Jellyfish Product Manuals

OWC Jellyfish Mobile User Guide

Published on October 15, 2022

Table of Contents

  1. Unboxing Your Jellyfish Mobile
    1. Welcome Card
    2. Power Cable
    3. Jellyfish Mobile
  2. How To Install Drives
  3. How to Connect a SAS Cable if Using an Expansion Bay
  4. Powering Your OWC Jellyfish On/Off
    1. Powering Your Jellyfish On
    2. Powering Down Your Jellyfish
  5. Ports and Cabling Overview
    1. Service Port
    2. USB-A Ports
    3. IPMI Port
    4. RJ-45 Ports 1&2
    5. VGA Port
    6. Power Supply Outlet and Power Switch
  6. How to Install and Set Up Jellyfish Connect
    1. Installation
    2. Setup
    3. Creating Groups
    4. Creating New Users
  7. Optional Setup Steps
    1. Connecting Your Jellyfish to the Internet
    2. Activating Your Integrations
    3. Kyno for Jellyfish
    4. Media Engine
    5. Transferring Media to Your Jellyfish
    6. Cabling for Non-Admin Users
  8. OWC Jellyfish and Adapters

Unboxing Your OWC Jellyfish Mobile

Congratulations on the purchase of your OWC Jellyfish Mobile! Everything you need will come shipped to you with the following items in the box:

Welcome card. You’ll want to hang on to this handy resource. It contains important information, like quick links to our setup and support websites, and the serial number for your unit.

Power cable. This will plug into the back of the unit. We recommend connecting to an uninterrupted power supply (UPS).

OWC Jellyfish Mobile. Unlike other OWC Jellyfish models, the body of the OWC Jellyfish Mobile unit is shipped with the drives pre-installed.

The side panel is easily removable if you need to access the drives. Please use care when removing the side panel to avoid pulling the attached fan cable.

How to Install Drives

The OWC Jellyfish Mobile drives are pre-installed, but if for some reason you need to access the drives, you can easily pop off the side panel.

How to Connect a SAS Cable if Using an Expansion Bay

If your workflow requires additional storage, you may opt to utilize an expansion bay to add more. In this event, you’ll need to connect your expansion bay directly to the OWC Jellyfish using a SAS cable. After attaching your SAS cable to the expansion, plug it into the HBA port on your OWC Jellyfish.

Note: SAS cables only fit one way. Each HBA port has two parallel slots and the cable’s connection has two parallel cards. Depending on your OWC Jellyfish build, the blue tab on your SAS cable should either face right or face down. You’ll notice a slight groove on the top of the cable and a notch at the top of the HBA port. Match the groove on the end of the cable with the notch on in the top of the HBA port. up the slots with the cards, and if you meet any resistance plugging it in gently, try it upside down. It should plug in very easily. Please do not force these cables.

Above left is a close-up of the port itself, and above right is a close-up of the cable head.

In the event you need to remove the cable, you can do so by pulling on the blue tab to release the connection. Please do not pull on the cable itself.

Powering Your OWC Jellyfish On/Off

Powering Your OWC Jellyfish On

Once you’re all set up, you’ll need to power on your OWC Jellyfish Mobile. Powering your system on is very simple. The OWC Jellyfish Mobile has a power supply switch on the back of the unit that must first be turned on. When you use an Expansion Chassis, always make sure the Expansion Chassis is powered on before you power on your OWC Jellyfish.

The power button for your system is located on the front of your OWC Jellyfish toward the bottom. When it is on, this button will be illuminated with a bright blue.

Powering Down Your OWC Jellyfish

Powering down your OWC Jellyfish is just as simple. Clicking the OWC Jellyfish Mobile’s power button on the lower front of the OWC Jellyfish will initiate shutdown.

Note: If you hold the power button, it will force power off your OWC Jellyfish Mobile, and can cause system corruption. You should always let the OWC Jellyfish run its shutdown process whenever possible.

Ports and Cabling Overview

In this section, we will label the back layout of the OWC Jellyfish Mobile, including a brief description of every port. This will help you determine your cabling needs. Please note that your OWC Jellyfish may differ slightly from the model shown.

1. Serial port.

2. USB-A ports. These cannot be used for connection to workstations or external drives.

3. IPMI Port. This a service port and cannot be used for data access.

4, 5. RJ-45 Ports 1 & 2. These two built-in ports are 10 GbE. We recommend using CAT 6A or CAT 7 cables to ensure the best performance (cables not included).

6. VGA port. This is a display connector for monitoring boot processes.

7. Power Supply Outlet and Power Switch. This outlet will be used to connect your OWC Jellyfish to power. We strongly recommend using a UPS (uninterrupted power supply). The power switch must be in the on position for the OWC Jellyfish to power on.

