First of all, let’s take a look at [...] ]]> Today Data Robotics (Drobo) are announcing a new range of storage devices specifically targeted at business customers.  However this is a market that already has many players; what are they offering and how will they fare in this already competitive market?

New Devices

First of all, let’s take a look at the new storage devices.  Nomenclature has been changed over previous models (business people like nice code names) and so we have the following new devices:

• B800fs – 8-bay NAS model
• B800i – 8-bay iSCSI SAN model
• B1200i – 12-bay iSCSI SAN model

It’s a pretty easy guess that the codes mean “B” for business, “fs” for file sharing “i” for iSCSI and the numbers designate the drive count in the chassis.  What’s new here from a hardware perspective is the 12-drive model, specifically designed as a rack-mount device.  Now business-class storage devices are very different from those used in an office environment by (for example) media developers or for local backup.  Consequently Drobo have had to step up to the mark and improve the resiliency of the existing hardware.  Therefore the new B1200i support all hot-swappable components (except the passive backplane) and additional power supplies and Ethernet connections have been added.  Note that the B800 models have not been upgraded in this way and still have a single power supply and dual Ethernet connections.  Images of the new devices are shown in this post.  It’s interesting to see that the B1200i rear view shows four expansion slots for connectivity, of which only two appear to be used.  Presumably the other two are for future expansion.

Software and Features

As mentioned earlier, the small device business market is a competitive place; EMC have just released their VNXe product, HP have the P2000 array; IBM recently released the StorWize v7000.  These storage appliances are fully specified devices offering advanced features for a low cost.  The features and software component could be an issue for Drobo.  The new models offer the excellent BeyondRAID functionality and only an additional tiering  option.

• BeyondRAID is Drobo’s thin provisioning and RAID technology combined.  In essence, data is laid out across the disks using RAID at the block level rather than replicating whole disks.  This methodology enables dis-similar disk capacities to be used in the device and for disks to be replaced or upgraded over time in order to increase capacity.  BeyondRAID provides the customers many advantages; disks can be purchased and added to the system as required, even though a greater logical capacity of storage has been configured.  This logical capacity doesn’t need to be changed as physical capacity increases.  Drives of greater capacity can be added over time, so customers can purchase the most effective price/capacity drive for their needs.  Also a single drive can be replaced without rebuilding the entire RAID set, only copying data that was on any removed drive.
• Data-aware Tiering.  The new Drobo model now support automated tiering of data across different device types, including SATA, SAS and SSD disks.  Tiering uses fixed algorithms to determine the best placement for data based on usage.  My first thoughts were that a fixed tiering algorithm might not be appropriate, however taking a step back and looking at the market this device is targeted for, many customers taking their first steps into SAN technology may not want or need to understand how things work under the covers.

However good the hardware is, ease of management is all about the software.  As a result, Drobo have released a new version of their dashboard, screenshots of which can be seen in the attached images.  Better management software for Drobo was always a requirement.  The existing dashboard doesn’t scale easily with multiple devices and there are a few major flaws within the software that would reduce the appeal to business.  It appears that the scalability issues have been addressed, but only a test-drive will tell how much better the software really is.

Summary

The entry-level SAN array market is becoming increasingly competitive.  There are many companies targeting this space, not including the big storage names I’ve mentioned earlier.  Data Robotics are pitching the new business models from £1409 ($2000) upwards, which presumably is for the B800i rather than the 12-bay model.  Although this does exclude disks, the price does seem competitive, as drives can be purchased by the customer at the lowest cost and added as required.  The competition will cite lack of features, but these are easily added with software releases and will be key to the success of the new devices.  In addition, the management software needs to be business-class or will be a major stumbling block.  Here are just a few features of the existing software that need to be improved:

• Pre-emptive hot-swap - currently a drive replacement is a recovery operation.  When a drive is removed, the Drobo rebuilds RAID from the remaining disks.  It would be better to allow this replacement process to happen pre-emptively, copying data off to a new disk (if slots are available) before the a disk is removed.  This also reduces the impact on performance as RAID rebuilds need to happen as quickly as possible, whereas planned data migrations can be run as background tasks.
• iSCSI Management - the existing iSCSI interface isn’t fully featured.  The dashboard only indicates when a single host has logged into an iSCSI target/LUN but doesn’t indicate the server name or IP address.  This can be frustrating in large environments where, for instance, an over-zealous VMware host acquires all LUNs on a device.  Sharing of LUNs is also not permitted today.
• Capacity Management - although the Drobo understands thin provisioning, it only reports utilised capacity for devices that have a recognised file system and are connected to a host running the Drobo dashboard.  However the device itself must know how much data is being used by each LUN, irrespective of the file format.  That data needs to be presented to the user, otherwise real capacity planning can’t be done.

Overall, I think Drobo are making an exciting move into the business space.  Price sensitivity is an issue in this market and the initial costs are low enough to be attractive to many new customers.  Data Robotics also offer a maintenance contract (DroboCare) for replacement parts, another key business feature.  Key success factors will be the improvement management interface and addition of new features to the device over time.  With 150,000 devices sold to date, Drobo appears to be a force to be reckoned with for the future.

