Workspaces

Workspaces are only needed when your shared storage is not a NAS or macFUSE volume like LucidLink 1.0 & 2.0.

Mimiq's Workspaces feature allows you to use non-NAS-type storage with Media Composer. It lets you remount any folder in a Media Composer-compatible way, akin to how NEXIS makes folders on shared storage available. This allows you to use any type of storage for bin locking. This is particularly useful for utilizing non-NAS storage like RAID, SAN (e.g., Quantum StorNext), and local folders as independent NEXIS shares.

Installation

Using Mimiq for Windows? No need to install anything additional – skip to #add-a-workspace.

When you attempt to add your first Workspace, Mimiq performs a Preflight Check to confirm macFUSE is installed and loaded on your Mac. If not, Mimiq will prompt you to install macFUSE.

macFUSE

macFUSE is a macOS kernel extension used to create virtual filesystems. It's built and maintained by Benjamin Fleischer (https://osxfuse.github.io). Mimiq automatically downloads the installer for the latest macFUSE release that is confirmed to be compatible with Workspaces.

If you are on older machines, like Intel Macs, you might need to download an older version of macFUSE at https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/releases.

If your Mac is managed through MDM, stop now and contact your System Administrator. The following steps below will not apply when using MDM.

Apple Silicon and Reduced Security

On Apple silicon, you'll first need to set your Mac's security policy to "Reduced Security" to be able to load signed kernel extensions. If you're on Intel, you can skip to Install macFUSE.

Apple's use of "Reduced Security" language is misleading. With it, your Mac's security is on par with the level of security you've come to expect with previous versions of macOS.

  1. Shut down your Apple silicon Mac.

  2. Press and hold down the power button until your Mac boots. Your Mac will either send you directly into macOS' Recovery environment, or you'll see an Options button leading to that.

  3. Log in with your user account and select the disk you want to use.

  4. In the menu bar, go to Utilities, then select Startup Security Utility.

  1. Click Security Policy...

  1. Select Reduced Security, then enable: Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers .

  1. Click OK.

  2. In the menu bar, select Shut Down.

  3. Turn your Mac back on (press but don't hold the power button this time), then log in.

Install macFUSE

  1. Click + Add Workspace. If Mimiq can't detect macFUSE on your Mac, Mimiq prompts you to install macFUSE first.

  1. Click Install. Mimiq downloads a DMG with the macFUSE installer, then opens it for you.

  2. In the mounted macFUSE DMG window, double-click Install macFUSE, then follow the prompts to complete installation.

Right before you complete macFUSE installation, a System Extension Blocked or System Extension Updated dialog will appear. Now you'll need to approve macFUSE to load in macOS.

Approving macFUSE in macOS

Confirm which version of macOS you're using with Mimiq, then follow these steps to approve macFUSE to load in macOS:

  1. In the System Extension Blocked or System Extension Updated dialog, click Open System Settings.

    • If you clicked OK instead, click Open Security & Privacy System Preferences in the installer.

  2. System Settings will launch, taking you to Privacy & Security > Security.

  3. Under the System software from developer "Benjamin Fleischer"… prompt, click Allow.

  4. Two Privacy & Security dialogs will appear:

    1. In the first Privacy & Security dialog (Privacy & Security is trying to modify your system settings.), enter the password from a local macOS Administrator account, then click Modify Settings.

    2. In the second Privacy & Security dialog (Privacy & Security needs to authenticate to continue.), enter your macOS account’s password, then click OK.

  5. Restart your Mac. It may restart multiple times.

Once macFUSE is installed, you're ready to add your first Workspace. ✅

Still no success?

Try loading the kernel extension manually in Terminal:

sudo /usr/bin/kmutil load -p /Library/Filesystems/macfuse.fs/Contents/Extensions/11/macfuse.kext

If that returns an error like system policy prevents loading and/or doesn't load macFUSE, your computer is very likely under IT management policies that prevent kernel extensions to load. Talk to your IT department first, they'll know what to do.

