New Safe Way to Expand Storage

[spike5884]

Just came across this article:
Drobo: Your Own Personal Data Robot

Talks about a new piece of hardware that can add storage space with data redundancy via USB to your PC. Doesn't use RAID, but its "own disk and storage virtualization algorithms".

[UFGrayMatter]

there is a cool video on drobo's site (www.drobo.com) that shows it in action

[stanger89]

Somehow, "USB" and "redundancy" don't seem to go together.

[KJake]

Seems to have the same redundancy overhead as RAID5, but doesn't use RAID? Pretty weird.

[mattdcknsn]

It looks like it is using a block level backup function to backup the data. Its difficult to figure out what it uses though.

[lotusvball]

No ethernet connection and only version 1. I will wait till version 2, but it does look interesting.

[teknubic]

Agreed. They need to add GigE to sell me.

And I still don't know what to do with all my old PATA drives....

[stanger89]

Looks like basically an unRAID but without the PC. Wonder what happens to this thing if the PC dies. Looks like it doesn't have much of anything for brains in it.

I really don't like this claim:

Now you can keep all your data close at hand because in addition to being always available, it’s also inherently “backed-up” on the Drobo and protected against drive failure or disk corruption.

RAID is NOT backup, neither is un-RAID.

Um...

Why does my computer show I have 2 Terabytes of space?

Drobo “tricks” your computer’s operating system by formatting itself as a 2TB drive so that you can add storage in the future without needing to format it and so the added storage is immediately available.

Huh?

Why does Drobo seem extremely slow when it’s almost full?

Instead of refusing to copy files when it’s capacity is almost full (over 95%), Drobo instead enters “slow down” mode to alert you to check the blue
capacity meter. If all ten blue lights are lit, it’s time to add capacity.

I'd spend the extra $100 and get a real NAS:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822329023

[jhkoenig]

A possible danger: Drobo will report 2GB usable space to Windows (and Sage) regardless of how little is actually on line. Sage will blissfully save shows to this volume until *crash* you run out of "real" space. That's how they support adding disk capacity transparently.

[paulbeers]

Its an interesting concept, but plagued with problems as stated with the odd decision to make it look like it has 2 TB of space but really only the true capacity of your hard drives.

[mikejaner]

Its an interesting concept, but plagued with problems as stated with the odd decision to make it look like it has 2 TB of space but really only the true capacity of your hard drives.

This can be compensated for if all you write to this drive is tv recorded by SageTV. You can tell Sage to limit it's recordings to a certain amount of Gigs on a hard drive. If you expand the Drobo down the road, just go in and tell Sage what the new size limit is. This is only a problem if you are writing to the drive from other sources, which would then defeat the limit Sage has set for itself.

[_matt_]

I disagree with the idea that getting a NAS with RAID would be better. This seems like a great solution for a SageTV setup. While the lingo on their site is a little extreme the idea of being able to replace a small drive with a larger drive one at a time and not having to replace the entire set is great. Not having to find a place big enough to hold your recordings while you rebuild the array seems pretty sweet too. finally, I do agree that network connectivity would be great, but I wouldn't use it. With 2 HD Homeruns and up to 3 clients going at the same time my network is under enough stress.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by _matt_

I disagree with the idea that getting a NAS with RAID would be better. This seems like a great solution for a SageTV setup. While the lingo on their site is a little extreme the idea of being able to replace a small drive with a larger drive one at a time and not having to replace the entire set is great.

Un-RAID can do that.

Not having to find a place big enough to hold your recordings while you rebuild the array seems pretty sweet too.

With modern RAID controllers (with OCE and RLM), you don't need to take the array offline (ie find a place for things) to rebuild it.

finally, I do agree that network connectivity would be great, but I wouldn't use it. With 2 HD Homeruns and up to 3 clients going at the same time my network is under enough stress.

One question I've always wondered about though, those who like the ability to replace drives, what do you do with the old ones? Throw them away? Leave them sit?

I mean I've got a 8x250 RAID-5 array (on a not so modern controller), sure it would be nice to have an 8x500, or 8x750GB array, but when I look at swapping out the drives, I come to the inescapable conclusion, that I'd be "losing" 1.75TB of space doing that. Seems better to just build a new array, or add a new NAS.

[_matt_]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Un-RAID can do that.

Thats a good point. Un-RAID can do everything Drobo can as far as I can tell other than of course the difference in how they interface with your setup (USB compared to Ethernet). It does seem pretty convenient to have it come in a little box for $500 rather than buying a server case so you can hot-swap drives. I would also imagine power consumption to be lower on the Drobo can't back that up though.

Originally Posted by stanger89

With modern RAID controllers (with OCE and RLM), you don't need to take the array offline (ie find a place for things) to rebuild it.

That is really cool. I just checked and the 3ware card in my RAID 5 array supports both Online Capacity Expansion and RAID Level Migration. I'm excited about that.

Originally Posted by stanger89

One question I've always wondered about though, those who like the ability to replace drives, what do you do with the old ones? Throw them away? Leave them sit?

Well, I add them to my various desktops or put them in the computers I build for family and friends. In the future I'm thinking it would be cool to add them to a software RAID 5 array as part of cheap SageTV server for a wedding gift. Adding more and more server sized and power consuming computers to just sit in my basement is not appealing to me. One server that does everything - easy to administer and easy to hide.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by _matt_

Thats a good point. Un-RAID can do everything Drobo can as far as I can tell other than of course the difference in how they interface with your setup (USB compared to Ethernet). It does seem pretty convenient to have it come in a little box for $500 rather than buying a server case so you can hot-swap drives. I would also imagine power consumption to be lower on the Drobo can't back that up though.

It's also smaller, fewer drives.

Well, I add them to my various desktops or put them in the computers I build for family and friends. In the future I'm thinking it would be cool to add them to a software RAID 5 array as part of cheap SageTV server for a wedding gift. Adding more and more server sized and power consuming computers to just sit in my basement is not appealing to me. One server that does everything - easy to administer and easy to hide.

I was just asking, I don't have an answer. I just struggled with that problem when I filled up my 1.75TB RAID-5 array in my server. I pondered external RAID enclosures, new case with more drives, ended up with a ReadyNAS, and for the moment, I guess the plan is to just keep adding them. They cost about as much as a good RAID card, and are completely self contained.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by stanger89

One question I've always wondered about though, those who like the ability to replace drives, what do you do with the old ones?

You could donate them to your local school district or community college. I'm sure they could find a use for them.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by _matt_

In the future I'm thinking it would be cool to add them to a software RAID 5 array as part of cheap SageTV server for a wedding gift.

My wife calls our SageTV system Saga.. Presumably for all the time I futz with it. Make sure you get the bride's permission first.

[_matt_]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

My wife calls our SageTV system Saga.. Presumably for all the time I futz with it. Make sure you get the bride's permission first.

Ha. Yeah, hadn't thought of that. Perhaps it's not the perfect wedding gift ... maybe I would need to give it to a couple that isn't technical so that they just use it and don't 'futz with it'.