Drobo and DroboShare — a review
2010-06-18 11:2 Executive summary: don't buy it.
Convinced by people on podcasts (mostly TWiP and This Week in Tech) raving about how great the Drobo (from Data Robotics) storage device is, I decided to budget two into a project I'm working on. Expectations were high — Drobo marketing pushes the devices as easy to use, reliable and flexible. Being a Mac user, I expected an "Apple experience": plug it in and forget it's even there.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
To begin with, the Drobo is Loud. Not just "loud", but REALLY LOUD. And it isn't the drives, it's the fan that cools the whole thing. To give you an idea of what I mean by Loud, one single Drobo with ultra-quiet WD Green drives spun down is louder than my 8-core Mac Pro with 4 drives and an army of fans in it. It's that loud. To make matters worse, the fan in the Drobo turns on very frequently, even when the drives have been spun down for hours. I don't know why, as the drives are very cool to the touch.
You won't want to have a Drobo under your desk, or anywhere in your vicinity, trust me. And that means the fancy fast FireWire-800 interface that you just paid for is pretty much useless. I used a DroboShare to setup my Drobo in a remote location where I can't hear it.
The DroboShare comes with Gigabit Ethernet, as the marketing will point out. What they won't point out is that it connects to your Drobo with a USB cable, which (together with SMB) pretty much limits your transfer speeds to about 5-8MB/s. That's about 6 times slower than when connected via FireWire-800.
What you should also know is that using the DroboShare will provide its own annoyances. As an example, I found it impossible to create a sparsebundle disk image for use with SuperDuper on the Drobo. Go figure. SMB introduces other annoying problems, too — I couldn't copy my music collection onto the Drobo, because some filenames had non-ascii characters in them.
But all of the above are merely inconveniences. The real issue is with reliability. I bought the Drobo so that I can trust it with my data and forget about failing drives and losing data. Which is why I was slightly miffed when Drobo Dashboard kept crashing on me and reporting unreliable data, annoyed when it hung in the middle of the night when doing my first real backup, slightly angry when support told me my Drobo is defective and needs to be replaced, and really pissed off when the second unit I got corrupted my volume and lost data (when connected to a DroboShare). And then Data Robotics support asked me... whether I have a backup. Or a copy of DiskWarrior.
I have so far been through TWO Drobo replacements. Despite my asking, Data Robotics was unwilling to provide an upgraded (better) unit.
What's worse is that now I don't trust the Drobo at all. I looked closer: the DroboShare seems to use the plain Linux support for HFS+ that is known to be shaky. There is NO FSCK (Filesystem Check) program for HFS+ at all! Data Robotics will tell you that you can switch your Drobo between a Mac and DroboShare and you will be ok — but that seems to be exactly what resulted in my data corruption problems.
Then there is Data Robotics support. When you make "reliable data storage devices", you really need to have support that cares about customers, reads their emails and responds instantly. Responding after one business day is not enough. Given that support people will forget what was written before, or begin by asking what your address is and when you bought your Drobo, it will easily take a week before you get to the real issue.
What you should also realize is that when your Drobo unit fails, there is no way for you to read data off the drives. You need a working Drobo unit to do that, and it has to recognize the filesystem and mount it.
I bought a Drobo so that I can have reliable data storage without worrying about reliable data storage. The net effect was that I got an unreliable solution that I have to manage, worry about and spend time and money on. That's a failure in my book. I will never buy another Drobo unit again.
[... the above was been drafted, and then 3 months passed ...]
So, today my volume (drobo mounted via a droboshare) unexpectedly disappeared on my Mac. Investigation of the DroboShare logs shows:
MOUNT HFS+ : s_id = [sda1]
scsi: unknown opcode 0xea
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105544
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638188
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105552
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638189
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105560
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638190
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105568
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638191
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105576
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638192
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105584
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638193
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105592
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638194
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105600
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638195
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105608
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638196
usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 2
SCSI error : <2 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 4533105616
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 566638197
[...]
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 270838
scsi2 (0:0): rejecting I/O to dead device
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 270838
scsi2 (0:0): rejecting I/O to dead device
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 276472
scsi2 (0:0): rejecting I/O to dead device
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 276472
scsi2 (0:0): rejecting I/O to dead device
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 422806275
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 422806276
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 422806277
scsi2 (0:0): rejecting I/O to dead device
scsi2 (0:0): rejecting I/O to dead device
scsi2 (0:0): rejecting I/O to dead device
Drobo Dashboard doesn't launch, console shows me crash logs for the ddserviced daemon, which crashes every 10 seconds or so. Reinstalling drobo dashboard doesn't help.
I am so tired. I bought the Drobo so that I can save time, not so that I can run around and service it all the time, jumping through hoops set up by "support" from Data Robotics. I can already see how I'll have to spend several hours debugging the problems, dealing with support, reinstalling things.
