Posted on by Terry White

Review: Drobo FS

    

I've been a happy Drobo user since October 2008. My main Drobo 4 Bay Firewire 800 unit is being used as the main storage on my Mac OS X Server in my home office. My second Drobo 4 Bay Firewire 800 unit is being used on my dedicated media server (an iMac running iTunes) and it houses all of our music, movies, TV shows etc. I love Drobos because you can easily increase the storage capacity by swapping one or more drives for larger ones without having to start over and reformat. I also love the fact that the drives don't have to be the same capacity. While my Drobos have been relatively trouble free from a hardware standpoint, I did suffer from a directory corruption problem once back in February 2009. Luckily I knew better and had my data backed up. While Drobo is GREAT at protecting you against drive failures there's is no magical protection against accidental file deletions, viruses, or directory corruption. In my current setup I have each Drobo being backed up on a nightly bases to external large capacity drives via SuperDuper! This all works great, but it does still leave me exposed to one problem. 

 

An Oops Moment

We all have those oops moments. Those moments where we do something that we wished we hadn't. It could be deleting a file that you thought you no longer needed or doing a Save when you meant to do a Save As, etc. If that happens to me and I catch it right away, no problem I can restore from yesterday's backup. However, if that happens and I don't realize it right away then I could lose the file completely after the new file gets backed up during the next evening's backup. In this case Time Machine really shines. As a Mac user I have Time Machine right in the OS. I use it on my MacBook Pro and other computers around the house. So no worries if this problem happens on one of those computers because i can just go back in time and grab and older version. However, if the file is on my Sever then I don't have that protection. Same goes for my iTunes collection. If I delete something there without realizing it, it will be gone for good after the next backup. 

 

Drobo FS to the rescue

While I can pretty easily clone my Drobos to nice big 2TB and 3TB drives, it becomes more challenging using Time Machine for that much data on a single backup drive. The drives would fill up quickly and I would be no more protected than I was with a clone. In this case I wanted to use Time Machine but I would need something as large as the capacity of my Drobos and actually significantly larger if I want to go back further in time. The solution was clear – another Drobo. With another Drobo I could put large drives in it and it would not only have the storage I needed to backup one Drobo, but both Drobos. Since the two computers are not in the same room, I needed a network solution. This lead me to the Drobo FS. While I could have put another Drobo on my Mac mini server it would mean having to daisy chain it via Firewire and I also have limited space in that area of my office. The Drobo FS is a 5 bay unit that connects directly to your network via Ethernet. This means that it can be anywhere in my house including a closet or storage room. The 5bay FS doesn't cost that much more than a directly connected Drobo model.

 

Setting up the FS

I love it when all the instructions that you'll need to setup a new device fit on a single card. The Drobo FS is that easy to setup. install the software. Insert one or more hard drives (2 or more is best for protection) and they don't even have to be the same capacity. Plug in your Ethernet cable (gigabit ethernet if you want performance) and turn it on!

The Drobo automatically formats itself and in a few moments shows up in the Drobo dashboard of all your networked computers. At that point you change the administrator username/password and create the "Shares" you want to be seen on the network. Add your users/passwords and you're done. 

 

Using it for Time Machine

Since I already have a Fileserver that I'm happy with I didn't really need to setup any shared folders beyond the one for my network Time Machine backups. You create a share and then just enable the Checkbox so that this new Share can be used and seen by Macs as a Time Machine volume.

Unfortunately you do need to install the Drobo Dashboard on each of the Macs that you want to backup to it via Time Machine. It's not the end of the world, I just dont' like installing any more software than I absolutely have to. Once the Drobo Dashboard is installed on a Mac that you wish to backup, you mount the Share and then choose it in the Time Machine System Preferences. For now I've decided to use it for all of my Desktop Macs including both servers and another iMac and Mac Pro. I've completed the backup on a couple of these Macs as of the writing of this review. The big ones are going to take a day or two to complete because if you've ever tried to backup 1.5-2TBs of data you know that it can take a while.

