Are drobos worth the money ?

[HighlandeR]

Just wondering if Drobos are worth it, am looking the Drobo pro with 8 sata bay drives.

I do like the fact even if the drives fail your data is never lost, I assume its sort of like norton ghost/acronis and forever imaging your data ?

At almost 1k, is there anything similar or cheaper ?

 

[Dist]

I don't have a drobo myself, but it is my understanding that it just uses RAID to prevent data loss in case of drive failure, and it has good performance and is an all in one solution to providing network access to your data. As you mentioned though it is expensive, and if you want a cheaper solution you can simply make a cheap PC, even something like a simple intel Atom machine is capable of being used as a file server, and just throw a load of drives into it and use RAID for redundancy/speed.

What sort of situation do you plan to use the NAS in? such as home or business, how many users will be using it at the same time, do you need it to do anything other than hold the files etc...

 

[platypus]

I looked at the Drobo, but honestly it's just not worth the money.

I spent £150 on second hand parts and used a few I had lying around to build a good spec file server (eg it's too high spec for simply serving files but as its on 24/7 I leave it folding), ~£200 on hard drives, and £75 on Windows Home Server. So for under £500 I have a file server with a few terabytes capacity, good backup facilities, and the ability to add more capacity very easily and cheaply.

I can't ever envisage a point where a Drobo would be worth the money, even buying 8 SATA-II 1TB drives is under £500.

 

[Ev0]

I do like the fact even if the drives fail your data is never lost, I assume its sort of like norton ghost/acronis and forever imaging your data ?

At almost 1k, is there anything similar or cheaper ?

Assuming I'm not missing something special the Drobo does surely it's just a form of RAID on the disks?

Seems expensive and overkill if it's for home use.

The Netgear range of NAS appliances is pretty good and varied, you've got the duo 2 bay device for around 140 then price goes up quite a lot to get 4 bay and above.

They all have RAID and netgears XRAID which is pretty good (automatically resizes depending on what disks you put in).

I've got a duo with a couple of 1.5tb drives in set to XRAID and it's been great so far.

 

[HighlandeR]

True I never thought of the drobo, guess it is a Raid type system....

From what ive read of the drobo its constantly backing up your info so if say 2 hdds die you dont need to worry the drobo will put those files onto other areas of the hdd so its like you never knew anything happen, this can happen even if 2 drives suddenly die. It does take up some space too do this though, I wasnt aware if Some raid modes do a similar thing ?

I just thought it would be pretty cool too have something save you from a heart attack, ive looked at the Whs but doesnt look like it could monitor or warn from hdd failures and doesnt look like it automates any recovery from a dieing hdd other then checking for a backup via the pc but could be wrong about that ?

I would have thought Acronis or ghost or someone would have created some fancy software/system too apply a similar feature too.

 

[Sin_Chase]

It's RAID, in a "tarted up" package.

If the tarting up represents value for money then you could do a lot worse. You could have much better by building a File server though.

 

[Adrianr]

I thought one of the main attractions for Drobo's were their plug+play nature? Power up, throw your hardrives in, plug it into your PC, and it does everything else automatically? The complete lack of hassle sounds like something worth paying for?

I'm looking into picking one up myself, though one of the smaller 4 bay versions. I've seen other suggestions such as Qnap (I think), but I was a product that requires the very least amount of input from me possible. Would a drobo be worth the money in this instance?

Sorry for the hijack!

 

[Laser402]

From what ive read of the drobo its constantly backing up your info so if say 2 hdds die you dont need to worry the drobo will put those files onto other areas of the hdd so its like you never knew anything happen, this can happen even if 2 drives suddenly die. It does take up some space too do this though, I wasnt aware if Some raid modes do a similar thing ?

Sounds like RAID-6 to me, nothing fancy.

 

[MADMAN]

Yes on reflection, the Drobo is a tarted up RAID box but you need to consider how much time you would put in if one or two hard disks failed and the downtime which this causes.