Note: If you have purchased an expansion unit for your OWC Jellyfish Mobile, you will need to connect them together using your SAS cable in an HBA port. The model above does not show an HBA port. If your OWC Jellyfish Mobile is customized to include one, please refer to page 6 of this manual for detailed information on safe handling of SAS cables and HBA ports.

How to Install and Set Up OWC Jellyfish Connect

Installation

Once your OWC Jellyfish is physically installed and cabled, you’ll need to get started getting your computer to connect via its software. First, you’ll want to download the OWC Jellyfish Connect app.

https://download.owc.com/jellyfish/connect/

Launching the installer for OWC Jellyfish Connect is quick and simple. Read the introductory dialogue and click Continue through each page to acknowledge you’ve read the information. The second page of the installation dialogue has quick support links.

Next, read and acknowledge our software license agreement and click Continue.

After approving where the application will be installed, you’ll be prompted to enter your computer password. Enter these credentials and continue.

After successfully installing, you will be prompted to either keep or delete the installer. If you move it to the Trash, you can always download again from the link on our site if you ever need to do so.

When installation is complete, click on the OWC Jellyfish icon in the top right menu of your screen. This will launch OWC Jellyfish Connect.

Setup

Under the Setup tab Your OWC Jellyfish will appear in the Discovered section. Click on it to begin the configuration process.

A window will load to confirm your settings. Keep in mind that the OWC Jellyfish Connect app is changing some network settings and other configurations on your Mac, so you may be prompted to enter your Mac’s admin password. Click the check mark in the top right corner of the window to auto-connect to the OWC Jellyfish in the future.

Once this is complete, you will have successfully configured the connection to your OWC Jellyfish. Next, you’ll want to mount your shares. To find your shares, click on the Shares tab in the Connect app.

You’ll see that your OWC Jellyfish comes with two pre-configured shares: OWC Jellyfish and J-Cache (These are both SMB shares). Your main media should be stored in OWC Jellyfish, while J-Cache can be used for your render files. Do not store your main media in the J-Cache, as it has no redundancy.

To connect to your shares for the first time, click the toggle button.

When toggled on, it will be blue.

A login window will pop up for you. Be sure “Registered User” is selected, then enter the following default credentials:

Username: smb

Password: smb

Note: we strongly recommend changing the password for the SMB user.

Click the auto button if you’d like to automatically connect to the OWC Jellyfish going forward. For added security, we recommend not using Keychain or Credential Manager. That way access will be authenticated each time you connect.

Now that you’ve connected to the OWC Jellyfish for the first time, you will want to create a username and password for each team member. You can do this in Manager for OWC Jellyfish, which is your Jellyfish admin hub. To get to Manager for OWC Jellyfish, open your Connect app, click on the Resources tab, and click Manager for OWC Jellyfish. You can also access Manager for OWC Jellyfish at any time by navigating to jellyfish/ into your web browser. Additionally, you can access Manager for OWC Jellyfish by entering your port IP address into your web browser.

The main login will pop up and prompt you to enter your Manager for OWC Jellyfish credentials. You may use the following for setup:

Username: main

Password: luma

After your first login, you may want to change the password from the factory setting assigned above. To do so, click on the person icon in the top right corner and select “Change Password.”

Enter the new password you’d like to use, and type it a second time to confirm. Be sure to not lose or forget this password.

When you’ve successfully entered the credentials, your Manager for OWC Jellyfish dashboard will load on your screen.

Make sure to set up your system time on your OWC jellyfish to match our time zone, that way all your files will have the correct time stamps. To do this, click on System Time under the Dashboard menu.

To the right of the Time column, click on the Calendar icon.

This will bring up a calendar where you can change the date and time. You can select manually or click “Now” in the bottom left corner to bring it to the current time on your computer. Click “Ok” when finished.

To change the time zone, click on the drop-down arrow on the far right of the Timezone column.

Click on the appropriate time zone.

When you are satisfied with the time and date settings, click on the white arrow in the top right corner to save your changes.

Now that you’ve set up your date and time, let’s explore Manager for OWC Jellyfish. In the upper right corner, you’ll see several icons. Click on the Users and Groups tab.

This is where you will create new users and passwords. Additionally, you can create groups of users that will share the same level of permissions, which is very useful if you have a lot of people on your team.

Creating Groups

To create a new group, click on the plus sign to the right of the Groups column.

Enter a name for the new group in the Name field. From here, you can add people in multiple ways.

