Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: rdonson on June 27, 2017, 11:19:22 am

Title: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: rdonson on June 27, 2017, 11:19:22 am
Drobo just announced the 5D3 which now supports Thunderbolt 3.

http://www.drobo.com/storage-products/5d3/

This is just an FYI for those who might be interested.
Title: Re: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: BernardLanguillier on July 03, 2017, 10:18:09 pm
Nice, TB is starting to get good support from various storage vendors.

After Promise, OWC, G-Technology, CalDigit and QNAP, now Drobo.

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: rdonson on July 04, 2017, 09:27:55 am
Drobo jumped on at TB 2.  There's also CalDigit who have been onboard with TB since the start.
Title: Re: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: nemophoto on July 17, 2017, 04:49:38 pm
Nice units, but overpriced and lousy support. I've owned 3 of them. One of my early Drobos, they refused to help me when the unit was going bad and I had to try to get everything off because they wanted hundreds more for support. Really? I already paid 3 times or more the cost of a standard RAID and without a performance benefit. I hate that they try to nail you with even more fees for "support".

I had a friend whose Drobo literally melted down, trying to take the drives with it because the fan stopped functioning. (He had been doing an unattended backup or something to his Drobo which contained his entire image library and LR catalogs). He spent months trying to recover his images (luckily, he had a VERY techie friend who does that stuff), and after 6 months, recovered 95% of everything lost. It was made harder and more gruesome because of the non-standard RAID in the Drobo. The friend said that, had it been a standard RAID (of any flavor), he could have recovered the same files in a month. That scared me. So, my latest Drobo sits in it's box, unused.
Title: Re: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: rdonson on July 18, 2017, 07:07:48 am
Nemo, I'm not defending Drobo as I'm not associated with them nor do I own stock in the company. I'm also not discounting your experiences with them.

That said, the company has changed ownership and leadership a few times since their beginning. These days they seem to be much better in support and releasing better hardware and updates.

My first Drobo was a 4 bay Gen 2. The only issue I experienced with it was a result of believing that Apple Time Machine was compatible with the Drobo.

I currently have a Drobo 5Dt and as advertised I was able to simply move drives from the Gen 2 into it.

There are some quirks about volumes and such that I'm not keen about but it works.

I've had other RAID units but the simplicity of the Drobo appeals to me.
Title: Re: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: nemophoto on July 18, 2017, 02:59:39 pm
Oh, I never thought you were defending Drobo. I just thought I'd add my experience. I always liked Drobos. Just horribly priced and lousy support. (I MUST have liked then since I bought three units.) It's also interesting to know the company has changed hands a couple of times. I actually owned the first two generations of Drobos (not terribly fast nor networkable). My 4-bay USB 3.0 Drobo has been languishing in a corner since my friend's hardship and since the time they didn't want to help me when an earlier Drobo was dying. If you look at the Drobo site, the standard warranty does not include ANY technical support. WTF? No really upstanding company refuses to offer support, at least in the first year. They charge a premium for their product, but then won't support it unless you pay extra. I know of only one other company with that model: ACT! contact software. (They want you to do an Adobe-style subscription, and if you don't, they'll sell you the standalone -- but without any support.)
Title: Re: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: rdonson on July 18, 2017, 08:52:24 pm
My Drobo 5Dt came with 3 years of Drobo Care support and I've asked a lot of questions via email that got answered and found things in their forums that were helpful. 

I use my 2 old Drobo 2nd Gen 4 bay units as backup.  The 2nd Gen units are 7 years old. 
Title: Re: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: Paul Wright on September 04, 2017, 09:59:30 pm
After a horrendous saga with Drobo performance, reliability and subsequent support, I wouldn't touch them with a 40 foot pole. Their marketing is brilliant, but they comprehensively fall short on the actual delivery. After a time-wasting fight I did get a full refund.

Next step was an infinitely superior Synology 5 bay NAS. This has been flawless.

Save yourself a potential headache and skip Drobo.

-pw
Title: Re: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: BobShaw on September 05, 2017, 06:59:23 pm
I have two Drobo, a 5D and a 5N. I have been critical of them in the past but frankly I have not seen a better solution so I am about to buy another direct attached.
I don't regard NAS as a solution. Far too slow. You are better off to put a direct drive HDD on a proper server if you need multiple access. NAS = Not a server (:-)

The thing with Drobo is that it gives you the ability to use disparate drives on a redundant system that can grow in size easily. RAID generally doesn't offer that.
Title: Re: new Drobo 5D3
Post by: rdonson on September 06, 2017, 10:15:33 am
What Drobo also gives me is simplicity. 

I used to have a rack mounted 7 bay NAS.  I decided I was spending way too much of my time being a sysadmin to the dang NAS.  I wanted to spend my time as a photographer instead.  I know that today's NAS units are far more robust and easier to use but DAS is the way I'm going now especially with Thunderbolt 2 and 3 on my machines. 

This year I added a drone to my repertoire.  I enjoy flying it and I'm frankly a bit astonished by the 4K video it takes.  Needless to say 4K video files consume a lot more disk space than my stills for a day's outing.  Dealing with the videos makes the DAS even more appealing to me.