yrh0413 said:Hi David, you might be interested to read up on how Drobo works: The Drobo FS in-depth, Part 1: what it is, how it works. It seems to me that you might have assumed that Drobo is just another manufacturer for RAID boxes, it really isn't that simple.
In a RAID array there is always overheads for parity bits/ redundancy; Drobo is no magic but it has it's own proprietary RAID technology to have a logical array consisting of different-size hard disks. Like I said I have configured QNAP NAS before and I truly understand what you said in terms of RAID expansion and RAID migration. Drobo's implementation of RAID is different, no hocus-pocus here but it is different.
Cost: Drobo has high upfront cost on the enclosure, but in long run it will be cheaper as I can increase its volume anytime.
Ease of use: Drobo wins hands down. Nothing to configure, just pop in the drives and it is usable in less than 5 minutes.
Data safety: no data recovery out there can perform data recovery on Drobo boxes. Backup is a must for any form of storage.
I have already read up on beyondRaid, it is the same concept as hybrid raid in Synology, hence I say it is nothing surprising to me at all, though it does handle the chunking of data proprietary which is how it differs. No recovery option is the biggest no-no to me, which is why I didn't choose drobo during my selection previously. For the cost you have mentioned, it is exactly the same as any raid conversion, so it really isn't new. The ease of use is really... Erm ok I don't know, perhaps it is really better. Behind scene,you will know it better when you use it.
I have no bad experience with drobo, hence I won't undermine it's capability. But if you are telling me there is something drobo is doing that is better than Synology and qnap, then I suppose thin provisioning is good, though i don't quite buy the file level chunking because how I envision is file level mimic of raid is an expensive process for performance, which if u don't mind, then it is okay. Yet there is nothing that is showing it is a better approach except for In house flexibility. Given space expansion is much less than 5% of all operations that you will using on the nas, I see it as no much value in overall. Besides expansion in raid 5 system is a well known and tested operation, hence I am all ready to exercise it with confidence. The complexity in calculation of which configuration will give X number of recoverable failure disk is quite tricky, which is why drobo did offer a "calculator" to help users. For me, simple and well tested is my paramount selection of durability.
From a stand point of operations, no recovery is again the killer of any good storage system. As for me using Synology, I am using S3 to upload some of my most important data currently stored in nas from Synology directly without an external system.
So you make the call then
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