If you’ve already created users, you can use the search box by typing their names. Registered users in your system will begin to populate. You can also just scroll down the Other column and click on users that have already been created to add to your new group. If no users have been created, you can create them within this same window by clicking the plus sign next to the Users icon and registering them. Once you add a user to the group, you can assign permissions to this group by going back to the shares tab and adding the group to your designated share.

Creating New Users

To create a new user, click on the plus sign on the far right in the Users column.

You will be prompted to create a username and password for yourself. Please note that these are case-sensitive.

Before you hit the check mark on the top right of this box, be sure to toggle on the Admin button if you would like this OWC Jellyfish user to be an admin. Admin users will have rights to add new users, create new groups, reset passwords, and create/delete shares.

Toggle on the Media Engine button if you plan on using this tool to grant Media Engine access.

Lastly, if you’re creating a new username and password for someone on your team, you can toggle on Force Password Change. This will prompt the new user to create their own password after connecting to Manager for OWC Jellyfish. Click the checkmark to save your changes.

You can repeat this process for any number of users for your OWC Jellyfish and customize the individual settings based on each person’s needs and access permissions.

After you’ve created a new username and password for yourself and the users on your team, you are ready for the final step: granting access to your share spaces to your users. In the top right list of icons, click on the Shares tab, and you will see your pre-configured shares.

Here, you can grant your own access to the OWC Jellyfish. Click on the OWC Jellyfish share, then click on Edit next to Permissions.

A window will pop open with a list of users that already have access to your share space. To add a new user, click the plus sign on the top right of the Users column. Remember: without granting user permissions to a share, they will not be able to access it.

Alternatively, for setting permissions for users all at once, you can create a group. You can set Read and Write permissions for the group itself.

Click on all the users you want to have access to this share, then click the check mark in the top right corner of the window to add them.

Now assign what kind of access you’d like each user to have: Read, Write, or both. Read gives the user view-only permissions, while Write gives them permission and ability to edit files within this share space. Most users will have both Read and Write permissions.

Once you’ve decided on your users’ settings, you can save these changes by clicking the check mark in the top right corner.

If you work in FCPX, toggle the FCPX button on to ensure share compatibility.

Optional Setup Steps

So far you’ve unboxed your OWC Jellyfish Mobile, plugged in your cables, downloaded and installed your software, and connected your workstations. Next, we will break down a few optional steps you may want to take in setting up your new OWC Jellyfish. In this section, you’ll learn how to connect your OWC Jellyfish to the Internet and acquaint yourself with our many seamless software integrations.

Connecting Your OWC Jellyfish to the Internet

First, connect one of your OWC Jellyfish ports to your switch. OWC Jellyfish ports are always counted from top to bottom and left to right.

Note: depending on your use case, you may want to utilize a 1GbE or 10GbE connection for your network connection. Please note that if you choose a 10GbE port, you will need a switch that is 10GbE compatible in order to achieve 10GbE speeds.

If you will have multiple users connecting simultaneously over LAN, we recommend using at least a 10GbE port. If you are only using it for an Internet connection, 1GbE should be sufficient.

Be sure you are not using the IPMI port of the OWC Jellyfish as this will not provide access to your data.

Once you have connected to the correct port, log into Manager for OWC Jellyfish and go to the Networks page.

Select the port you connected to the switch or router.

Using the drop-down arrow on the right side of the MTU selection, set the MTU to 1500 if you are using a 1GbE connection, or 9000 if you are using a 10GbE connection.

Toggle on DHCP. Check your switch settings to make ensure DHCP is enabled. This may be the default setting.

Click the checkmark in the top right corner to save.

Exit out of this dialogue box by clicking the “x” in the top left corner.

Refresh the page.

The OWC Jellyfish port will now have an automatically assigned IP address.

Here are the recommended network settings for a 10GbE connection on a Mac:

  • Configure manually
  • Speed: 10GBaseT
  • Duplex: full-duplex
  • MTU: 9000
  • Make sure the box is unticked for AVB.

These settings can be found by clicking the Apple logo in the top left of your screen and selecting System Preferences.

From here, select Network. Select your OWC Jellyfish connection in your list of network connections. Next, click Advanced at the bottom right corner of that dialogue box.

Click the Hardware tab on the right side to see your adjustable settings. When you’ve finished any necessary adjustments, click OK to save your changes.

Here are the recommended network settings for a 10GbE connection on a Windows:

  • Jumbo Packet = 9014 Bytes
  • Flow Control = Disabled
  • Interrupt Moderation Rate = Low
  • Interrupt Moderation = Disabled

Activating Your Integrations

There are many integrations you can use with the OWC Jellyfish. These can help maximize the efficiency of your workflow. You will need to input license keys and/or usernames and passwords for these integrations.

