dschur

If you guys don't mind a little massive thread necrotism, I thought I'd share my way-back hindsight. I used Unraid from like 2006-2010 then moved on to a drobo. A recent discussion brought me back to this forum and thread. Drobo was a big mistake - I had little control over things and no visibility - I used it well for about 5 years until it was apparent to me that the company was dying and my hardware was too. It was brain-dead simple, but also incredibly restrictive - I'd recommend that anyone avoid it. The support sucks, no one from the company engages and it never evolves. I hope Tom and unraid are doing well these days , and from what I hear in the community they certainly are. For anyone using unraid, and sticking with it you've made an excellent choice, I probably should have too in retrospect. The old saying about the grass being greener... is quite true. I wonder if my old 1.X key (I used through 3.X) will still boot/work/upgrade these days - it's in one of the boxes... somewhere ;-)

Agreed, you and any new users coming into unRAID need to get uesed to it. The "company" is a guy in his garage. He takes long breaks and the pace of development is slow. Not hearing anything for 6 months or so is pretty par for the course (in my experience of 5 years). Too bad as an innovator could have radically changed the landscape.

I didn't see anyone answer this, but the answer is yes. It will automatically reallocate space over the remaining drives if you have enough free space. No, drobo FS is totally proprietary. You can't take a drive and read it somewhere else. It is like a raid controller, you either trust it or not and if something happens than you just pray that you could recover. If it fails on you, then your data is gone forever! This is not a two controller mirrored cache array, it is a totally simple, closed, proprietary system. Sorry I read it the other way. ie, If you pull out a drive can you read data from the Drobo. Sorry, if the understanding was pull out and read data off of the drive you pulled out, you're correct. My apologies. That is correct, when read the way starcat interpreted the question, this is one of the biggest drawbacks of drobo compared to unraid. If you loose multiple drives, or take a single drive out you cannot take a drive out and put it in another system utilizing drivers (ReiserFS in unraid's case) to mount and recover the data. You can take all of the drives out of a drobo and mount them in another drobo (called the "disk pack") to recover/rebuild the array.

I agree, apostate should be one as well (or The Judas if that is the preferred label). Might as well put me in there too.

Thought this was stated before - Drobo FS has both AFP, and native Time Machine support. While I can't vouch for it personally as I haven't set it up yet, user reports are that it works well. And how exactly does both the AFP and native Time Machine support ensure data is written and prevent the grabbing of a latption middle of a backup? I don't know, I didn't engineer the solution, but it does. Sorry to say it but it just works (used it for years that way with a Time Capsule). Nonsense. Time Machine works exactly the same as a *properly* setup unRAID or any other consumer NAS out there. OK, if you say so. You seem to know it quite well and are the expert on the topic so we'll leave it at that. I'm glad SMB is working *properly* setup for you on unraid. Have fun with that.

Thought this was stated before - Drobo FS has both AFP, and native Time Machine support. While I can't vouch for it personally as I haven't set it up yet, user reports are that it works well. And how exactly does both the AFP and native Time Machine support ensure data is written and prevent the grabbing of a latption middle of a backup? I don't know, I didn't engineer the solution, but it does. Sorry to say it but it just works (used it for years that way with a Time Capsule).

Dschur, if you still want to do this, please send me a PM. I can come pick it up. Thanks, but since my original post I've decided that because the Drobo is apparently so unreliable as outlined in this thread, I'll keep the unRaid dormant and use it as a backup once or twice a year for catastrophic failure. It's not on the market.

Thought this was stated before - Drobo FS has both AFP, and native Time Machine support. While I can't vouch for it personally as I haven't set it up yet, user reports are that it works well.

Yes I saw it work flawlessly as well until I grabbed a laptop up in the middle of a backup) . Yep, I also know that time machine backups are implemented as a sparsebundle on a filesystem. The issues I saw are more about writing data in transit and ensuring it is written.

That'd be no Time Machine (or rather related AFP protocol support). while there are hacks to force Time Machine to work with SMB and NFS there is no guaranteed receipt and they have been nothing but headaches in my experience (with unRAID) of configuring Time Machine over SMB.

Thanks, I am having fun with it. Just picked up another Macbook Air to add to the Time Capsule on it too.

I had hard power downs at boot a couple of years ago on my CM stacker config when I went over about 8 drives. That's why I had to add a second power supply. The 96W wall-wort of the drobo is a lot less than the 650W (in 2 power supplies) in my Stacker. Not really a fair comparison as my unraid has 13 drives, 6 120MM fans, 3 80 MM fans and a big ole motherboard and processor. The drobo has 5 drives one 120MM fan. Still, at the end of the day it will be a big net change for me. I'm tempted to get a kill-a-watt to measure the difference.

