Drobo pro connected via iSCSI

[Jeremy Garchow]

The drobo is an archive/backup/slow storage device. I would not use it for editing.

Jeremy

[Rob Grauert]

We have a couple Drobos at my work. They are a nuisance.

First of all, they don’t consistently connect via iSCSI. We’ve contacted Drobo a few times about this and all they’re really said is, “yea, you could try buying another ethernet board.” So FW800 is the only connection that works consistently…most of the time.

Also, Drobos aren’t meant for editing. In fact, the discs slow down when they are filled to a certain capacity and get slower as you keep filling them. So even if you do get the iSCSI to work, you still may not achieve the speed you desire.

If you need performance, buy a RAID built for it. Drobos are made more for back up…at least that the impression I have.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com
command-r.tumblr.com

[Don Walker]

Save yourself the hassel….. DO NOT BUY A DROBO! I bought one last summer for archive only and it still has a disk go missing from time to time…….. Customer non support was no help.
Don Walker

[Michael Gissing]

I was given a project on a Drobo once. Once was enough. I had all sorts of trouble getting it to reliably connect via FW800 and although running HDV codec, I had to render as ProRes on my internal RAID as it wasn’t fast enough to play ProRes 1920 x 1080 which I can comfortably do with Lacie and WD FW800 drives.

Big thumbs down here for speed and connect-ability.

[Zane Barker]

The Drobo is a GREAT product for backups, NOT for editing.

The redundancy features are AMAZING, but they are slow to wake from sleep and the data speeds are slow compared to other other FW800 devices.

I didnt buy my Drobo for editing I got it to store my large itunes library on and to use for time machine, and to archive finished videos on. For those things its great.

Hindsight is always 1080p

[Phil Bucci]

Alright thats a resounding stay away. Thanks for the advice all. I will stay away.

[Rocky Robinson]

We’ve had a Drobo Pro hooked in via iSCSI on our MacPro since December. Awesome storage capability. No so much as an edit drive. I use it to make space available on our CalDigit HDPro for real editing, and as an archive device.
So far, so good. We’re dealing with DV and DVCPRO-HD compression mostly.

I have used it to put small files (Like archived spots and IDs), on the timeline, and haven’t seen any out of ordinary hiccups yet. But when I used it once as a device to render to, there was a huge speed difference (slower). But it still worked.

So here it’s used as designed, as a backup/arhcive drive.
My only complaint is that I’d rather it cost half as much.

[Mark Fuccio]

Hello, Mark Fuccio from Drobo here.

Some comments. First, there are several model Drobos, and they have *very* different performance characteristics.

The 4-drive Drobo has FW800 and USB connections. Good fit for bulk storage or backup. Not recommended for editing HD.

DroboPro is an 8 drive system that uses iSCSI/Gigagit ethernet. Its fast. Perfect for editing. Using Blackmagic’s Disk Speed test rates it 90MB/sec read, 80MB/sec for writes. iSCSI support requires OS X 10.5.6 or later. I wonder if Rob, the poster above, might have used an unsupported version of OS X.

DroboElite is an 8 drive system with twu iSCSI/Gigabit ethernet ports. Rich Harrington, who has a large presence here, uses one in his studios at RHEDPixel and has 3 editors doing multicam work on it almost every day.

[Rob Grauert]

“iSCSI support requires OS X 10.5.6 or later. I wonder if Rob, the poster above, might have used an unsupported version of OS X.”

Nope. I’ve got 10.6.2 on my Mac.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com
command-r.tumblr.com

[Mark Fuccio]

Do you have a case number, Robert? I can talk to the support team and have them reopen it. What version of Drobo software are you using?