In rebuilding a RAID equals downtime and Drobo does not do downtime. This unit allows easy access to your files, even though the RAID is being built in the background.

Secondly the Drobo grows as you need storage and it is not fussy with brands of hand disk. Think about it the WD Green hdds have been reported with RAID issues and if you put these into a Drobo, which RAID issues.

At the end the day there is two questions you need to ask yourself

(1) How important is your data to you?
(2) How quickly do you need to access it ?

 

[Ev0]

Yes on reflection, the Drobo is a tarted up RAID box but you need to consider how much time you would put in if one or two hard disks failed and the downtime which this causes.

In rebuilding a RAID equals downtime and Drobo does not do downtime. This unit allows easy access to your files, even though the RAID is being built in the background.

Secondly the Drobo grows as you need storage and it is not fussy with brands of hand disk. Think about it the WD Green hdds have been reported with RAID issues and if you put these into a Drobo, which RAID issues.

At the end the day there is two questions you need to ask yourself

(1) How important is your data to you?
(2) How quickly do you need to access it ?

Other nas devices offer the same kind of thing though.

As said the netgear offering has a similar thing, the xraid tech means you can just chuck any disks (different brands, differnet sizes, doesn't matter) in and it'll create your array at the size of the smallest disk.

Then if you say swap the small disk out for a bigger one it expands the array automatically and sorts the second disk out whilst keeping the other disk up and running so you can access the data.

Granted netgear do have a hardware compatibility list, however the disks I'm using aren't on it and they are fine

But if you really want an 8 drive device then there probably aren't any other appliances out there for that money with that capacity. I think a grand gts you a 4 bay netgear of some sort, maybe a 6.

 

[Sin_Chase]

There is no downtime rebuilding any kind of RAID unless it is a bad implementation.

A Drobo is nothing more than a headless file server with custom software.

If a Drobo has disks failures outside of the scope of its RAID it will nuke all the data, just like another system with the same RAID setup.


It's a RAID appliance that does nothing more than you could do with a File Server.

If the appliance like nature of the product appeals to people then they can pay that premium, for anyone who wants cheap NAS/SAN RAID then there are far cheaper ways with more expandability and upgrade routes.

 

[Dick Sternum]

The Drobo is a bit more sophisticated than plain RAID as it makes it very easy to swap out drives for larger ones when the volume becomes full without having to rebuild the array. You can also use any size of drive on combination, where as RAID 5 and 6 need all drives to be the same size (or each drive is partitioned to the same size as the smallest one).

If you think you will need to expand your storage often, then I think the Drobo makes sense (this is the reason why I got mine). If you just want some fixed protected storage, there are cheaper solutions available (I have these as well and to expand them I have to move all the data off, swap the disks, recreate the volume and move the data back. The Drobo is just swap the disk and let it do it's thing).

 

[Sin_Chase]

"plain RAID"

RAID is how you design it, a Drobo does not do anything you cannot do in a file server if you want it to work like that.

If you want the features and do not have the technical knowhow or inclination then its appliance/fixed feature set nature will be worth it. Otherwise there are many options.

 

[Ev0]

The Drobo is a bit more sophisticated than plain RAID as it makes it very easy to swap out drives for larger ones when the volume becomes full without having to rebuild the array. You can also use any size of drive on combination, where as RAID 5 and 6 need all drives to be the same size (or each drive is partitioned to the same size as the smallest one).

If you think you will need to expand your storage often, then I think the Drobo makes sense (this is the reason why I got mine). If you just want some fixed protected storage, there are cheaper solutions available (I have these as well and to expand them I have to move all the data off, swap the disks, recreate the volume and move the data back. The Drobo is just swap the disk and let it do it's thing).

As I said above, other manufacturers have their own systems that do this, not just drobo

If you want the features and do not have the technical knowhow or inclination then its appliance/fixed feature set nature will be worth it. Otherwise there are many options.

I would say there were other reasons why you would maybe want an appliance not just because you don't have the knowledge or inclination. I could have built up a machine to do the same, but it'd have cost me more, taken me more time, use more power etc.