Adding a Workspace

  1. Click the Mimiq icon in the menu bar (macOS) or System Tray (Windows), then + Add Workspace.

  1. Select a folder to create a Workspace, then click Select (macOS) or Select Folder (Windows).

  2. Your Workspace will appear in Mimiq with a green 🟢 status, then mount in Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows).

You can access your Workspace through Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows) or double-click a Workspace listed in Mimiq to open it in a new window.

To use a Workspace with Media Composer, follow the steps in Mimiq's Getting Started article, starting with Step 4 - Launch Media Composer.

Limitations

macOS

As Workspaces on macOS rely on FUSE as an intermediate, there's a limitation to how many Workspaces can be used simultaneously. Our tests have shown a maximum of 8 Workspaces is practical. However, as this number is dependent on your hardware and system load, it's possible to increase or decrease this amount.

  1. In Terminal.app, tell Mimiq the maximum number of Workspaces you wish to create.

Override the Workspaces limit

defaults write video.hedge.Mimiq.Mac workspacelimit -int [amount]

Reset the Workspaces limit to 8

defaults delete video.hedge.Mimiq.Mac workspacelimit

  1. Commit the setting in Mimiq.

    • If Mimiq has already launched (i.e. in the menu bar):

      1. Quit Mimiq

      2. Relaunch Mimiq.

    • If Mimiq hasn't launched yet, launch Mimiq.

You can use this command to check the current Workspaces limit:

defaults read video.hedge.Mimiq.Mac workspacelimit

Besides the amount of Workspaces, there are no known limitations.

Windows

On Windows, Workspaces utilize available drive letters for mounting. Due to the limited number of drive letters in Windows, there's a constraint on how many Workspaces can be mounted simultaneously.

By default, Mimiq attempts to mount the first Workspace using the drive letter M:. Subsequent Workspaces are assigned the next available letters in alphabetical order.

If M: is already in use on your system, you can modify the starting drive letter. This can be useful if you want to reserve certain drive letters for other purposes or if you prefer a different range of letters for your Workspace(s).

  1. In PowerShell, define a different starting drive letter.

Change the starting drive letter 

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Mimiq" -Name "WorkspaceStartDriveLetter" -Value "[DRIVELETTER]" -PropertyType STRING -Force

Reset the starting drive letter back to the default M:

Remove-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Mimiq" -Name "WorkspaceStartDriveLetter"

  1. Load the changed setting in Mimiq.

  • If Mimiq has already launched (i.e. in the menu bar):

    1. Quit Mimiq

    2. Relaunch Mimiq.

  • If Mimiq hasn't launched yet, launch Mimiq.

Disabling a Workspace

Click the Mimiq icon in the menu bar (macOS) or System Tray (Windows), mouse over the Workspace you wish to disable, then click (⋯) > Disable.

Your Workspace will appear in Mimiq with a grey ⚪️ status.

Disabling a Workspace renders it temporarily unavailable to Media Composer without removing it. You may want to disable a Workspace to simplify media management by reducing the number of volumes Media Composer can read from / write to.

Removing a Workspace

Click the Mimiq icon in the menu bar (macOS) or System Tray (Windows), mouse over the Workspace you wish to remove, then click (⋯) > Remove Workspace.

Once you remove a Workspace, it's ejected from your computer and no longer available in Media Composer until you add it again.

Questions

What happens if I add/remove/disable a Workspace while Media Composer is open?

Media Composer cannot cope with volumes mounting/ejecting (or connecting/disconnecting) while it’s open.

If you need to add/remove/disable a Workspace, quit/exit Media Composer first.

Why does Mimiq say my Workspace is Unreachable?

Either your shared storage is unavailable (e.g. disconnected from the network, powered off), or someone renamed the source folder you selected.

