Topic: Lightroom Performance Slow With Drobo 5D (Read 9011 times)

StuartOnline · « **on:** June 24, 2014, 10:50:13 am »

I am currently using A Macbook Pro (June 2012) 15" Retina with 16GB DDR Ram with 512 Flash Drive with 1GB Video Ram. I have the Lightroom 5.5 Catalog (images) stored on a Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt that has a 128 GB mSata Card. I have 5, 3TB 7200RPM Drives that have 64MB Cache. Currently used about 22% space with 78% free space.

My question is that I find the performance to be very slow. When I open Lightroom it sometime takes anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes for thumbnails to show up. When I upload new image I do 1 to 1. Also when I click on an image to view larger in Develop it come up loading and takes about 20 to 40 seconds. Have done the Optimize Catalog and Test Integrity, however did not seem to help. Is there anyway to increase the performance?

Thanks in advance.

Stu

kholt · « **Reply #1 on:** June 25, 2014, 12:16:54 am »

As an owner of three Drobos who uses a Macbook Pro 15" Retina 2013 and Lightroom 5, I can tell you that is not normal. My performance is very good. There is very little difference vs using the internal SSD.

Keith

kholt · « **Reply #2 on:** June 25, 2014, 12:18:35 am »

I should have also added that I keep the catalog on the internal SSD and the RAW images on the external drive. I don't think it should make that much difference though.

kaelaria · « **Reply #3 on:** June 25, 2014, 01:33:05 am »

DROBOs have never been a performance device, try moving the catalog to the internal to test.

StuartOnline · « **Reply #4 on:** June 25, 2014, 08:13:41 am »

Thanks Kaelaria & Keith for your replies.

I do have the Lightroom Ircat on the internal drive on the Macbook Pro with the images store on the Drobo 5D.
The overall performance is just poor.

Now what is interesting I have a Seagate 3TB Thunderbolt Drive setup with Aperture 3.5.1 to see how it runs.
To my surprise Aperture runs supper fast. Thumbnails appear fast. When I enlarge an image there is no waiting time.

I just wonder if Drobo 5D is the issue?

phcorrigan · « **Reply #5 on:** July 02, 2014, 04:10:20 pm »

Quote from: StuartOnline on June 25, 2014, 08:13:41 am

I just wonder if Drobo 5D is the issue?

All other things being equal, typically a storage device that uses software-based RAID (including Drobo and virtually all NAS and SAN devices targeted toward the small office/home office market) will be slower than a single hard disk. The transfer rates of both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt far exceed the read/write speed of both the Seagate drive and the Drobo, so in your case are not a limiting factor.

If you have space on your Seagate you might want to try copying your catalog there temporarily to see if your performance improves.

StuartOnline · « **Reply #6 on:** July 02, 2014, 05:24:33 pm »

Quote from: phcorrigan on July 02, 2014, 04:10:20 pm

All other things being equal, typically a storage device that uses software-based RAID (including Drobo and virtually all NAS and SAN devices targeted toward the small office/home office market) will be slower than a single hard disk. The transfer rates of both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt far exceed the read/write speed of both the Seagate drive and the Drobo, so in your case are not a limiting factor.

If you have space on your Seagate you might want to try copying your catalog there temporarily to see if your performance improves.

Thanks for the reply,

Actually I did just that last night. I cleared a Seagate 3TB that is setup as Thunderbolt and copied everything to that drive. Same results. Slow performance.
It is funny how I can setup Aperture (which by the is coming to an end) runs extremely fast. Meaning the thumbnails appear with no hesitations.
Currently trying out DxO Optics and I am able to access the images via the Drobo 5D and they also appear fast. Just can't figure out why it is so slow with Lightroom with the Drobo 5D.

Stu

phcorrigan · « **Reply #7 on:** July 02, 2014, 07:28:53 pm »

What kind of processor and how much RAM do you have? Both can affect performance.

StuartOnline · « **Reply #8 on:** July 02, 2014, 07:55:04 pm »

Quote from: phcorrigan on July 02, 2014, 07:28:53 pm

What kind of processor and how much RAM do you have? Both can affect performance.

I am currently using A Macbook Pro (June 2012) 15" Retina with 16GB DDR Ram with 512 Flash Drive with 1GB Video Ram. I have the Lightroom 5.5 Catalog (images) stored on a Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt that has a 128 GB mSata Card. I have 5, 3TB 7200RPM Drives that have 64MB Cache. Currently used about 22% space with 78% free space.

kaelaria · « **Reply #9 on:** July 02, 2014, 07:59:08 pm »

Those specs are more than enough for instant performance, you have something wrong. Start eliminating variables. If you have someone local for hands-on have them over, there's probably one or more things out of the picture. That's not anything normal.

budjames · « **Reply #10 on:** July 03, 2014, 02:58:58 am »

I have a Drobo 5D with 64gb internal SSD connected to my iMac 27" (2013 i7 w/32gb ram and 3tb hybrid drive). I have always stored my LR catalog on my internal drive and images on he Drobo with good results. I have noticed that Drobo performance improves with more drives installed. I now have 5 X 4tb Hitachi drives installed and with the unit about 50% filled! speed tests show about 200mb/sec read and slightly less writing. The 64gb SSD really speeds things up.