 

The Bottom Line

The Drobo FS is a great solution for any home or small business looking to setup a File Server/NAS or Network backup that is painless and has built-in redundancy for protection against drive failure. If you are going to use one in a File Server capacity keep in mind that while Drobo protects against drive failure, you should still back it up too! That goes for any drive solution. Also if you are going to use it as a File Server you can enable the Drobo Apps so that you get File Server type features such as web serving, ftp, etc. I didn't enable these as again, this isn't my main server.

The fact that the Drobo FS connects directly to my network instead of requiring a host computer is huge for me! I would hate it if the day comes that I restore an entire Drobo from a backup because it would take a while. I would hate it even more if the day came that I needed to restore a large amount of data and I didn't have a backup at all.

You can get the Drobo FS enclosure for less than $615 from B&H Photo and Video

You can get 2TB SATA Hard Drives here for $75. The price of storage has never been cheaper!

You can use the Drobo Storage Calculator here to figure out how much storage you would have based on the drives that you put in it.

27 Replies to “Review: Drobo FS”

  1. It’s weird how often you review the very next thing I’m thinking about buying. I’ve actually been desperately needing a better and bigger backup system because my Time Capsule keeps malfunctioning (and it’s my second one to do so). Because I want to be able to access it with two computers, I was considering the Drobo FS. Thank you for making my decision so much easier and even explaining the steps to put it into use. You are amazing as always!

    Lynn

  2. Very interesting & informative post. My system is beginning to grow and therefore my backup needs are becoming complex. The notion of setting up a Mac OS Server seems daunting, but ultimately I will go that direction. Your post tells me that adding the (5) bay DROBO to augment my current (4) bay unit is a worthwhile investment. Perhaps in a future post you can describe the components of your server based network.

    Ray

  3. hi terry,

    Informative post. I was going to buy a Drobo FS a while back but got dissuaded based on the issues raised in this article.

    http://mansurovs.com/drobo-s-review-usb-3-0-2nd-generation

    Do you agree with his conclusion? The same thing has also been said for the other Drobo setups on various other online posts.

    Is it really slow when one is working off Drobo?

    thanks again.

    Sm

    1. Hi, first off I didn’t buy the FS to “work off of” as you can tell from above. However. I work off my other Drobos all the time with no issues. ALL of my main data files/images restored on the one connected to the OS X server and I work off that one all the time. Movies are streamed from the other one over the network again without issue. Lastly I would have never gone to a 2nd one let alone a 3rd one if I thought they were “slow”. YMMV

  4. Love the post. Kind of contradicts with your previous one…lok at all those LED’s. Bound to keep you up at night!

  5. Hey Terry,

    Excellent piece once again. I’ve been looking at Drobos for a year now, but haven’t summoned up the courage to buy one yet.

    Have you thought about archiving a copy outside your residence? What would be a decent way of backing up/archiving in case of total disaster?

    Back in the day I used to rotate mirrored SCSI drives and carry one home from the office. That really doesn’t sound like a plan these days.

    And I know TBs in the cloud still cost a lot. : )

    -Tommi

    P.S. Looking forward to seeing you in Finland again.

  6. Very interesting review. However, the issues raised in the article mentioned above: http://mansurovs.com/drobo-s-review-usb-3-0-2nd-generation are mostly accurate. The Drobo FS is quite slow relative to other backup solutions. In addition, my experience with several units is that they are prone to disk corruption issues. I have found the OWC Mercury Elite-Al Pro Qx2 to be much faster and more reliable as a backup unit. I am willing to give up the flexibility of swapping drives of different capacity for high speed, low noise and low heat production.

  7. Terry,

    Timely post. I own a Drobo FS and would like to use it for iTunes as a file server so that I can access all of my music, apps and podcast from the 3 different computers in the house. Is that easy to do. I see there is a drobo app called firefly but I’m not sure it fully works after iTunes 10 and I think the Drobo FS is slightly different than the regular drobo.

    Can I simply setup a shared folder and move my files over and then point all of the itunes from each of the computers to that folder? Are there anythings I should watch out for or be concerned about?

