IV. Getting the most from Drobo
IV. Getting the most from Drobo:
Optimizing for Maximum Capacity
or Lowest Cost of Ownership
Depending on what your needs are, you may want to ensure you
have the absolute largest capacity, or that your applications run
most smoothly, or that you don’t overspend for capacity if you
don’t need to, especially with the cost of drives going down all the
time. Here’s how to get the most from Drobo for your situation.
Getting the most capacity
Getting the most capacity is easy: put in the biggest drives! But be
sure you understand how to estimate usable protected capacity
which is approximately the sum of the three smallest drives minus
the largest drive. Here are a few configurations and how to esti-
mate their usable protected capacity:
250GB 250GB 250GB 500GB 500GB 750GB
+ 250GB + 300GB + 500GB + 500GB + 500GB + 750GB
+ 300GB + 500GB + 500GB + 500GB + 750GB + 750GB
400GB 750GB 750GB 750GB 750GB 750GB
= 800GB 1,050GB 1,250GB 1,500GB 1,750GB 2,250GB
(Note: this provides only a rough estimate of usable protected capacity overhead
from Drobo and your computer’s operating system, actual capacity will vary)
Getting the lowest cost of ownership
Hard drive manufacturers have announced they will start deliver-
ing one Terabyte drives (1,000GB) for the first time. Installing four
“Tera” drives into your Drobo will provide approximately three
Terabytes of usable protected space. However, be sure that you
need it. The highest capacity drives usually command a premium
price. Considering Drobo allows you to upgrade with no downtime,
migration or reconfiguration, it might make more sense to buy
whatever drive is the best value (cost per Gigabyte) and delay up-
grading capacity for as long as possible. Just add a new drive to an
empty Data Bay, or replace the smallest capacity drive with a new
one that is larger. Be sure to wait for the data optimization (blink-
ing green & yellow Data Bay Indicators) to stop (all green) before
upgrading the next drive. In other words, replacing smaller drives
with bigger ones is just fine, but only if done one drive at a time
and with time to allow Drobo to complete its optimization before
upgrading a second drive. Adding drives to empty Data Bays can
be done at any time.
Hot Tip: Remember, when you add or upsize drives to Drobo after
initial formatting, you never need to format added drives again.
Plus, you get immediate access to that additional capacity.
Let Drobo “do its thing”
Drobo is designed to actively monitor and protect your data at all
times. It is also programmed to optimize data storage so you don’t
have to. When Drobo is optimizing data, it flashes green & yel-
low Data Bay indicators. This is normal and you should just go on
doing your work reading and writing to Drobo (just don’t remove a
drive while green & yellow lights are flashing).
(13 pages)
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