Good to know on the performance after 4.5.3. Don't know how 8A is enough but it is. For reference, this is lower power than my HP nc6320 laptop which has an 18V 8A power supply. Even my 2010 mini has a 110W power supply. Each hard disk will draw between 2 and 3 Amps when spinning up. Your motherboard probably draws an Amp or two on its own. 8 Amps will probably be fine for 2 or 3 low power disks... once you get past that, expect to need a different power supply. As drobo sells them pre-loaded with 5 disk, and doesn't sell a different power supply, I won't expect to need a different one.

Good to know on the performance after 4.5.3. Don't know how 8A is enough but it is. For reference, this is lower power than my HP nc6320 laptop which has an 18V 8A power supply. Even my 2010 mini has a 110W power supply.

Software is 4.5.1. Has been since the 4.5.3 data loss reports, and I backed down. I usually stayed current on the software front. I'm seeing about 30MB/s write on the drobo, copying from a Mac on the LAN to iy. Hard for me to really benchmark it though as I'm moving my data over all this week (and probably into next). Performance wise it's probably not a fair comparison as I'm sure there was probably multiple things screwed up in the unraid that I never tracked down. Setup of the drobo was 1 beer (5 minutes, I was really thirsty). The hardware is really, really small (size of a shoebox) and really quiet (the new WD green drives probably help a good bit there too). Wish I had a kill-a-watt as I'd guess this uses 1/10th the power. The power supply (external brick) is max rated at 96W (12V, 8A output)

I have to say, now that I can access them (and I agree there is no reason not to make them public), I do not see these "horror stories" or "SERIOUS performance issues" on the drobo forums at all. So far the new drobo seems to be outperforming my unraid by at least double (on totally back of the napkin big copies), but as I said I had some really old hardware on unraid.

Sorry, had to laugh at this Kool-aid comment. I had a Mac, and couldn't wait to go back. I guess it all depends on how much control you want over your system. I wonder if maybe your Mac was pre-OSX (i.e. <= OS 9) or you didn't spend enough time with it to see that under the covers it is pretty much all Unix, giving you plenty of control, while not inflicting emacs on you to get the simpler things done.

kenoka, you may be missing some of the subtleties in my posts. I'm not aware of a simple, pre-built 6 drive unraid solution that costs $300 shipped, ready to plug drives into, no tools needed. I trust you that I could research, order the parts, get them shipped, and build it all up myself, spending many hours scraping my knuckles and troubleshooting issues, but that's not my thing anymore. The time and convenience factor outweigh it for me at this time. I absolutely agree that for someone willing to put in their own sweat equity, and learn a few things along the way, unraid is top dog, but from a convenience and plug and play perspective I think drobo has it topped at this time. I know unraid is a little faster in an optimal configuration, but I suspect the drobo will be on par with if not faster than the old hodge-podge unraid I had.

Sure, as long as everyone promises not to tell me that the round IDE cables that I've been using for the last 5 years don't work

Yep, specifically the one I ordered was the FS: http://www.droboworks.com/Drobo-FS.asp For $650 shipped from Amazon. To be honest it's then less outlay then I originally spent buying a CM stacker case, mobo, cpu, ram, nic, controller cards, cables. Current pre-built unRaid (from lime-tech) is all in the 1200-1400 range. Admittedly most of this stuff holds 15 drives (including my stacker case), but for me my storage needs will be met with 5 bays for a good bit into the future with 2TB drives (or 3TB). Drive size increases have made this possible for me as 500GB was the sweet spot when I started my unraid, and now 2TB are.

Thanks, good advice - when I restart the array, the first thing I was going to get off the failed drive (/mnt/disk2) was the directory listing. I suspect a lot of it is media files (movies) so they may be a secondary priority to some other contents (photos libraries, documents, etc) in the rest of the array. I was going to move, rather than copy contents off the user share, whittling my way down to zero (and finding some things I probably no longer want along the way). I would replace the failed drive, but given the birdsnest of wires (13 power leads and PATA/SATA cables - most PATA), and dust inside the case, that may be more risky than just running it as-is (I de-cabled the failed drive) for now to get the data off. Just for giggles, when I'm done I'll zero the failed drive and re-init the old unraid array. who knows maybe the thing will keep running and I could use it once every 6 months or so to backup the new array.

