New release of the Drobo Dashboard

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Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #1 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

http://www.drobo.com/support/updates.php

A lot better especially for the Drobo Gen 2 users.

Sep 15, 2012 at 07:56 AM

sjms
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p.1 #2 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

that was 2 updates in a week 2.2.2 and now 2.2.3

Sep 15, 2012 at 11:28 PM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #3 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

Yes only a few days between those two

Sep 16, 2012 at 06:28 AM

heed
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p.1 #4 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

Can one of you Drobo guys please tell me why you favor them over another NAS or a dedicated barebones server? They seem so much more expensive than the competition.

Oct 01, 2012 at 10:08 AM

sjms
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p.1 #5 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

simplicity

i put it on the table
i plug it into my computer
i plug it into power
i slide in my drives. it does its thing
i use it
i increase my capacity when needed. easy out easy in. just let it do its thing
i continue to use it

no real controls except for the simple "dashboard". no tweaking. no real options. unsettling for some i know, calming for others.

last year it warned me about 1 drive going bad (going out of operational tolerances). hot swapped it out in mid work. continued work as it rebuilt itself. didn't give it another thought. drive went back under warranty and has been replaced.

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Oct 01, 2012 at 12:14 PM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #6 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

Today I bought a couple of 3 TB drives. I just pull out my old drives and insert the new ones. It took about 10 seconds. And I can still use the files in my Drobo when doing it. And also after when it rebuild the drives for my new data protection

Oct 01, 2012 at 05:19 PM

Scott Stoness
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p.1 #7 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

I have drobo and agree with what is said above in favor of drobo. I like my drobo, however:
1) It is a proprietary raid. If the drobo box fails you will not be able to recover the data except (if you lucky) by putting it in another drobo.
2) it is querky in that it asks you for maximum size and if you choose max that matches your size you will have to reformat to go above that size when it is full. However, if you choose the maximum size based on the largest disks you could put in, and use backup software, the back up software will keep adding because it thinks there is more space when thier is not and then you will have to add a bigger drive.
3) when you start dealing with very large disks its really really slow - all equivelent will be too- however on a couple of occassions it failed totally when I put in a new drive. But then worked again the next time. So don't go changing disks if it is your only copy.
4) when it is close to full it will really slow down your computer as it trys to cope.

I am thinking of buying a bigger drobo, so obviously I like it but make sure you are aware of what you signing up for.

Scott

Oct 11, 2012 at 03:28 AM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #8 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

@ Scott,

1. You need backup just like you need backup with everything else you would use instead of the Drobo. And Data Robotics also tell you this on their website and manual.

2. Just use the maximum size and you will never have to change it. The backup software don't add or backup anything that you don't tell it to backup. And if you backup from your computer, I can't really see that it would have more space than a Drobo with many hard-drives.

3. It's only slow if you buy a slow Drobo with slow connections. If you use one of the faster Drobo's and faster connections like e-Sata, Thunderbolt, USB 3 it's not slow.

4. None of my 3 Drob's have slowed down my computer. And I will change to a larger drive when it's close to full of course.

Just follow the few and simple recommendations in the manual or website and it will work great

Oct 11, 2012 at 05:18 AM

Scott Stoness
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p.1 #9 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

Lars Johnsson wrote
@ Scott,

2. I have 12tb (4x3) on my computer and a 4 drobo box with 2x4tb and 2x3tB. The drobo will only back up about 10tb in its current configuation so this means that I a have just enough. And the size of drives keeps just keeping up with my needs. Soon I will have 4x4tb in my computer, and if 8tb drives comes out I will get them. Obviously I need a bigger drobo but 2 years ago it was big enough. This is driven by hdr and larger and larger raws. And when I get busy I would rather take photos and prune files.

3. Sorry I was not clear, drobo is fast to access data and pretty good to copy data to. However, I put in a 4tb drive last saturday to replace a 3tb drive, and it is still working on being redundant on thursday. In the mean time, there is no redundancy in the unit. So when you get big drives expect a week or more for to respond to a new drive. This will not be affected by the type of connection since it is a function of the raid copying back and forth between disks. I expect a mirrored raid would be bigger but faster.

4. You obviously have not been close to full. The problem I had recently, is that there were no 4tb drives availalbe in town when my drobo became full at 2tb (and I did not want to buy 3tb and then replace it in 2 months with a 4tb). So then if fillled and then the computer and it spent lots of time trying to fill the last 15% of the drobo and it slowed down the computer to the point I turned off the drobo, until I could find a 4tb drive.