    Thanks.

    1. iTunes basically just needs to know where the music folder is. You can setup a Share, copy your music folder over to it and then tell iTunes where the net location is. I would do a small test first to make sure it’s what you want.

      1. Another masterpiece Terry. Glad I found your site. I too have a Drobo (S version thought) running as a “media server” for my entire iTunes lib. I came to the Drobo because of a WD MyBook failure. I purchased a WD MyBook as a lib for my iTunes lib that had been spread across three separate 1 TB drives. The 4 TB WD system failed 10 days in and because I did not set up a RAID 5, but had a Striped Array, I lost everything when the one drive failed. As an interim solution I went again and purchased a WD ShareSpacee(4TB) drive until the ordered Drobo arrived. I now use the Drobo as the main media server while running a daily Drobo Copy to the WD ShareSpace. My libs are backed up in two places now. To get all of my content back, I sent an email to Apple and they authorized a redownload of my entire purchase history. Only took 2 weeks at 200Mbps (I live in FInland and our Internet screams) to put most things back. While there are faster systems, I can not recommend the Drobo enough to someone that just wants to share and serve files. The drive mismatching and hot swapping are in my opinion worth the slower speed.

        What you might want to mention to people who put their iTunes lib on a NAS or locally hosted device such as mine is to create a share when the system boots, i.e. Go to System Preferences, Users and Groups (Sorry if your system says something different, I am Beta Testing Lion and things are a bit different), Login Items, click the plus sign “+”, and in the shared list select where you drive is. Once this is in the start up list, your computer will always make a connection to the library. iTunes has a habit of forgetting where it’s libraries are when they are not stored locally. Also you have to make sure that in iTunes the box in iTunes, Preferences, Advanced: “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library” is unchecked. This way iTunes does not try to copy the content to your local drive but to your NAS (Drobo) instead. If anyone needs more info about this, I can write a small tutorial.

        Again, thanks for the great article Terry.

  8. Hi
    Thanks for the article, i to have the drobo fs and very enjoy it after a bumpy start.
    At first I liked it a lot till its first then second drive got corrupted.

    A painful way to be reminded of backing up the backups so to speak.
    Took 14 hours to rebuild its self which leads to the question, what is a really good UPS to make sure your drobo has good power during such a long rebuild of the data?

    I was lucky that the data was still on the old pile of drives in the other office, but it did knock my confidence of drobo.

    After 3 stable months it is working fine, I do a daily backup of the drobo and all seems well.

    The only problem for me is that it is quite slow even when using jumbo frames, i find the 2tb usb drives so much faster, but having the mac see my 4-5 drives as one super drive is a huge plus for my workflow

  9. Thanks for a great and insightful review that answers ‘real life’ questions and issues.

    I have been looking at the Drobo FS as a shared active storage system for my wife’s and my growing nature photo collection. I presently have an internal 2TB RAID 1 (2x2TB) on my Mac Pro for Lightroom catalogs and image files. My wife is running an external 1TB on her iMac for her Lightroom catalogs and image files. Additionally, I am running a 1TB Time Capsule for back up of my active data.

    I am looking at the Drobo FS as a network connected storage as we would both be able to access the same storage mass, thus making the job of managing the capacity and backup much easier.

    My my first question has to do with speed of the FS in this environment as LR and PS would be accessing files on the drobo while searching and modifying them. Second, I was looking for your opinion on whether a ‘green drive’ (approx 4950 rpm) is fast enough, or should I look at the standard 7200 rpm drives as more appropriate? Third, I believe that each user must have a separate share space. Is it possible to have a shared space? If a shared share space is possible, would it be beneficial for this use and setup.

    Thanks and keep up the good work!

    1. Thanks, but like I said… I’ve never used an FS as a file sharing device. This is my first one and I ONLY USE IT FOR TIME MACHINE backups of my other Drobos. With that said, I did do a couple of basic Finder copy tests and it copied over at a reasonable speed. My advise is that if you plan to work off the FS, don’t put slower drives in it! Go with 7200 or 10,000 RPM drives for optimum performance.