To access them, open Manager for OWC Jellyfish and click on the Integrations tab in the upper right corner.

Here you will find a list of services that work with your OWC Jellyfish.

Kyno for OWC Jellyfish

Kyno for OWC Jellyfish is a media management application for macOS and Windows. It provides five main functions: pro video file playback, verified transfers, transcoding, metadata tagging, and locating media by metadata. Many teams find it to be a very helpful tool.

Our support team will supply you with all the necessary information to get set up. You’ll need to enter your email you want to register with, along with the serial number, and client secret. If you haven’t been provided with this information, please reach out to our support team and we will happily provide the necessary credentials.

When you are finished, click the white checkmark in the top right corner to save your changes.

When your credentials are successfully entered and saved, the indicator next to the Kyno for OWC Jellyfish tab will turn blue.

Next, you’ll need to download the app. In OWC Jellyfish Connect, click on the Resources tab, and find the Download button next to Kyno for OWC Jellyfish.

This will automatically download the Kyno for OWC Jellyfish app. You can find it in your Downloads folder. After the installation finishes, you are now ready to begin implementing Kyno’s many useful functions into your team’s workflow!

Once you have entered the license info in Manager for OWC Jellyfish, mount a OWC Jellyfish on your workstation, and then launch Kyno.

Media Engine

Up next, we will set up Media Engine. It is a convenient tool for running transcoding jobs inside the OWC Jellyfish itself.

In order to enable Media Engine, Kyno for OWC Jellyfish must be activated on at least one workstation. After that, any user who’s been granted Media Engine access can click “Launch” to begin or navigate to jellyfish/media/.

Media Engine will only show shares and folders for which a user has been granted permissions. From here, your team can utilize this simple tool to maximize efficiency in your workflow.

Transferring Media to Your OWC Jellyfish

In order to transfer media to your OWC Jellyfish, you need to mount your shares. In OWC Jellyfish Connect, click on the Shares tab.

From there, find the OWC Jellyfish share and click on the toggle button on the right side of it.

You will be prompted to enter your OWC Jellyfish username and password. After entering your credentials, click Connect.

The toggle button will now be blue, and you will see a notification that the OWC Jellyfish share has been mounted successfully. Now you are ready to drag and drop your media so your team can get to work!

Depending on your Finder preferences, the share may appear either on your Desktop or in a Finder window.

Double click the icon and it will be viewable to you just like any folder on your computer. From here, you can drag and drop media, create folders, delete files, and organize in any way you see fit.

Note: If by chance this icon does not appear on your Desktop, you may need to adjust your preferences in Finder. Open Finder, and click on the Finder menu in the top left toolbar on your screen. Select “Preferences” and be sure “Connected servers” is selected. Click the red “X” in the corner to exit and save your changes.

OWC Jellyfish and Adapters

Do I Need an Adapter?

If you have an iMac Pro, the most recent Mac Mini, or a PC with a 10GbE enabled port, you can plug directly into the OWC Jellyfish without having a network adapter and start editing 4K - 8K media without transcoding or going to a proxy workflow.

Here are a few indicators that you may need an adapter:

  • If there is not an ethernet connection to your workstation.
  • If there is a 1GbE connection but you need 10GbE for 4k and up workflows.
  • If more ethernet ports are needed on the workstation than what is provided.


Which Adapter Do I Purchase?

That will be up to you, you can get a 1GbE adapter or a 10 GbE adapter based on your workflow. If you plan to work in 4k and up, you'll want a 10GbE connection from your workstation to the OWC Jellyfish.

10GbE Adapters we recommend:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ADP10GBE/

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3DKPRO/


Adapter Settings & Drivers

The OWC Jellyfish connect app will configure the connection from your workstation to your OWC Jellyfish automatically without you having to configure your adapter, but should you have connection issues, please ensure that you've done the following:


Download adapter drivers:

Depending on where you've purchased your adapter, be sure to download the latest drivers for your adapter from the manufacturer's website.

Ensure your adapter settings are properly set. You can review 10G settings in the links below:

Mac: https://support.lumaforge.com/products/jellyfish/support/macos-10g-network-settings

Windows: https://support.lumaforge.com/products/jellyfish/support/configure-windowsworkstation-manually


OWC Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter

Connect your Thunderbolt 3 equipped Mac or PC to high-performance wired networks delivering up to 10x the performance of Gigabit Ethernet.

Want to know more? Check out our online resources at https://www.lumaforge.com/tutorials and https://jellyfish.support/.