So again, I am not saying that drobo is not a good product, I am just saying buy a drobo much bigger than what you think you need (more bays are more important than the connection for me for backup) and don't be surprised by the above.

Oct 11, 2012 at 01:00 PM

sjms
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p.1 #10 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

yes you do need a bigger drobo. that is obvious if you are filling drives at this rate.

Oct 11, 2012 at 01:32 PM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #11 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

Of course you need a Drobo that has more capacity than your computer. Especially when you need it to backup your computer

And to be a bit fair against Data Robotics and Drobo. You own the smallest and slowest of all the different Dobo's they are selling.

I replaced two of my 2TB drives with two 3TB drives in my Drobo S less than two weeks ago. It took about ten hours for both drives to be ready with all data. When doing it I still hade single disk redundancy in my Drobo. After those ten hours I was back to dual disk redundancy. And when doing this I could still work and PP my photo files in the Drobo without any problem

Oct 11, 2012 at 04:41 PM

mb_320l
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p.1 #12 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

How do you update the firmware. I'm asking because I started the Dashboard and it didn't ask me to update anything.

Thanks

Oct 11, 2012 at 04:42 PM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #13 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

You can always download the latest firmware and do a manual install.

http://www.drobo.com/support/updates.php

Oct 11, 2012 at 07:00 PM

mb_320l
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p.1 #14 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

Cheers, Lars.

Oct 11, 2012 at 07:30 PM

Alan321
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p.1 #15 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

heed wrote:
Can one of you Drobo guys please tell me why you favor them over another NAS or a dedicated barebones server? They seem so much more expensive than the competition.

NAS is slow - unless you have a 10 Gb/s system. A 1 Gb/s system would probably max out at way under 100 MB/s which is less than a single HDD is capable of. USB 3 could be several times faster.

A dedicated server is a whole new computer and OS and software to maintain and keep going.

The Drobo is convenient and more portable.

I have resisted Drobos because of the cost and the speed limitations. For me speed is a priority. Now that my laptop computer has the capability of Thunderbolt and, via the thunderbolt, eSATA or USB 3, I will check out the latest Drobos to see what they offer. I was getting keen a while ago but the price of HDDs skyrocketed and put me off. That and a bunch of computer problems.

I have read that data recovery from failed Drobos is nearly impossible and yet the failures are common - but perhaps that is because there are so many Drobos out there. I had an HDD go bad on me last year and was trying several data recovery programs but nothing came even remotely close to being useful. Luckily I have many backups and lost very little data.

- Alan

Oct 14, 2012 at 01:58 PM

Hulot
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p.1 #16 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

Alan321 wrote:

I have read that data recovery from failed Drobos is nearly impossible and yet the failures are common - but perhaps that is because there are so many Drobos out there. I had an HDD go bad on me last year and was trying several data recovery programs but nothing came even remotely close to being useful. Luckily I have many backups and lost very little data.

- Alan

A system failure of a Drobo is a disaster if the Data is not available on another back up. I didnt fully understand this when I bought it, today I wouldnt buy another

Oct 14, 2012 at 10:19 PM

sjms
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p.1 #17 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

i guess providence is with me. over 6 years using the system with multiple upgrades of discs and 2 changovers in devices and not a loss yet. but as we all know redundancy is key

Oct 14, 2012 at 11:51 PM

Chris Noyes
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p.1 #18 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

My Drobos S suffered from a power supply failure . . . 1-month out of warranty. After paying $$$ to extend warranty coverage, I was sent a new unit and simply had to swap the disk drives and all was well again. I do have another, redundant NAS drive, so no concern for data loss, but my perception of Drobo took a significant hit and I will look elsewhere when storage capacity expansion becomes necessary.

Oct 15, 2012 at 12:33 AM

sjms
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p.1 #19 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

and if and when it has an issue will you also search yet another alternative?

there is no perfect system.

Oct 15, 2012 at 01:01 AM

Chris Noyes
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p.1 #20 · New release of the Drobo Dashboard

My issue with the Drobo relates to their customer service/technical support and the fact that failure occurred within a month of the standard warranty expiration. I'm further annoyed by the fact that I could have extended the warranty coverage for a fraction of the cost paid for extending the warranty after the initial 12-month period lapsed.

I've had a few durable goods fail shortly after their initial warranty period expired, but I've always been notified I could extend my warranty before the initial one expires.

In any event, I tend to lose trust in products that fail shortly after their warranty expires . . .

Oct 16, 2012 at 03:09 AM

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