The biggest part of my moving is simply due to age of the hardware. I really don't feel safe anymore running 5 year old hardware across the board. I'm worried that if I put any investment into maintaining the array it would be a black hole, start with one disk and then keep going and going and going, with downtime and hassle each time. The motherbaord, memory, hard drives, PATA/SATA controllers (i think there are 4 of them), fans are all 5 years old. I am just going to count my blessings and move onto something else with all new hardware. This meant I was moving to new array regardless. The cost of the hardware/software was less and issue to me than the time. I want something I can take out of the box and have up and running in no time. While unRaid has a lot of benefits, plug and play is definitely not one of them as you are pretty much system building from scratch. It probably took me 3 weeks (elapsed) ordering/installing/configuring parts for my first array, and I wasn't really looking forward to that this time around. My current array is a complete rats nest of cabling/power. You have to admit drobo has the hardware side nailed, nary a screwdriver, just pop the drives in. Yes, AFP did play into it for me. I have a dinky 500GB time capsule now, and the thought of just carving a hunk off Drobo dedicated to it is highly appealing (simple and I get disk redundancy which Time capsule does not have). To be honest AFP on Unraid is a white elephant to me - I have been hearing about it for years now and have yet to see it. I'd be frankly surprised if it's released before this time next year. From what I've witnessed of recent unraid betas, I would not be willing to use it in beta until the official release. So I was looking at new hardware either way as it's improbable to rebuild in place. By the time I got a new pc case, power supplies, memory, cpu, etc it was probably a wash or close to it with the $650 I blew on a Drobo FS. The drobo has a few other advantages for me - compact size (I will reincorporate it into my office where I can see the status lights - Unraid was just too loud and big in a CM stacker) and email notification (I'm sure I could have done that with unraid as a weekend project). Who knows, maybe I will come back to unraid when I outgrow the drobo, but for now the drobo and drives will be here tomorrow and I'll restart unraid one last time and start pulling my data off after a 5 minute set-up of the drobo. Then, my network will be busy for a bit as I figure it will take about a week or two to move over 4.5TB. I wanted something simple, clean, fast, and easy to have running right away to start moving data off my unaid before I loose a second drive (a risk I am willing to take for a very short term without replacing the failed drive), so for me, at this time drobo fit the bill. I'm not saying it's fora everyone at all, unraid is great. I do think unraid is probably a better solution for non-Mac users who have very large storage requirements (15TB+) on one array or enthusiasts who like scraping knuckles putting them together, just wasn't for me this time around. I do think both are far better than standard raid arrays for home users. I would equate Unraid to a linux workstation that one builds up from scratch out of leftover parts and has fun tinkering with, drobo to a macbook air, it's sealed, you can't monkey with it, and it has little expandability. I think my own shift from unraid to drobo reflects this - I used o run 4 or 5 windows pc's I had built from scratch and spent a lot of time maintaining 2 years ago. I now have replaced them all with Macs and I never open them up.

Hi bkasten, I'm more than happy to give any insights I can. First and foremost, you seem to have inferred that my primary reason from migrating from unraid to drobo is AFP support. Sorry if I left that impression, as the protocol really did not factor into my decision much, if at all. I should assure that lack of AFP support is absolutely not the primary factor in moving on. My primary reason is I have a bunch of old junk from a hardware perspective and while unraid has allowed me to combine it and keep it running together, I am starting to see HW failure and very much worried it will be a cascading effect. I can either reinvest in it or move to something else. I have not touched this stuff in 4-5 years which is amazing in the technology lifecycle. As for AFP, I run Leopard Server in my small home environment. I hope/suspect is a certain elegance and simplicity to it throughout as opposed to SMB (i've never had the ability to check). I generally view Samba as equivalent to AFP, and I am looking forward to see if having an AFP server will offer me any advantages. That said, AFP support has been an unfulfilled promise for me on unraid to date. I have heard for few years now that it is around the corner on unraid, I have patiently waited but have nothing to show for it, so for me, given my (personal) hardware issues, it's time to move on. It's really a choice of where I invest my hardware dollars combined with the fact that I have a bunch of now nearly 5 year old unraid hardware. The direct corollary is having a 15 year old used car. repair may be a good idea, but sometimes its best to trade it in and move on. Having a complete set of the latest and greatest hardware will probably serve me well for the future as well.

While my unraid has been a reliable, incredible workhorse, I haven't put a lot (or really anything) into it over the years and it's a bit of a monster of wires and power supplies these days. To put it in perspective, the largest drive in it now is 750GB, it has 2 750GB, 3 500GB, 1 320GB, 4 300GB, and 3 250GB drives in it. 13 drives total, and 2 250watt power supplies Most of the drives are PATA (remember those? ). Thing probably costs me $400/year in electricity ;-) Today my unraid lost a drive (first in about 4 years so that ain't bad), it'll run unprotected, but I'm faced with buying a drive to keep my heap running or migrating. I've shut it down until I can start moving stuff off. I owe unraid a great debt for dying gracefully and giving me the time to get my data off with a dead drive. Also, over the years I have migrated to all Macs as my client devices (2 Macbook Pros, Macbook Air, and 3 minis with Plex for media servers/workstations). The AFP support, time machine, native Mac integration, simplicity, and overall cleanliness of Drobo has lured me over. Sorry Tom I got tired of waiting for AFP. I placed an order for a drobo FS an 2TB drives If anyone needs a CM stacker case, unraid pro keys, mobo/cpu/ram/etc (forgot the model but it was the intel one tom insisted on in the start) shoot me a note, cause I'm out. I'm in Chicago if anyone wants the box, not really worth shipping as I think it weighs about 70 pounds.

Oh great now I need another drive cage for the CoolerMaster STC-T01 (I bought two ) Anyone know the best place/price to get these for the 'ole beast these days? unRAID is good up to 16 drives now right? (I'm gonna need it). Thanks for the tip!