 

[mikeh501]

Drobo is like RAID but it has some cool features which most basic raid cards dont, such as thin provisioning, auto-resizing, mix and matching of drive speeds/sizes/brands and dual drive redundancy. I think the box works on RAID5/6 principles but with these extra features works very well. If the pro version is about 1k then its not really far off other NAS solutions out there either. You cant compare a 4 bay unit at £500 with this tbh, and you certainly cant compare a homegrown WHS box with it - its just not the same at all.

I think you have to realise that the standard firewire drobo (not a NAS) is where they started (and is the one I have) and it works really well as a big ass scratch disk etc or backup drive - its actually faster than my internal drive over firewire800. The new drobo pro is trying to break into the NAS sector where the types of solution vary greatly and I think it will have a bit more trouble there.

My 0.02 - standard firewire drobo is great. Drobo Pro and NAS drobos are a tougher sell.

 

[bigredshark]

Drobo is like RAID but it has some cool features which most basic raid cards dont, such as thin provisioning, auto-resizing, mix and matching of drive speeds/sizes/brands and dual drive redundancy. I think the box works on RAID5/6 principles but with these extra features works very well. If the pro version is about 1k then its not really far off other NAS solutions out there either. You cant compare a 4 bay unit at £500 with this tbh, and you certainly cant compare a homegrown WHS box with it - its just not the same at all.

I think you have to realise that the standard firewire drobo (not a NAS) is where they started (and is the one I have) and it works really well as a big ass scratch disk etc or backup drive - its actually faster than my internal drive over firewire800. The new drobo pro is trying to break into the NAS sector where the types of solution vary greatly and I think it will have a bit more trouble there.

My 0.02 - standard firewire drobo is great. Drobo Pro and NAS drobos are a tougher sell.

No drobo I know off has NAS functionality stand alone. The Drobo pro can do iSCSI (which is SAN not NAS) with a single host. The Drobo share sled can turn a 4 bay drobo into a NAS but performance is reputedly not so good.

They are fantastic devices and make life really easy, I'm very tempted by one but they're really a single user product I feel.

 

[mikeh501]

No drobo I know off has NAS functionality stand alone. The Drobo pro can do iSCSI (which is SAN not NAS) with a single host. The Drobo share sled can turn a 4 bay drobo into a NAS but performance is reputedly not so good.

They are fantastic devices and make life really easy, I'm very tempted by one but they're really a single user product I feel.

Stand corrected, I just assumed they could. Given that, i think the pro version is an even tougher sell.

 

[Ev0]

Drobo is like RAID but it has some cool features which most basic raid cards dont, such as thin provisioning, auto-resizing, mix and matching of drive speeds/sizes/brands and dual drive redundancy. I think the box works on RAID5/6 principles but with these extra features works very well. If the pro version is about 1k then its not really far off other NAS solutions out there either. You cant compare a 4 bay unit at £500 with this tbh, and you certainly cant compare a homegrown WHS box with it - its just not the same at all.

I'll admit I'm not that up on the drobo stuff, but how is it's RAID type stuff different from say the 4 bay Netgear Readynas NVX?

That does all the mix and matching, auto resizing etc.

Hell even the £140 2 bay device does

They do sound good as you say as a scratch disk though, and as brs says they do seem more geared around a single user environment.

 

[iaind]

I dont get these at all..

It's too advanced and expensive for a home user but its got no resiliency or features that corporate users need....who's it for?

 

[bigredshark]

I dont get these at all..

It's too advanced and expensive for a home user but its got no resiliency or features that corporate users need....who's it for?

Actually it's perfect for a home user or a self employed 'creative' type. You buy one, feed it disks and forget about, it protects your data without you even needing to know what RAID is. Run out of space, pull out a disk and feed it a bigger one. No pressing buttons, no configuring, no understanding needed.

It's the best consumer storage product I've yet seen, it's obscenely simple!