Take the appropriate action to make that source folder available again, then quit-then-relaunch Mimiq.

If Mimiq still says the Workspace is Unreachable, you may have to remove the Workspace and then re-add it.

My SAN is mounted, so why does Mimiq say, No lockable volumes found?

Unlike other eligible volumes, Mimiq will not show the mount point of your SAN share as a lockable volume.

As long as you have read and write permissions to that share, once you add a folder from your SAN as a Workspace, Mimiq will activate Bin Locking on that folder.

Do Workspaces support permission management like AD?

No. Due to how macOS and macFUSE work together, Workspaces cannot carry over permission management from implementations like Active Directory. If you have assets in already AD-managed folders that you need to expose to Media Composer, create a new share on your SAN and run a chmod 777 Terminal command on its contents. From there on, don't create new folders on the Workspace manually but only through Media Composer.

Can I create Workspaces on one computer, then share those same Workspaces with other Mimiq users?

Yes. Mimiq saves paths to Workspaces in a JSON file:

~/Library/Application Support/Mimiq/Workspaces/MimiqWorkspaces.json

You could even sync this JSON file among your local and remote team members using something like Resilio Sync, as long as you sync it among Mimiq users with a matching operating system.

I followed all the steps to install and approve macFUSE to load in macOS, but macOS keeps telling me System Extension Blocked. What can I do?

If your Mac is managed through MDM, stop now and contact your System Administrator.

Starting in macOS Big Sur, the local kernel extension (i.e. kext) database in macOS may not retain your decisions on approving third-party system or kernel extensions to load in macOS. If macOS doesn't load macFUSE despite multiple approvals from you, you can safely reset macOS' kext database, which revokes approval for all third-party kexts installed on your system volume.

Once you reset the local kext database, you can log back into macOS and approve any/all system or kernel extensions installed on your Mac.

  1. Save any open work, then power down your Mac.

  2. Once your Mac is fully powered down, power up your Mac again in Recovery mode.

  3. Choose your system volume, log in with a macOS Administrator account, then launch Terminal.

  4. Use this command to reset your Mac's Kernel Extension database:

    1. kmutil trigger-panic-medic --volume-root /Volumes/(SYSTEM VOLUME)

      • If your system volume has a space in its name (e.g. Macintosh HD), enclose the volume name in quotation marks (e.g. "/Volumes/Macintosh HD").

    2. Press the (Return) key.

      • If you entered this command correctly, you'll see this response, All third party kexts have been unapproved and uninstalled from /Volumes/(SYSTEM VOLUME).

  5. Restart your Mac.

Once you log into macOS, you'll likely be greeted with multiple dialog boxes saying...

  • System Extension Updated

  • System Extension Blocked

...along with confirmation that you triggered the Panic Medic Boot.

You've successfully reset your local kext database in macOS.

Now you can approve macFUSE, and any other existing system or kernel extensions, to load in macOS.

Why are drive labels not displayed in File Explorer for some Workspaces?

This only concerns Windows users.

When you create a Workspace from a local drive, and that drive already has a label in File Explorer, the label of the parent drive takes precedence over the Workspace label assigned by Mimiq. In other words, File Explorer will display the existing label of the parent local drive instead of the Workspace label.

To make the Workspace's label visible in File Explorer, you can remove the label for the parent drive.

Local Drives

To display the Workspace label assigned through Mimiq, follow these steps to remove the label from the parent drive:

  1. In File Explorer, create a new window, then locate the parent drive.

  2. Right-click on the parent drive and select Properties.

  3. In the Properties window, locate the General tab.

  4. In the Label field, delete the existing label text.

  5. Click Apply and then OK to save the changes.

LucidLink Filespaces

For a LucidLink Filespace, use PowerShell to remove the drive label:

  1. Open PowerShell.

  2. Run the following command:

    lucid config --set --local --FileSystem.MountPointWindowsLabel ""

  3. Remount the Filespace.

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