  10. Informative article and thread! thanks

    Is there a reason to wait for the Thunderbolt version of DROBO?

  11. Terry – my current “server” is an extra SATA HD in my MacPro Tower, and my 3 Macs have separate MyBooks for Time Machine backup. We have 3 people accessing one WORK HD (me directly, other 2 via ethernet file sharing) to work in InDesign, Photoshop etc. I know I need something that is not dependent on one specific Mac (if it goes down, nobody can access files); so the Drobo looks great. But will we notice a slowdown if we’re all working directly off the Drobo via gigabit ethernet?

    Also – the Drobo website recommended using 3 partitions on the same drobo array: A for network server, B for Time Machine Backups, and C (or more) for SuperDuper bootable HD backups of connected Macs. Makes me nervous — a lot of eggs in one basket there. What do you suggest?

    p.s. Thanks for your help!

  12. Pingback: Drobo FS « PC Fitness Online

  13. Hi Terry,
    really great article. I currently run a 4-Bay Drobo and I am really happy with it but I would like to have a network based TimeCapsule like NAS too, so I am thinking about switching from Drobo to DroboFS. Did you try to just move disks from a Drobo to a DroboFS? Is this possible w/o loosing the data or would I need to transfer the data to a different system before moving the spindles from Drobo to DroboFS? Did you try this?
    Thanks,
    Olli

    1. You should be able to move the drives over from one Drobo to another Drobo (according to Drobo) although I’ve never tried it going from one model to another.

      1. Actually I tried it in the meantime. It is NOT possible to move disks from a Drobo to a Drobo FS w/o loosing the data. The Drobo FS will say that its firmware is not compatible with the disks until you reinitialize the Drobo FS which deletes all data…..

  14. Hi Terry,

    Just wondering if I can use the drobo fs to backup files from both mac and pcs at the same time?

    Thanks

    Jo

  15. I have been using the FS to store and stream our movie and music collection to a variety of devices. The movies stream as either .m4v (handbrake ATV2 profile) or as complete dvds (via RipIt). To watch our movies outside of the house, we use playon using its local media (beta) option. Just like iTunes, just point Playon to the “movies” or “music” directory on the FS.

    I was also initially concerned with reports of the drobos slow network speeds but I have not had any issues.

    Other devices that have successfully streamed music and movies from the FS are the boxee box and a brite-view cinema. I have a Roku that I should plug in and test. The PS3 does not see the FS without using drobo apps or Playon. I have been very happy with the FS and its performance. I recommend using a very large capacity UPS to keep the power flowing full time to the FS.

  16. Generally agree with your review. Like all DROBOs the FS is a joy to set up and these days, theyre rock solid. It’s a great device for backup, full stop. It’s not a high-speed general purpose NAS. I’ve had throughput basically hovering around that of a USB2 drive connected to an Airport Extreme, and that on gigabit Ether and all. Having said that, I ran one as a networked TM backup for all my Macs (and I’ve got a few) for about three years and apart from the speed issue (which doesn’t matter that much wrt time machine, really) that was just fine, had four drives in, about a third of space used, one drive failed. Slotted out the failed drive, Drobo rebuilt redundancy with the remaining three ones, When the replacement drive arrived, I just slotted that one, back to full capacity. Drobos are great for non-stop that way. I have recently moved on to a 3rd Gen 4-bay for backup… Got another mac mini and use it solely as a TM and OS update cacheing server. Even moved my productive Thunderbolt array (a Promise R4) ro a 3rd Gen. Why? Drive replacement hassle and cost, and general extensibility.

    PS.: the Drobo FS soldiers on at the house of two good friends… as a centralized TB backup for their macs.
    PPS: even with a drobo as TM target, I backup essential stuff twice. There’s another small raid-1 chassis that serves as a secondary time machine location, If you’re paranoid (other than just realistic. Things can go wrong and they will), you can have a third and implement a Grandfather-Father-Son three stage backup).

    Juat my 0 0/2,

    Karsten

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