I use a drobo at home and we use one here at work, with plans on getting 2 DroboElites.
love it. recovery... touch wood have not needed to yet. (please note the yet... everything fails) DROBO says that if the _unit_ dies, you can just take the disks from the failed unit, put them in a new working unit and everything will still work. I've never tried it, but i'm sure someday I may. i've never had a failed drive in my unit, but i've upgraded drives from 500Gb --> 1Tb and yes it is as easy as eject and replace, and wait for the array to rebuild and then add the next disk. the upside as far as the drobo is the ability to just add disks. it does the rebuilding of the array. I trust my drobo as far as I can spit my offsite backup. YMMV, and I don't work for or have ties to drobo other than being satisfied with the product. HTH ./s Google.com Learn it. Live it. Love it. On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 08:36, Raper, Jonathan - Eagle <[email protected]> wrote: > Ok, so it SEEMS like a really cool device, but I honestly haven’t looked at > it seriously since the device first came out a couple of years ago. When I > first looked at it, I was like, ok, now THAT’s COOL. > > > > However, after thinking about it some, it just seemed like some black magic > under the covers to get their “BeyondRAID” to work. When I originally looked > at it, I couldn’t find any technical detail on how the product *really* > worked, as that was “proprietary” (understandably so, but still, how am I > going to get comfortable with it as a sysadmin, especially at the price if > I’m on a budget – it would be an expensive toy. Traditional RAID is just > much more comforting to me. If you have a big issue with multiple drives of > different sizes on a drobo unit, how is data recovery going to go for you? > If the controller fails, and you don’t have a support agreement, you can’t > just go on serversuply.com and get parts… > > > > Does anyone here have any experience with data recovery on a failed drobo, > or for that matter, simply a failed drive within a drobo where you had > drives of different sizes in the configuration? > > > > I know “backup, backup, backup”, but what if the backup doesn’t work (or the > customer/end user didn’t heed your advice)? > > Jonathan L. Raper, A+, MCSA, MCSE > Technology Coordinator > Eagle Physicians & Associates, PA > [email protected] > www.eaglemds.com > > ________________________________ > > From: Jonathan Link [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 11:16 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: SAN question > > > > +1 > > Going back to a previous comment of mine in another thread you started. > Have you messed with OpenFiler, yet? You'll learn a lot. > > Also, based on your pretty low requirements, have you looked at the > DroboElite? If it had been available when I started looking, I very well > could've gone in this direction. As it is, I'm seriously considering it for > backup duty. Storage for a backup server, and the ability to use it in a > pinch if my EqualLogic goes down. > > On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 10:59 AM, Raper, Jonathan - Eagle > <[email protected]> wrote: > > John - I do not believe that we can help you significantly with this > question. In the end, it really doesn't matter what any of us think, because > our environments are all different and unique. What works well and may be > appropriate for any of us, may be a horrible fit for you and cause you > nothing but heartburn and stress. > > However, I would tend to agree with Niles. If you're not ready for a SAN, > don't spend the money on it now. > > You really need to have a serious sit-down with the vendors/sales engineers > (notice I said ENGINEER, not REP) of the different hardware, learn as much > as you can from THEM, and ask LOTS of questions. Then ask them why you > should choose their product over x, y, or z product. Take lots of notes, and > then do the same thing all over again, no more than a few days apart so > everything is still fresh in your head. > > Many times, some of the best education I've gotten has been from the > manufacturers themselves. I've actually been to the EMC manufacturing > facility in North Carolina - I spent two days there, on THEIR DIME to learn > about their products (I had to get there & back, but after that, everything > was on them). If you say to them, "I'd like an education on how your product > works and whether or not it would be suitable for my needs and my > applications.", you'll generally get plenty of intelligent people that will > be happy to answer your questions. If they don't ask lots of questions about > your environment and what your needs are, you're talking to the wrong > people. > > I believe that the purpose of this list is really a, "I'm having trouble > with x, has anyone seen this before?" or "why do you guys think x > specification/technology is better than y", or "I'm having trouble getting > this ADSIedit script working, what am I doing wrong?". > > I believe that if you sit down with the various manufacturers/reps, even if > only on a webex session where they can whiteboard for you one on one, will > answer many of your questions and make your original question about > intelligence/disks seem trivial. > > Regards, > > Jonathan L. Raper, A+, MCSA, MCSE > Technology Coordinator > Eagle Physicians & Associates, PA > [email protected] > www.eaglemds.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: N Parr [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 10:26 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > > Subject: RE: SAN question > > I think you just need to give up on your SAN dreams and go buy a decent > NAS for a couple grand and call it good. You just said it's going to be > a file server for the time being so why spend the money for a SAN now if > you don't need it. I bet if I look back through the archives you first > brought this up at least 18 months ago. When, if , you do need a SAN > down the road you won't have already spent a ton of $$ on what will then > be old tech and you can start looking at what will then be new. > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 9:17 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: SAN question > > Ok, guys. I'm trying to narrow down my many choices with regards to our > on-going search for a SAN manufacturer. I'd like your thoughts on the > whole question of adding more intelligence vs just adding more disks. > i.e. the EQ vs LeftHand models. > > I can see arguments to be made for both models. I'll tell you that, > initially, the SAN is going to be a glorified file server, however, we > plan on hosting our email data store on the SAN when we bring email > in-house later on. I've already verified with the email vendor that I > hope to use that this is not a problem, so that's a non-issue. Other > than that, the only database we would store on the SAN would possibly be > the database from our Vipre install, although initially that would stay > on the local storage. > > So, I'd like to see some discussions of the benefits of just adding a > tray of "dumb drives" or adding a complete controller along with the > drives (a la > LeftHand.) > > I just don't know enough about the benefits of each model to know what > would work best for us. I'm hoping that you guys who are more > experienced would give me the benefit of your knowledge. > > > > Thanks, > John Aldrich > IT Manager, > Blueridge Carpet > 706-276-2001, Ext. 2233 > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > Any medical information contained in this electronic message is CONFIDENTIAL > and privileged. It is unlawful for unauthorized persons to view, copy, > disclose, or disseminate CONFIDENTIAL information. This electronic message > may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. It > is intended only for the use of the individual(s) and/or entity named as > recipients in the message. If you are not an intended recipient of this > message, please notify the sender immediately and delete this material from > your computer. Do not deliver, distribute or copy this message, and do not > disclose its contents or take any action in reliance on the information that > it contains. > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