That said, I installed a thunderbolt Lacie 10tb external drive and it rips at over 750mb/sec read/write speeds. The Drobo 5d is now relegated to a petition for Time Machine (5tb) and the rest for backups.

Cheers.
Bud

www.budjames.photography

James R · « **Reply #11 on:** July 03, 2014, 04:38:31 am »

I found the following setup to work best for me. Mac Pro, internal SSD, LaCie 3T HD, and a Pegasus 4TB raid--all Thunderbolt. The Pegasus is controlled by the Time Machine. Moving to all SSD or 10K drives will improved speed, but, at a cost.

phcorrigan · « **Reply #12 on:** July 04, 2014, 10:44:01 am »

Quote from: kaelaria on July 02, 2014, 07:59:08 pm

Those specs are more than enough for instant performance, you have something wrong. Start eliminating variables. If you have someone local for hands-on have them over, there's probably one or more things out of the picture. That's not anything normal.

I agree, especially since you seem to get similar performance when you moved to your Seagate drive.

StuartOnline · « **Reply #13 on:** July 04, 2014, 01:00:08 pm »

Quote from: James R on July 03, 2014, 04:38:31 am

I found the following setup to work best for me. Mac Pro, internal SSD, LaCie 3T HD, and a Pegasus 4TB raid--all Thunderbolt. The Pegasus is controlled by the Time Machine. Moving to all SSD or 10K drives will improved speed, but, at a cost.

Will have to look at the cost of changing the drives out in the Drobo 5D to SSD. Also need to look at the Pegasus.
If I go that way I want to look at the Thunderbolt 2. I assume those would be backward compatible to run on Thunderbolt 1 until I upgrade to a newer system?

Now I have this current Drobo 5D set up for two simultaneous drive failures. Meaning I could have up to two drive to fail and I could still run.
Wondering if that is slowing the performance down? Could change it so up to only one drive could fail and I could still run. It would also give me more space.

Stu

phcorrigan · « **Reply #14 on:** July 04, 2014, 07:33:43 pm »

Quote from: StuartOnline on July 04, 2014, 01:00:08 pm

Now I have this current Drobo 5D set up for two simultaneous drive failures. Meaning I could have up to two drive to fail and I could still run.
Wondering if that is slowing the performance down?

Didn't you say you also had slow performance running off the Seagate drive? If that's the case, then Drobo performance may not be a significant factor in your problems.

StuartOnline · « **Reply #15 on:** July 05, 2014, 01:33:29 pm »

Just a followup on the Drobo issue.

I decided to change the settings with Drobo 5D from two simultaneous drive failures to one drive failure. Meaning if one drive fails I would still be able to function.
By doing this according to BlackMagic Disk Speed Test Write/Read is now averaging Write 193MB/s with Read 250MB/s. Before this change w136MB/s with r167MB/s.
So making this change did seem to increase the performance some. I do have Lightroom backed up to a couple of other external drives so I should be ok if a drive fails with Drobo.

Stu

Ellis Vener · « **Reply #16 on:** July 05, 2014, 05:18:25 pm »

Which drives do you have in the Drobo 5D?

StuartOnline · « **Reply #17 on:** July 05, 2014, 05:33:10 pm »

Quote from: Ellis Vener on July 05, 2014, 05:18:25 pm

Which drives do you have in the Drobo 5D?

I have 5 Hard Dives, HGST (Deskstar) Western Digital 3TB 7200RPM Drives that have 64MB Cache.

StuartOnline · « **Reply #18 on:** July 31, 2014, 01:23:13 pm »

Adobe released Lightroom 5.6 today. To my surprise the performance of Lightroom for me has really improved. Thumbnails now appear with no hesitation. When I click on Develop now I get no spinning ball. So what ever they did with 5.6 has now improved the performance. At least on my system using the Drobo 5D.

CoyoteButtes · « **Reply #19 on:** July 31, 2014, 05:15:56 pm »

I am so disgusted with Drobo 5D nonperformance on late 2013 Mac Pro that I'd like to find an alternative. Would appreciate any recommendations.

Author Topic: Lightroom Performance Slow With Drobo 5D (Read 9011 times)