[Leica] [Leica} Drobos... If you have them what can you expect?

[Frank Filippone]

Thanks you Brian for backing me up and supporting all the Drobo users out there by telling them what to expect.

If you figured out your days are numbered using Drobo, and are thinking of possible solutions, Brian has presented the Easiest and hardest solutions...

The JBOD boxes are basically external HDD Enclosures that hold a bunch of HDD.  You access then just like you would if they were not in one box but 
many. Least cost, available is sizes from 2 drives to many many many.... I found up to 24 at one point..... all inside one box. You probably do not 
need this many separate HDD bays ( holes in which you put a single HDD) but maybe you do.....   Cost is in the Hundreds of dollars for a 4 bay.... and 
up.  You can do this work yourself, it is not hard.  YOU have the skills.

Why a LAN based NAS rather than a USB based JBOD array?  Because the NAS is faster at transferring data from the actual HDD to the computer..  By a 
factor of 2-4. Search will also be faster ( photography images are basically a database sorting problem).  Each HAS has its own little processor that 
will do part of the job for you.  It also can transfer this information over the Internet, be run remotely, etc.  All things that may or most likely 
will not make a difference to you.

The absolute hardest way to do this is what Brian did... he built himself a NAS from available bits and pieces. added SW he needed, and basically did 
what any average NAS would do.  (His probably has more options, is nore flexible, has better control, more solid and robust hardware and 
software,etc.... but wayyyyy above the skill level of the average photographer.

BUT he has the skills to do this..... the big question is do you???????  No, your 16year old grandson does not.  Or maybe he does.  YMMV

In 99.9999% of user cases, you will be best off buying a NAS rather than building one ..  Cost is from about $250 (2bay) and up. ( and way up is 
possible and very $$$$$).  With modern HDD, this can save up to 22TB PER HDD!!!!!  Use two, one for backup and your total cost for a JBOD solution is 
in the order of $600.  Add about another $200 for a NAS solution.  22TB per drive.... a LOT of iPhone images! LOT!!!!  ANd you have backup space.....

In all of this discussion, it is possible in most cases to reuse your existing HDD.....cutting your overall cost to a lot less.  As in 50% to 75% of 
the replacement box cost is tied up in HDD.  The box itself is only a couple hundred to a few (!!!) thousand.

But consider, if you do decide to replace your Drobo, that all of these options take up desk space.  How much you want on it is a factor.  Your 
current old drives may be 1-2TB each.  If you decided on an 8TB Storage setup, this is roughly 4-8 drives.

The box to hold 4-8 drives is much larger and more expensive and possibly more complex.  In truth it is a tradeoff.  Each person's solution will be 
different.

A single 8TB HDD, new, might cost you  $150.  A single USB box is as cheap as $20.  You can also buy large storage drives from Seagate or WD and they 
offer good value, especially if on sale.

I think it is time to take this subject off line.  If you wish to discuss it further, contact me....I am willing to help......


Frank Filippone
BMWRed735i at Gmail.com

On 5/16/2024 12:24 PM, Brian Reid wrote:
> Frank speaks the truth, and persuasively. If you use Drobo, mind his words carefully.
>
> For many years I used ReadyNAS LAN-connected storage devices. A Drobo competitor.
> When I saw ReadyNAS circling the drain a few years ago, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do next.
> With Drobo in an equally advanced state of disintegration, it seemed to me at that time that migrating to yet another vendor of storage appliances 
> (such as Synology) would be more risk than I was willing to take, so I bought what is in the industry called a JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks), and set 
> it up with ZFS RaidZ3 and a 10 GB/sec LAN connection. I have a Supermicro-based DIY with a dozen 18-TB Seagate Exos SATA-III drives, running FreeBSD 
> 14. I've had it up and running for about a year, and I'm happy with it. If I didn't know how to build things like this, I would have moved to Synology.
>
> I've also been watching Synology, and it looks to be sound, stable, and long-lived. My only worry would be that the company is based in Taiwan, and 
> China has been acting strangely about Taiwan.
>
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