I am posting this so that people are warned. Hopefully people will google for "Drobo" before buying it and I will save someone the hassle and frustration.
Will I lose data again this time?
Don't buy a Drobo.
Jan Rychter
Update for those who still consider Drobo a reliable storage solution. This picture shows perfectly where I am (and this is NOT the first time):
Reader Comments (36)
Just as a followup, I am fighting and trying to uninstall Drobo Dashboard from my Mac. Guess, what, it has a lame window asking me for my password (not the usual MacOS authorization window), and then crashes, because I have a semicolon in my password. That's just unprofessional.
Another Drobo user here. Yes, it is indeed loud, and the loudness sucks. The vent also kicks in without any reason, sometimes in a normally cool room, 20 hours after I've turned it off. That's why I always unplug it after use.
It is also slow, expect about 5MB/s, even through the Firewire 800 interface.
But I never lost data, and Drobo Dashboard never crashed on me. Knock on wood, I guess?
I have a Synology Disk Station and honestly can't recommend it enough:
http://www.synology.com/us/products/ds210j/index.php
It just works, has load of optional features and keeps surprising me with all its quality touches (e.g. dedicated iphone web ui, drag and drop file management via web ui, iphone app, etc, etc).
The built in bittorrent client is a bonus too especially when paired with a WDHDTV.
I remember reading a very similar report some time ago. I had hoped Data Robotics had improved in the meantime, but that does not seem to be the case.
That is very sad. I love the promise of the Drobo. Is there another device out there that does actually fulfill this promise?
David: I'm actually hoping people will suggest something that works. I pretty much gave up on the Drobo, I can't trust it with my data.
Also — I'm posting this on my blog, because the Drobo Forums are closed (only customers can access them). People that consider buying a Drobo have no way of learning about the experiences of existing customers — and believe me, some of those are pretty bad.
No wonder Data Robotics keeps the forums closed.
Good ol' Time Machine with a WD Firewire 800 drive. Never failed always rockin.
I've got a second generation Drobo, and although my experience hasn't been anywhere near as bad as yours, I'd agree. My Drobo remains functioning and I haven't needed to contact Data Robotics for support, but the Drobo has a bunch of weird quirks that have made me really start to hate the device. As mentioned above, it's loud, and as mentioned in the comments above, it's astonishing slow no matter the connection used. Mine also has this weird quirk where it disconnects halfway through the data transfer if more than 50GB is being transferred to it while connected via USB; switching to Firewire solves that problem, but since I use it over my network, having to dedicate a Mac Mini to share it (as opposed to say a cheapo USB to ethernet adapter or DroboShare) is a costly fix. Drobo Dashboard software is rarely updated and reports varying levels of available storage depending on how it's accessed, inconsistent with what's shown on the front LEDs. Worst for me is the device becomes unusably slow if it exceeds 90% capacity used; so slow accessing the device was near impossible. It wouldn't let me transfer any data off of it, I had no choice but to delete some of my data; THE WORST! It's not an OS, filling up the hard drives shouldn't cause such a performance hit where the device nearly becomes inaccessible (especially when 90% used means there's still 150GB free on the device).
tl;dr Don't buy a Drobo, and if you're unfortunate enough to have one, don't fill it up past 90% capacity!
You're wrong about only one thing here. You don't have to "spend several hours debugging the problems, dealing with support, reinstalling things", you have the option of cutting your losses, trashing the thing and moving on to something else.
Good luck :)
Drobo ?
This stuff should never be used in a real production environment.
You do have a powerfull pc so you must be doing some work on that .
What i dont udnerstand, is why dont you shell out half the money that you gave on the drobo and actually build a filserver of your own with 4 Tera Hard disk in RAID mode ( choose what you want ) and just expand as you want.
All i have is my motherboard and that is it !
I agree. Nothing but trouble with Drobos. Have worked with an original four bay, a DroboPro and a DroboFS. The FS is the worst. I have it hard wired to a brand new iMac and it keeps disconnecting, despite being set to never go to sleep.
The DroboPro that was wired via fw800 to my MacPro. Since I have an extra enet port on the MP I thought it would be nice to try out the iSCSI feature. I did whatever fiddling I was allowed to do in DroboDashboard (should be called DroboASHboard) and suddenly the unit decided it didn't want to let me write OR READ data from it any longer. Backing it up and reformatting was not only a complete pain in the ass (where, exactly, do you put the 2.5TB of data you have on it), but was also unsuccessful. I ended up having to connect it to a G4 Xserve to get it to work.
I'm done with Drobo. Will never purchase nor recommend another one again. Period. The End.
Very timely, I just tweeted my own frustrations. Currently they have a known bug that prevents me from copying new data onto it, moving or deleting data from it. I contacted customer service, and they asked me for a laundry list of information around my device, most of which I know they don't need just to tell me when they plan to get the patch out. I'm also considering the Synology, unless others have a better suggestion. Thanks for writing!
