library inside media folder?

If you're using external media with a new library, and you set a folder to store your media in library properties, including camera imported media that gets copied into the folder, is there any reason not to keep the library inside the same folder? I usually keep the library at the root level simply because they're easier to access that way. Any else keep the library with the media?

I keep my Libraries separated, on the root level of the drive. When I'm working off a SAN the Library is on the client workstation and never on the server.

- Ronny

Thanks Ronny. A few versions ago FCP wouldn't let you keep the library on the server, only on a local drive, but I think that's changed. The root level makes more sense to me anyway.

That's correct, Tom. You can put your Libraries on the server, but when you work on a SAN the constant writing to the database can have a huge impact on the SAN's performance. SAN's are not optimized for handling huge amounts of small data files, quite the opposite. That's why we create the master Library on the SAN and we work off a copy of this Library on the external drive or the system drive of the workstation. This eliminates the database traffic from and to the SAN so the server only needs to handle the media streams.

- Ronny

Thanks again. So if using local drives maybe the library should be on a separate drive. Or we're working our way back to the legacy procedure of library on the system drive and media and cache on the the external.

Some clarification needed from the hobbyist corner. "library on the system drive and media and cache on the the external."
Is this something you would recommend, then use simlinks to the media on external drive. I have my Library on a external Thunderbolt2 SSD RAID 0 and all my media is copied to the library, is that maybe not the best solution ? I have nMP 6 core.

Grateful for clarification
Makki

I've never recommended project files on the system drive in legacy FCP. Larry Jordan started that, and when I asked him about it years ago, he said he did that so newbies wouldn't get confused with putting two different folders of content on the media drive, but that he personally (and almost every editor I worked with back then) put it all on the secondary media drive (which can be internal on a legacy Mac Pro).

Libraries contain render files, analysis files, etc. I'd never put them on the system drive. With render files, that defeats the purpose of freeing up data buss bandwidth.

Libraries and external/hybrid media should preferably be on a secondary drive, for better performance.

Render files are in cache. If cache isn't in the library you're not playing any media from inside the library.

One of the primary disadvantages of having media inside the library is that no other application can have access to it. Also libraries can get humongously large.

Btw putting the project in the system drive predates Larry Jordan, the trainer's involvement in FCP, and goes back to the time of Larry Jordan, the producer who founded 2-pop, and Ralph, the original QA at FCP1.

They should all still be on a secondary drive.

I like how flexible the FCPX media management structure has gotten, but it has also gotten pretty confusing. There needs to be a media management window we can pull up that lists what is where. Love the power and flexibility, not so sure about the convolution of it. Is now the single more confusing thing to teach in a class. Then there's hard links...