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Re: NAS suggestions

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On 2015-03-05, Nelson <nelson@nowhere.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2 Mar 2015 11:12:44 -0500, Jolly Roger wrote
> (in article <cljgfsF7fubU1@mid.individual.net>):
>
>> I have a Drobo S with 17 TB of hard drives installed
>
> Just curious.  Is that 17 TB of redundant storage (34 TB actual)?  I'm 
> trying to figure out how you get 34 TB in 5 bays :)  

No, it's a Drobo S currently with two 4 TB drives and three 3 TB drives
installed for a total of 17 TB, formatted as a single 17.59 TB partition
with dual redundancy, so I can lose two drives without losing access to
any data. According to Drobo Dashboard, that comes out to 15.46 TB
actual capacity, with 8.13 TB available for data, 1.81 TB reserved for
expansion, 5.49 TB used for protection, and 14.32 GB of overhead. I'm
currently using only 6.36 TB of available capacity.

> Also the Drobo 
> reviews on Amazon are quite mixed with a lot of _really_bad_ 
> experiences including total data loss.  Not gainsaying your experience, 
> but for that much money I'd expect at least better product support 
> reviews.

Which model(s) are the reviews about, specifically? Were people using
them in unsupported configurations? Context does make a difference.
Older models were more problematic than current models. I've owned an
original Drobo (revision 2) and this Drobo S, and find this model (even
though it is old and not sold anymore) to be much faster and less
problematic.  The problems I had with the original Drobo were better
classified as annoyances, and are non-existent with the Drobo S. I never
lost data with either one. 

> I've been tempted to replace my Nobro rat's nest solution many times 
> but can never justify the expense, especially with these mixed reviews.

Oh, so "Nobro" must mean "some standard "dumb" RAID array", right? It
would help if you'd just say what you are using, you know. ; )

> The last one that caught my eye was the Thecus N4310 
> (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/16/review_thecus_n4310_4_bay_nas_b
> ox/?page=1) but the cost of all those new drives put me off.  Plus it's 
> still not big enough to take all the data on my existing drives (~ 12 
> TB).

"Dumb" RAID array solutions like this are nowhere near the Drobo in
terms of ease of use and problem-free recovery from drive failures. Some
obvious differences off the top of my head:

With "dumb" RAID arrays:

You typically have to install drives into drive sleds rather than just
sliding the bare drive into the unit as you would with a Drobo.

You often have much less freedom regarding mixing different drive types
and sizes - with the Drobo, you can use any combination you want.

You typically cannot re-arrange drives after formatting. With a Drobo,
you can move drives around all you want without reformatting.

You typically cannot add drives to the array without a whole lot of
hassle, and possibly even reformatting the array. With a Drobo, you
literally just slide a new drive into the unit and you are done.

You almost always have to learn fine technical details and limitations
of different RAID levels to use them effectively. With Drobos, you
select between two protection levels: single disk redundancy or dual
disk redundancy, and the Drobo automatically determines the best
algorithm to protect from drive failure depending on the number of
drives that are inserted.

Thin provisioning (the ability to create volumes much larger than actual
available space so you can easily grow them later on by adding more or
bigger drives) is often much less flexible, or not supported at all.

You sometimes have a "virtual hot spare" option, where you can designate
one drive to be a "hot spare" which sits unused, waiting for a failure
to happen. That's wasted drive space. With a Drobo, there's no need for
that, and all drives are always utilized.

Last, but not least, when a drive failure happens, you are typically
stuck again learning the finer technical details about the particular
RAID level you are using and stuck dealing with recovery all on your own
with little assistance from the dumb RAID array. With a Drobo, you
literally pull out the bad hard drive, slide in any new/replacement
drive, and walk away - without losing access to any of your data while
the recovery takes place in the background.

There are other advantages that I'm sure I haven't mentioned. While
there are a few products out there that compete with the Drobo, the vast
majority of RAID arrays aren't even in the same ball park.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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Thread

NAS suggestions Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> - 2015-03-01 15:48 -0500
  Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-01 21:07 +0000
    Re: NAS suggestions Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> - 2015-03-02 01:13 -0500
      Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-02 16:12 +0000
        Re: NAS suggestions Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> - 2015-03-02 12:47 -0500
          Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-02 18:06 +0000
            Re: NAS suggestions Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> - 2015-03-02 13:47 -0500
              Re: NAS suggestions Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2015-03-02 14:03 -0500
        Re: NAS suggestions Nelson <nelson@nowhere.com> - 2015-03-05 06:34 -0500
          Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-05 12:54 +0000
            Re: NAS suggestions Nelson <nelson@nowhere.com> - 2015-03-05 07:59 -0500
              Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-05 13:22 +0000
                Re: NAS suggestions Nelson <nelson@nowhere.com> - 2015-03-05 08:33 -0500
                Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-05 14:38 +0000
            Re: NAS suggestions Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2015-03-05 19:00 +0000
        Re: NAS suggestions Nelson <nelson@nowhere.com> - 2015-03-05 07:57 -0500
          Re: NAS suggestions Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2015-03-05 09:01 -0500
            Re: NAS suggestions Nelson <nelson@nowhere.com> - 2015-03-05 11:58 -0500
              Re: NAS suggestions Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2015-03-05 12:18 -0500
              Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-05 17:48 +0000
          Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-05 14:06 +0000
            Re: NAS suggestions Nelson <nelson@nowhere.com> - 2015-03-05 11:55 -0500
              Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-05 17:46 +0000
      Re: NAS suggestions Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2015-03-02 11:35 -0500
        Re: NAS suggestions Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> - 2015-03-02 12:50 -0500
        Re: NAS suggestions JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@vaxination.ca> - 2015-03-02 14:11 -0500
          Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-02 19:13 +0000
            Re: NAS suggestions JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@vaxination.ca> - 2015-03-02 14:49 -0500
              Re: NAS suggestions Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2015-03-03 09:31 +1300
                Re: NAS suggestions Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> - 2015-03-02 15:58 -0500
                Re: NAS suggestions Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2015-03-02 17:32 -0500
                Re: NAS suggestions Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> - 2015-03-03 07:18 -0500
                Re: NAS suggestions Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2015-03-03 12:23 -0500
                Re: NAS suggestions Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> - 2015-03-03 14:30 -0500
                Re: NAS suggestions Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2015-03-04 09:07 +1300
                Re: NAS suggestions Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2015-03-03 15:05 -0500
                Re: NAS suggestions nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2015-03-02 18:05 -0500
                Re: NAS suggestions Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2015-03-03 13:07 +1300
              Re: NAS suggestions Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-03-03 00:55 +0000
          Re: NAS suggestions nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2015-03-02 14:14 -0500
          Re: NAS suggestions Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2015-03-02 14:43 -0500
          Re: NAS suggestions Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2015-03-03 08:56 +1300
          Re: NAS suggestions Warren Oates <warren.oates@gmail.com> - 2015-03-02 15:56 -0500

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