I must be lucky. I've had my 2nd gen for 2 years now and I've never had any of the problems listed here.
Get a synology NAS. I've got the slowest model (DS210j) and I still get between 20-35 MB/s. No noise complaints either.
I was recently debating on which nas to purchase. It was between drobo and qnap. I decided on the qnap TS-419U. I can't recall exactly why, but am I glad I went with qnap after reading this.
So far it has just worked. It was easy to setup and is not all that loud. My only complaint so far is that upnp support for media players is horrendous. But that is not qnap's problem.
By the way: the "slow if 90% filled" issue is by design. It's mentioned in the documentation. Drobo expects you want to extend your space (by adding bigger drives) once you are over 80%. There are various warnings issued at this point. And at 90%, just to make sure you don't miss the warnings, the Drobo gets deliberately slow. Just add a bigger drive (or move a few things off it), and it becomes faster again.
Totally right!
I had the same problems, the same crappy customer support, obscure error messages, it is definitely much to loud, and whatever else.
Thanks for publishing this post.
If you're somewhat technical, my suggestion would be to ditch the Drobo and just get an external enclosure to hold a bunch of drives. You can then install ZFS from https://groups.google.com/group/zfs-macos/files
With ZFS, you don't have to worry about disk corruption, the RAID-5 write-hole, and you can set it up with as much redundancy as you like (1, 2, or more disk redundancy)
I never understood why the drobo's were so expensive. When the software functions just don't work, and you end up losing data, etc, why not just go with a two or three bay enclosure with ESATA - and do a scheduled backup dump at regular intervals. You get much much higher speeds (my WD Green 1 TB gets up to 80 megabytes per second peak on ESATA)
The attraction is all in the slick marketing.
And the "the "slow if 90% filled" issue is by design" is pure greed. I'm not sure if anyone appreciates that feature at all, but if my drives were getting filled, I wouldn't want my performance to be artificially degraded - that just demonstrates that they hate their customers.
For example, if you're editing a large video file that fills your drives with temporary working files, and you have a 5 TB array, 90% filled would give you 500 gigs left. Perhaps that's not enough for ongoing file storage, but for your project which you expect to compress down to a smaller video file as soon as you are done, it's plenty of space. Why won't you want the full speed of your expensive RAID array? Am I missing something here?
Put your blog entry in twitter (robertovalerio)
Can agree on ALL of you issues. Had them, too:
Interesting issues - I don't recall the Drobo being that loud when someone in my co-working space had one, but that is neither here nor there given that I don't own one. Your observation carries far more validity than my third person account.
My main concern, and one that really impacts how I view the credibility of this piece, is your demand for an upgraded Drobo. This is as asinine as demanding a MacBook Pro when your MacBook dies several times in a row (many reports of this, by the way). Yes, Drobo is a small firm that needs to readily address failures and customer concerns - something that they have seemed to failed to do here - but demanding an upgraded unit sounds like the wrong way to approach this problem. If I have two engine failures in my Honda Civic, there is no way that they will hand me a brand new Accord for no extra money, and there is no reason that I should expect them to.
For anyone with some technical abilities, I would recommend just rolling your own Linux file server.
I've been running a home file server on Ubuntu for several years, and it's worked beautifully. Aside from the initial setup, it's completely hands off. The important pieces are:
* mdadm software raid - Don't entrust your raid to some proprietary raid chipset that's going to fail. Unless you require insane throughput, mdadm works great and is incredibly recoverable. I've moved the drives between systems, and as long as they're accessible, mdadm can scan them, and automatically reconstruct the array.
* LVM/ext3 - Resize the partions, change the underlying drive layout. Basically, do whatever you want with ease. Like mdadm, it's all in software and is very recoverable.
* netatalk - Don't use NFS or SMB if you're sharing to a Mac. Netatalk is super-solid and provides an AppleTalk volume that your Mac actually knows how to deal with.
* avahi - Zeroconf daemon that makes your netatalk volumes show up on your Macs.
Charlie: I thought that a company that advertises as "simplifying reliable data storage" would want to somehow compensate me for the unreliable and complicated mess they landed me in. I also thought their newer devices would be more reliable (which doesn't seem to be the case, based on opinions).
Matt: thing is, that is precisely what I wanted to avoid. I've been dealing with mdadm, filesystems, and linux boxes for over 10 years now and I'm looking for simple, buttonless, plug-it-in-and-it-works solutions. Also, you can swap any drive in the Drobo for another drive that is larger, at any time, with no reconfiguration — this is something that's difficult to match. ZFS had the promise, but it seems it isn't going anywhere.
I have had three Drobos, an original 1st Gen unit, a 2nd Gen, and a Drobo Pro. None of them have been loud or experienced any of the difficulties you mention. One is in a 24/7 production environment. It sounds like you had a bad unit and things went downhill from there.