https://hugo.fryguy.net/tags/drobo/Drobo - Tag - Fryguy's BlogHugo -- gohugo.ioenSat, 02 Apr 2011 02:07:13 +0000https://hugo.fryguy.net/2011/04/01/drobo-my-impressions/Sat, 02 Apr 2011 02:07:13 +0000Fryguyhttps://hugo.fryguy.net/2011/04/01/drobo-my-impressions/The other week (week when I stared this post, now its a month!) I attended Tech Field Day #5 in San Jose, CA.  During this event, Drobo presented their technology to us – what it is – how it works – and where it is aimed.  I have to admit that I have been looking at a Drobo for a few years now and never pulled the trigger – until now.  Let me preface that by saying I did purchase a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ a few years ago instead of a Drobo – and I do still have the Netgear – but am glad that I have added the Drobo to my home storage solution.  I purchased this unit from Drobo directly, using my own funds, and did use a publicly available discount code of BESTDEALEVER
What is a Drobo, in case you are wondering – well – let me let Cali Lewis explain and demonstrate:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05yqvb5n36M&feature=player_detailpage]
Ok, so now that I have shown the obligatory video that everyone has probably already seen, I can continue.  There are a few differences in the unit that I purchased, Drobo FS, and the one in the video.  The two big differences are that the Drobo FS holds 5 drives and also has a built-in Gigabit Ethernet port.  No USB or other connectivity required, just plug it into the network and go!
Why did I chose to buy a Drobo when I already have a ReadyNAS from Netgear?  It comes down to the simplicity of the Drobo and how it works.  The Drobo is very simple, there are no drive carriers, the lights are very easy to understand (green, red, yellow), the web interface is simple and direct, and you do not have to be a Computer person to really use it.  I felt that this last piece of information is key – if ever I lost a drive when I was traveling  it would be easy to walk any member of my family through the process of replacing a the bad drive.
While looking at the Drobo you can quickly gauge the health of the unit. In the picture below you can see that all the drives are healthy (Green lights on the right) and the utilization is about 30% or so (Blue lights across the bottom).  What is really nice about this is that you do not need to look at the control panel software to see what is going on with the system.  You can just look at the unit and know that you have space and all the drives are good.  Heck, even a cell phone photo like the one below lets you know the health of the unit just by looking!

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