drobo-utils and Drobo (gen 3)

[Doug L]

Is the drobo-utils project still being updated? If so, will it add support for Drobo (Gen 3)?

Have installed it, but it keeps repeating the same message: "hoho! multiple partition types! Brave are we not?"

Ref: 

Drobo (Gen 3) with 4 HGST 6tb drives

Formatted with GParted as 1 ext3 16TB partition

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

[Peter Silva]

drobo-utils is not really still developed, no.  I had developed for the original USB 2.0 drobo, but I found that model too slow.  I moved on to using raw storage with E-SATA.  If Drobo would provide some hardware, like a usb-3.0 unit, which is fast enough (unlike the first gen stuff) I would maintain it, but I'm not going to buy each model of their hardware.  I need at least two units to make it worth while, so that offloading can happen.

If some kind soul wants to send me a drobopro or two, I would enjoy playing with that, and perhaps firm up ISCSI support.  For now, I sold one of my old usb drobo's to a user (for cheap) whose unit had failed.  I still have one left on a shelf.

I'm also open to handing the project off to someone, but no-one has presented themselves.   

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[Parfumeur]

Just a little side note.  With Drobo, sooner or later you are guaranteed to loose all your data.  There is no user recovery, and Drobo support is of little help.  There are some third party recovery services, but beware.

Stick with LaCie and Windows Server, or you can gamble on QNAP or Synology.  At least you will find recovery software for these NAS.

When Drobo works, it's OK, when it fails, AND IT WILL, all is lost.  It's YOUR fault for not doing backups (as per Drobo support).  Enjoy.

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-= Cß =-

[Doug L]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, I do not have the expertise to take over the drobo-utils project. On a side note the Gen 3 is USB 3.

Doug

[Alejandro Mata]

While it sounds likely, it is not true, I've developed a program to recover out of drobos, from the first units until almost the new ones( I haven't tried all). Unfortunately, I can't release any code or tool since it belongs to the company I work for ( http://www.restoringdata.ca ), and because it is a patented system and drobo doesn't seem to care to give us any feedback or comment, you can still send it to us, We have successfully recovered several cases now. And just for the record, RAID in all of its flavours, is not a backup. Regardless of what any vendor says, or even if there is tools to recover or not.

Alejandro Mata-Sanchez

[Parfumeur]

Peter,

You probably do not remember, but 3-5 years ago we had a little chit chat about my Drobo failure on the Drobo Forum - Drobo Space (run by Drobo and later upgrade to a new Forum - I think it was a way to delete some of the discussions).  Back then there was strong convictions that Drobo could do no wrong, it was all the user's faults.

Just curious, are you still using Drobo as a NAS or Storage.  If not, what did you switch to?  I'm only asking, 'cause you mention one left on a shelf.

I still have 4 drives I hoped to salvage, that with Drobo's help claimed had been placed in read only mode, so I could mirror for future repair, only to find out that their OS, even in read only mode trashes the drives.  The box/Dashboard clearly stated it was in read only, yet it trashed the RAID.

I forgot my user name on the Drobo SIG,  I may have been: equifoto

On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 8:48 PM, Peter Silva <pe...@bsqt.homeip.net> wrote:

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-= Cß =-

[Peter Silva]

I remember, but don't think anything will help you if the drives have been written to.  sorry.   

My current SAN is an ARM based 4-bay Q-NAP box, with the firmware replaced with Debian, and the e-sata tower with eight bays attached to it, so 12 bays total.  works OK, but very geeky.  not shrink-wrapped at all.

If I were doing it again, I would likely pay the extra money to get an intel-based one.  the install process of Debian on ARM seems a bit to fragile for confidence, and while the performance is OK, but would be better with intel, I think.

[Parfumeur]

Glad to read that you are off the Drobo cult.   Indeed I went back about 10 minutes ago to the Drobo Forum to refresh my memory, and noted my discussions back in 2013.  Indeed, I did rant a bit, but I noted the 'Drobo flag wavers', who preached Drobo with a religious fervor, and could see no wrong with the black box.

I too changed to QNAP, and could not be happier.  I did have two separate drive failures in the QNAP, and no data loss (think it was a shipping/packaging issue from the vendor).  I'm not as savvy as you to hack the firmware.

I tried a Synology 8 bay for a couple of months.  Nothing really wrong, but gave that to my son for his home theatre.  He too had a drive failure, and no data loss after the swap. The unit remapped/restored all the files after the swap, very quickly.

I never had a MS Win Server, but a colleague has one for his business, self maintained / supported, and I admire his setup. I did once a recovery of a Unix OS / RAID system, and it was a breeze, a tad long in time, but easy.  AND at least you have control of YOUR files and the recovery.

Cheers,

-= Chris =-

Equifoto Photography

[Parfumeur]

Indeed, I have spoken to several recovery companies, but the key is "There is no user recovery", none could or would sell me a tool.

I had a lot of confidential data on the Drobo (albeit I had 98%+ saved on CD and external USB drives which were used to load the data - thankfully I had not wiped the drives), so I managed to restore most.  But I did loose some data after modifying and working with the data on the Drobo.  My loss for listening to the Drobo cult.  Maybe I should recommend Drobo to my competitors <vbg>.

Thank you for the offer.

[Doug L]

Please, keep this on topic. At no time did I ask about backups, recovery or NAS. If you do not have any information about drobo-utils or managing a Drobo on Linux, then please be quiet.