The DroboElite is the most fully featured storage array in the Data Robotics range of devices.  Regular readers will know I’ve posted frequently on these devices, from the first ]]>

Drobo Elite - Rear View

This post is the first in a series covering the DroboElite SMB storage device from Data Robotics Inc.

The DroboElite is the most fully featured storage array in the Data Robotics range of devices.  Regular readers will know I’ve posted frequently on these devices, from the first Drobo “Classic” to the DroboPro, both of which I own and have purchased myself.  Data Robotics have kindly loaned me a DroboElite for this series of posts.  As you will see, the top of the range model offers all the features the other models provide, plus the benefits of multi-user support.

Background

The original Data Robotics storage device was what is now referred to as the Drobo “Classic”.  This was a 4-bay storage device, connecting to a single host PC/server using USB or Firewire and later eSATA.  This model evolved into the Drobo S and was complemented with the 8-bay DroboPro.  Finally, the DroboElite was released in November 2009, using the same form factor as the ‘Pro but with additional connectivity and features.  Although the ‘Pro and ‘Elite models shared the same look and feel, they are actually different products and so there’s no upgrade process to remove drives from the ‘Pro and install into an ‘Elite shell.

Physical

The DroboElite is an 8-bay device, accommodating standard 3.5″ SATA form factor drives.  The drives are inserted vertically (rather than horizontally in the 4-bay models), with drive’s top side pointing to the right.  No caddy or additional support is required.  From the front, there’s nothing to separate the ‘Pro and the ‘Elite as they look identical.  In fact, the removable magnetic front bezel only says “Drobo” and has no other distinguishing markings.  One thought worth considering for the future is providing a method of identifying multiple Drobo’s that have been installed into a rack or cabinet.  The drive lights can be flashed on and off but this only lasts for a few seconds and wouldn’t help an engineer who’s alone in a data centre or machine room.  This is a particularly important point as the ‘Elite is a multi-user device and so aimed at SMBs with machine rooms and rack-based equipment (a rack mount  kit is available).

Drobo Elite (Bezel Removed)

Turning to the back of the ‘Elite, we start to see the differences with previous models.  The major one here is the presence of two Ethernet ports, providing network redundancy and multi-pathing support for iSCSI.  The power supply is still built in (and not removable), plus there’s a power switch and a USB connector – that it.  I’m undecided as to whether an integrated PSU is a good or a bad thing and I flip back and forth between internal/external and multiple supplies each time I think about it.  On reflection, the consideration here should be that the Drobo is not a “high availability” storage array in the modular or enterprise class.  It doesn’t support mulitple controllers or other features like mirrored cache, so in reality, multiple power supplies is probably over-configuration.  Obviously dual Ethernet connections is essential in a device that will support multiple hosts; this feature provides redundancy from failures in network equipment or more likely, enables maintenance to be performed on the network infrastructure without impacting the storage.

The addition of a power switch is a positive move (and essential as the power supply is now integrated).  Personally I’d have preferred the power switch to be mounted behind the magnetic bezel on the front of the unit.  This would mean once plumbed in, the ‘Elite (and ‘Pro for that matter) would be managed purely from the front, for disk insertions/removals.

I’ve one final comment on the physical aspects of the ‘Elite and that covers the insertion and removal of drives.  I never like removing spinning active drives and unfortunately there’s still no way to either mark a drive for removal or spin it down.  The unique BeyondRAID feature of the Drobo series means that any drive can be removed from a unit and the device ‘self heals’ to compensate for the loss of capacity, rebalancing blocks of data redundantly across the remaining drives.  Of course drive removal doesn’t have to be done after a failure; the whole benefit of the Drobos is the capacity increase functionality (I frequently swap drives in/out as part of testing).  I’d therefore like to be able to spin down or at least highlight a drive I intended to pull, via software, before I physically pull it.  It gives me more confidence that I’ve pulled the correct drive when managing multiple units.

Additional specifications can be found here: http://www.drobo.com/pdf/droboelite-datasheet.pdf

In the next post, I’ll look at connectivity protocol support.

At first my thought was that it wasn’t possible for the Drobo Dashboard to manage more than one device.  Currently [...] ]]> This is a problem that’s been on my mind for some time; can the Drobo Dashboard see more than one device at the same time?  Well, it turns out the answer is yes.

At first my thought was that it wasn’t possible for the Drobo Dashboard to manage more than one device.  Currently I have a Drobo connected into a DroboShare and a shiny new DroboPro, which is serving iSCSI LUNs to my ESX server.  I’ve not been able to get Drobo Dashboard on my main Windows 7 PC to work correctly.  It seems to have issues seeing the DroboShare.  I’ve checked all the obvious stuff (like firewalls) but still can’t get it to work.  Anyway, I was testing connectivity from my MacBook to the DroboPro using USB and to my surprise, both the DroboShare (called Drobo1) and my DroboPro (called DroboNAS2) both appeared in the GUI.  Have a look at the attached graphic.  You can see the Drobos listed at the top of the screen; this can be used to toggle between a display of both devices.

