Discussion about
Would you recommend this as a network server for a small office?
I am basically the IT guy for a small civil engineering firm and have been looking for a solution for replacing the existing Snap Server which has had failing hard drives. i want to be able to have quick access to replace failed hard drives in the future and like this option. i'm just wondering if this is more designed for single computer backup rather than over the network?
I have two of these units and am using over network for backup primarily.
Works very well but have found it to be significantly slower (no matter how connected) than either internal drives or external drives (either firewire or ethernet connected). I don't mention USB because that is simply not a realistic option (far too slow including on USB 2).
In summary the units are excellent but I would not recommend for 'fast' online access to very large files (video / large photoshop files etc)
cheers.
Works very well but have found it to be significantly slower (no matter how connected) than either internal drives or external drives (either firewire or ethernet connected). I don't mention USB because that is simply not a realistic option (far too slow including on USB 2).
In summary the units are excellent but I would not recommend for 'fast' online access to very large files (video / large photoshop files etc)
cheers.
Yes, the DroboPro would be a great solution for you if you already have a server computer on the network that can share the DroboPro.
While there is a network adapter built-in to the DroboPro, it is only for iSCSI and capable of connecting to only one machine.
We have ours plugged into an Xserve (via the Xserve's second network adapter and iSCSI) and then shared through the Xserve to the network with AFP/FTP/NFS/Samba. iSCSI performance is very fast, faster than Firewire 800.
We also have dual-disk redundancy turned on, so two drives can die at the same time with no loss of data.
The Drobo Dashboard software also allows for multiple volumes to be created, which is great for setting up multiple share-points in the server. No dealing with folders on the Drobo, pick a volume on the Drobo (which can still grow with new disks or have a set size different from other volumes).
While there is a network adapter built-in to the DroboPro, it is only for iSCSI and capable of connecting to only one machine.
We have ours plugged into an Xserve (via the Xserve's second network adapter and iSCSI) and then shared through the Xserve to the network with AFP/FTP/NFS/Samba. iSCSI performance is very fast, faster than Firewire 800.
We also have dual-disk redundancy turned on, so two drives can die at the same time with no loss of data.
The Drobo Dashboard software also allows for multiple volumes to be created, which is great for setting up multiple share-points in the server. No dealing with folders on the Drobo, pick a volume on the Drobo (which can still grow with new disks or have a set size different from other volumes).
DroboPro isn't a NAS, unless you have an iSCSI network. You would need to attach it to a server of some sort. The new Mac Mini server would be good for that or even a regular Mini if Firewire 800 is fast enough. On the Windows side, you need to be running Vista, 2003 or Win7 to set the volume size larger than 2TB. XPs NTFS cannot see anything larger than 2TB. My company has not validated Win7 so we are stuck with Vista64, but the DroboPro works just fine on that.
I would recommend getting an iSCSI card to get the fastest throughput for the PC you use to connect it to the network.
I would recommend getting an iSCSI card to get the fastest throughput for the PC you use to connect it to the network.
How's the noise on these things, in comparison to say a Mac Pro on idle?
Thanks. Good, noise is out of the way it's just the Drobo slowness I have to consider. Did any of you consider anything else?
We bought them because we could expand at will without having to remove all data first. We set all our drobos to 16tb and installed 8tb for now. If we need it we will just start swapping in 2tb drives.
BTW, here is the transfer test I did if your interested....
File Structure Size 10.2 GB
Via iSCSI using 1gig network card
Write:
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:16:16 0:16:06 0:00:00 0:00:09
Speed : 11366000 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 650.367 MegaBytes/min.
Read:
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:14:26 0:14:17 0:00:00 0:00:08
Speed : 12808647 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 732.916 MegaBytes/min.
Via USB
Write:
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:24:46 0:24:40 0:00:00 0:00:06
Speed : 7423721 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 424.788 MegaBytes/min.
Read:
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:20:28 0:20:13 0:00:00 0:00:15
Speed : 9052546 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 517.990 MegaBytes/min.
Via Internal C Drive to Internal C Drive
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:18:23 0:18:08 0:00:00 0:00:14
Speed : 10090750 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 577.397 MegaBytes/min.
BTW, here is the transfer test I did if your interested....
File Structure Size 10.2 GB
Via iSCSI using 1gig network card
Write:
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:16:16 0:16:06 0:00:00 0:00:09
Speed : 11366000 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 650.367 MegaBytes/min.
Read:
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:14:26 0:14:17 0:00:00 0:00:08
Speed : 12808647 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 732.916 MegaBytes/min.
Via USB
Write:
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:24:46 0:24:40 0:00:00 0:00:06
Speed : 7423721 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 424.788 MegaBytes/min.
Read:
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:20:28 0:20:13 0:00:00 0:00:15
Speed : 9052546 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 517.990 MegaBytes/min.
Via Internal C Drive to Internal C Drive
Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras
Dirs : 2543 2543 0 0 0 0
Files : 29400 29400 0 0 0 0
Bytes : 10.233 g 10.233 g 0 0 0 0
Times : 0:18:23 0:18:08 0:00:00 0:00:14
Speed : 10090750 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 577.397 MegaBytes/min.
