Talk:Drobo

Overview
Can someone in the know update the Overview table with production model IDs? As an example, which generation & model is DR04DD10?

I tossed in the B1200i. Will finish the rest once I have an opportunity Crewdawg368 (talk) 21:11, 29 June 2012 (UTC)

DroboShare
DroboShare, an extension box to Drobo storage box, adds "gigabit ethernet port" to Drobo. It is a device to transform "USB Drobo" to "LAN Drobo". It adds support for EXT3 Linux filesystem too. http://www.drobo.com/products_droboshare.aspx

History
This page is mostly about the Drobo device. I am interested in the history of the Data Robotics company. They have been around since the 80s I heard? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stevo517 (talk • contribs) 17:27, 11 January 2018 (UTC)

What kind of RAID does it use?
Anyone know what kind of RAID setup this uses? Seems to be a mix of RAID 1 plus 5? Storage is about 1/2 what you put into it and it can also survive if one drive crashes.

--70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:55, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I believe the drive uses RAID 5 where possible and RAID 1 on any remaining space (as long as that remaining space spans two drives). I haven't found a reference to back this up. If a reference is found this info could be used in the main article. It would be good to get some information on the internal workings of the system. E.g. is data replicated where possible (after being put in RAID 5 or 1) to prevent damage on multiple disks making data unrecoverable.

Craig Mayhew (talk) 23:26, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

No standard RAID is used. Basically, with one drive, it mirrors on the same drive (to protect against bad sectors). When you add a second drive, it shifts to basically a RAID 1 mirrored setup. Upon adding a third drive, it moves to a striping system that is sort of a hybrid between RAID 0 and 1(it is optimized for minimal rearranging of data, not necessarily performance, so you don't get true block-level striping. Beyond three disks, you get a mix of mirroring, striping, and parity methods being used. The Drobo Pro and Drobo S offer two drive protection (2 simultaneous failures with no data loss), so they must just expand the parity system, maybe moving to something more like RAID level 6.

The BeyondRAID system is patent-pending. You can read the technical details by looking up US patent application US20070266037. The system seems pretty robust: for example, it parses the file system(FAT32, NTFS, EXT, HFS+) to reuse space from deleted files. It also compresses data automatically on the block level using a simple 160-bit SHA1 hash compression scheme (this is probably done in hardware, either with the Marvell SOC or with the XILINX PLD). Since it hashes every block of data, it can detect and correct most(all?) single-bit errors.

Jim Grisham (talk) 00:19, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Added 2nd gen mention
I've added a note (with references) mentioning the 2nd generation Drobo, announced today, which has firewire, faster cpu and faster USB. I left the criticism about speed and lack of Firewire/eSATA for now - maybe once they start shipping and reviews compare the speed it should be changed to indicate that refers to version 1. sjwk (talk) 17:49, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Droboshare
I also saw something online that was talking about an SDK for the Droboshare, and a community producing/porting applications to it so you could run services on the droboshare, much like is possible with alternative firmware for the NSLU2 (only officially sanctioned), but I've lost the link... Perhaps there should be a section on the Droboshare within the article rather than a simple mention within the criticisms? sjwk (talk) 17:49, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Partitions ??
Is it possible to divide the array into partitons? Jason404 (talk) 11:48, 2 August 2008 (UTC)
 * You select a partition/drive size when you first set up the Drobo. Since Drobos storage is expandable, but partitions (for the most part) are not, Drobo will lie to your OS about the available size of the drive. You can choose 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16TB as drive sizes. Say you choose 2TB, but only insert enough disks to have a total of 1.5TB of storage available. Drobo will tell your OS that there's a 2TB drive available. Once you expand the storage in the Drobo to, say 3TB, Drobo will make a second 2TB disk available to the OS. I don't think you can sub-partition these virtual drives. Sneeka2 (talk) 02:16, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Criticism
The Criticism section is pretty bad IMHO. The lack of an ethernet port does not deserve such a long paragraph, as this device is marketed as a DAS (direct attached storage), not a NAS (network attached storage). Hence the criticism is the personal opinion and wishful thinking of random individuals and does not show any flaw or malfunction of the device. The two sentences about Firewire read like a personal battle of opinions which don't belong here. Sneeka2 (talk) 03:08, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Cleaned up that section a bit. Sneeka2 (talk) 08:20, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

DroboPro
I've amended the DroboPro section to indicate that it is a new product alongside the Drobo, not a 3rd generation model to replace it. Also made some comments about the current state of networking on the DroboPro. I did find a comment on a blog/announcement here from someone at Data Robotics that hinted that a later firmware may remove the single host limitation, but I didn't think it would be a suitable reference to cite so I didn't... sjwk (talk) 21:00, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

The Article

 * Is this article available in English? I thought I was fairly tech savvy; but I've just read through it, and I've still barely got any idea what a Drobo is. Thanks! Rolypole (talk) 20:37, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

- Drobo is a data storage peripheral, which interfaces up to four 3.5" SATA hard drives with a computer via High-Speed USB 2.0 or FireWire 800. It is primarily designed to allow installation and removal of storage devices (Hard Drives) without requiring manual data migration, and also for increasing storage capacity of the unit without downtime.

I think it's pretty clear.


 * I can see that - but I'm afraid I don't understand your explanation either! I think the problem is the amount of extra words! "Drobo is a data storage device which connects up to four hard drives with a computer. It is designed to allow installation and removal of drives without requiring manual data migration, and for increasing storage capacity without downtime." This may be oversimplified, but it makes a lot more sense to me! Well, it's up to you I suppose... Rolypole (talk) 19:58, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Support?
It says the forum is closed off to non customers, giving me the impression that you can't view support info (and therefore problems with the device) unless you already buy it. The "create account" page is given as source. However, http://support.datarobotics.com/app/home shows you plenty of support articles, and I see no link to forums anyway. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.212.103 (talk) 07:19, 16 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Agreed. You can view the knowledge base without sign-up. And there was no reference for anyone making that complaint, giving the paragraph the appearance of original research. I've removed it. AliveFreeHappy (talk) 22:09, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

While the knowledgebase is public, and does contain some useful information, it represents only a small, sanitised view of the available support information in a Q & A format. Actual customer support is provided through both individual support incidents, and community support forums (http://www.drobospace.com/forums/index.php). In both cases, a login is required, and creation of a login requires being a Data Robotics customer. The community support forums are where customers can write about issues that they are having with their Data Robotics products, and have their questions answered by other customers and by the Data Robotics support team.
 * Disagreed. As a Drobo FS owner, I have to agree with the author of the original comments.

Many of the criticisms and comments made in previous versions of this document are, or at least were at the time, valid and supported by information that is not necessarily in the public domain. As with most products that are evolving, however, a criticism that was valid at one point in time may no longer be valid at a later point in time. Personally, whilst there are things I do and don't like about my Drobo FS, and I certainly would have liked to know what I now know about it prior to buying it rather than after, I don't regret my decision to buy it. Other customers may not have the same opinion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.64.187.76 (talk) 00:37, 7 September 2010 (UTC)


 * You mention information not in the public domain. Unfortunately, such information does not fit into the wikipedia guidelines. This is intended to be an encyclopedia, not a buyers guide. AliveFreeHappy (talk) 23:41, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

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