Now this is the Mac version of the Dashboard.  I can’t vouch for the Windows version as mine clearly doesn’t work correctly, however I imagine it works the same way.  So the answer to the question; “Can Drobo Dashboard manage Multiple Drobos?” is clearly – Yes.

Oh, one other thing worthy of note; I can confirm that the DroboPro definitely will *not* let me connect to the USB port while it is serving iSCSI LUNs through IP.  That’s a real shame, as I can’t manage the device without an outage.  Bit of a showstopper, I think.

Review: DroboPro – Part I

Previously I discussed a few frustrations with connecting my new DroboPro to ESXi, the target environment for my new device.  I’ve now managed to get the [...] ]]> This is the second in a series of posts looking at the DroboPro from Data Robotics Inc.  Previous post(s):

Review: DroboPro – Part I

Previously I discussed a few frustrations with connecting my new DroboPro to ESXi, the target environment for my new device.  I’ve now managed to get the ‘Pro connected and visible within ESXi.  See the attached screenshot image taken from my production ESXi server.

So far, I’ve configured eight 2TB LUNs (although the DroboPro itself only has a capacity of 5TB, 2x 2TB and a single 1TB drive) which are numbered 0-7; the LUN column on the screenshot.  Compare this to the LUNs presented from my ix4-200d, which has three LUNs all numbered ’0′.  The difference is in the way the DroboPro is choosing to present iSCSI devices and the Runtime Name column gives a clue.  In standard Controller/Target/LUN or CxTyLz/CxTyDz methodology, the ix4 disks are using separate targets to map out each iSCSI LUN, with the LUN number always ’0′.  The Target setting is analagous to a storage port, typically a physical port on large fibre channel arrays.  The LUNs are then numbered on that port.  The DroboPro presents all its iSCSI LUNs on the same target (in this instance number 3) and so the LUNs are numbered from 0.

This method of presentation doesn’t necessarily cause a problem, but is just a different way of presenting the LUNs.  Presumably with the Drobo Elite the multi-user functionality is achieved by enabling multiple targets per Drobo, each mapped to a separate user.  In any case, I now have visibility of my DroboPro within ESXi.  Time, to write some data.

I’d been looking for a decent home/home office storage device for some time. [...] ]]> I’ve had my Drobo for a few months now. For those of you not familiar with the technology, the Drobo is a storage device from a company called Data Robotics. Follow the link above to their website for full details.

I’d been looking for a decent home/home office storage device for some time. RAID support was a must and initially I thought I wanted NAS because my solution at the time was to keep a server running continuously. The server performs other tasks and I was using it for file serving too.

Previously I had taken the plunge with the Linksys NSLU2 which runs a modified version of Linux. Unfortunately at the time, the device only supported ext3 filesystems and as I loaded the device with more data, responses became erratic and I found the exported systems going read-only and losing content. Lucky for me the problem seemed to be the device rather than the actual data on disk and I was able to recover everything using a little software utility which allowed me to read ext3 devices on Windows. This experience scared me and it was time to look for something else.

The Drobo hit the spot for a number of reasons; firstly it was a dedicated device which took SATA II drives. It has a USB connection, allowing me to plug it directly into my existing server and third (and at the time most importantly) Data Robotics had just released a NAS head which could be used with the standard Drobo, or removed without affecting the format of data on the device itself.

So, as I said, I’ve had it for a few months and what is there to say about it? Well, not a lot. It works – and so far has worked flawlessly. But there are a few things of note.

Firstly, I have a BIOS incompatibility issue; when my server reboots, if the Drobo is plugged into a USB port, it hangs the server. I haven’t bothered to resolve this yet; weighing up the relative merits of just living with this problem or upgrading the BIOS on my server, then I fall squarely on the side of accepting the workaround of unplugging the drive at boot time and plugging it back in as the system comes up. If I was using a standalone PC, then I would obviously have fixed the problem.

Second, I was interested to see that despite my system having two 1TB drives and RAID protection, the X: drive I’d created reported back a 2TB file system. Was RAID on or not? Well, yes it was; the Drobo presents a 2TB file system regardless of the drives you have installed. It’s virtualisation in action! As you allocate all of the physical storage available, you get prompted to add or swap drives to match the physical demand. I like this feature as it’s a painless way to upgrade your storage over time and as terabyte drives drop in price (currently I’ve seen them at 1TB for £99) it helps smooth out the cost of upgrade because drive sizes can be mixed and matched.

Last, there’s the issue of firmware upgrade. Version 1.1.1 of firmware is available and it was a simple task to upgrade, however I can’t implement the code without rebooting the Drobo and that requires closing all the active files accessing the Drobo on the server. This is not a major problem though and wouldn’t be a problem on a standalone PC.

All in all, the Drobo looks good and does the job. Having 1TB of new capacity has encouraged me to spend time moving my data over in a controlled and structured fashion. The process will take months (a subject I will return to), but in the meantime I have bags of spare capacity and an easy upgrade path for both additional capacity and NAS connectivity.

Now, if anyone out there would like me to review their NAS product, then I’d be only too happy….