Data storage speed

[Ronny Nilsen]

I'm considering buying a drobo to store all images
I'm using i LR, and since this is slower than an internal disk, or in my case, a server
over gigabit Ethernet I'm wondering if anybody have a tried this and if it will slow down
LR.

The database will be on an internal fast disk (as today), but will having the images on
a slower drive significantly slow down the LR GUI? The drobo looks tempting as it can
increase capacity on the fly and will probably reduce downtime and recovery when a
disk crash. It will of course not replace backup.

[jjj]

Windows Home Server looks like it can do pretty much what a DROBO can do [with the HP Media Smart Server] and then a whole lot more. It can also back up from Mac machines too. The hard drive swapping is not so easy, but not exactly hard either.
here's an example or two
http://www.amazon.com/EX475-MediaSmart-Ser...r/dp/B000UXZUZC
Or the more minimal
http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalog/T7-HSA.html

I was attracted to the DROBO as it's quite clever, but it had too many drawbacks. Then WHS sneaked out and seemed to have had universal praise, unlike Vista.
I'm probably going for the HP over the Tranquil as it can store more. 4 internal drives plus 4 externals as opposed to 1 internal + 4 externals. Note - you cannot use hubs with external drives with WHS.

And WHS is very good for back up.
Not sure how good they'll be for LR usage

[luong]

If you have spare room in an external USB drive, you can just copy your LR library there and try to see if the speed is adequate for you, since the USB interface of the Drobo will most likely be the bottleneck.

[Ronny Nilsen]

Windows Home Server looks like it can do pretty much what a DROBO can do [with the HP Media Smart Server] and then a whole lot more. It can also back up from Mac machines too. The hard drive swapping is not so easy, but not exactly hard either.
here's an example or two
http://www.amazon.com/EX475-MediaSmart-Ser...r/dp/B000UXZUZC
Or the more minimal
http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalog/T7-HSA.html
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=152156\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I'm not really after a server solution, I have that already in the form of a Linux
machine with some Tb of storage, and that is where I keep my images and it
takes care of all backup, and it servers my win XP machine with samba. Works
very well and is fast and my files is safe.

My concern is that with so many disk they crash from time to time and I want to be
relieved of the hassle of opening the machines and replace disks. Also the drobo
would solve the problem of needing more space available than is possible on one
physical disk without having to set up a raid for myself.

The other alternative is to use external eSATA disks and let the Linux server use
them as a raid. That would work well and would be very fast, but more hassle for
me to maintain.  

My concern with the drobo is speed, the other parts of it fits my need very well....

[Ronny Nilsen]

If you have spare room in an external USB drive, you can just copy your LR library there and try to see if the speed is adequate for you, since the USB interface of the Drobo will most likely be the bottleneck.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=152173\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I will try that when I have time, but the test would no be conclusive as the
drobo only have a sustained transfer rate of at best about half of the USB2
rate.

What I'm wondering is what is most critical for LR; access speed to the db
that will be on a fast drive, or access speed to the images. LR takes it's time
today even with fast access to images, so it might not matter if access speed
to the images is a bit slower if most of the time is LR processing anyhow.

[feppe]

Drobo's speed is probably listed on the site, just compare it to the speed of your current HDD. Or note that the theoretical max speed is USB2 max speed.

Drobo is not designed to be a speedy RAID, so it's up to you to decide whether it's speedy enough. There are similar solutions (X-RAID) which are probably faster. Or you could always build your own fast RAID and set it up in an hot-swappable enclosure.

[jjj]

I'm not really after a server solution, I have that already in the form of a Linux
machine with some Tb of storage, and that is where I keep my images and it
takes care of all backup, and it servers my win XP machine with samba. Works
very well and is fast and my files is safe.

My concern is that with so many disk they crash from time to time and I want to be
relieved of the hassle of opening the machines and replace disks. Also the drobo
would solve the problem of needing more space available than is possible on one
physical disk without having to set up a raid for myself.

I wasn't suggesting WHS as a server solution, it's just that it does some of the things that you require from the Drobo, whilst happening to be a server with very clever backing up too. Add another HD and the drive space available simply enlarges.

My concern with the drobo is speed, the other parts of it fits my need very well....
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=152184\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

One of the maincomplaints re the Drobo is no Gigabit ethernet. You get that on the WHS machines I mentioned, though the HP would be better than the Tranquil as the Tranquil will have ext HDs via USB, so a potential bottleneck there.

[Ronny Nilsen]

I wasn't suggesting WHS as a server solution, it's just that it does some of the things that you require from the Drobo, whilst happening to be a server with very clever backing up too. Add another HD and the drive space available simply enlarges.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=152205\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

The HP looks tempting, but for me it's a bit more hassle than I want. All I really need is external
(pref. hot swap) drives, not another box to configure etc. That would be just as much hassle as
my solution today that makes me open the machine and switch disks.

But I agree that the HP would be a good solution if I didn't already have a server that does all I
want. But as it is I would be able to get the same functionality out of my Linux server with an
external eSATA box.