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

Sat May 18 05:45:59 PDT 2024

When I read about Drobo going out of business, I started researching what I
could do to replace my three Drobo 5C boxes.  Everything I read recommended
Synology, so when Frank suggested that, I was somewhat familiar with the
name and process.  It's possible I could have set up the system by myself
with lots of time and trial and errors, but Frank is making it almost
effortless and giving me more confidence that I can do it with his help
remotely.

All of the hardware is now here.  The actual box got here late yesterday
after traveling all over North and South Carolina in a FedEx truck!  I'm
going to take my time and follow pages and pages of Frank's advice - which
I have printed out and read and reread.

Believe me, anything is better than a dead Drobo!!  I did discover that I
can take the drives out of the dead Drobo and put them in one that still
works and still have access to everything.  I still have 2 Drobos that
work, but who knows for how long!!

Thanks again, LUG and Frank!  I'll let you know when I have everything up
and running.  Life is exciting these days!

Tina

On Sat, May 18, 2024 at 12:11 AM Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG <
lug at leica-users.org> wrote:

> All true, but a Synology box, which I got 6-7 years ago, now sits as an
> expensive, oversized paperweight in my house because their only dealer in
> India, situated in Mumbai, refuses to service the product once he has sold
> it to you. In fact, he will not even respond to any form of communication.
> This is entirely Synology's fault, IMHO, for not doing the due diligence on
> a dealer's capacity to service the customer, reeking of improving sales at
> any cost. As far as I am concerned, I will never buy their product again. I
> have just dispensed with the idea of an NAS, and gone back to manual
> backups. It takes some time and effort, but that is about all.
>
> Cheers
> Jayanand
>
> On Sat, May 18, 2024 at 2:37 AM Frank Filippone via LUG <
> lug at leica-users.org>
> wrote:
>
> >   I fear one of our community, who was maybe a non EE will feel
> encouraged
> > by this type pf message.... and try to build his own NAS..... This kid of
> > telling others how to do it is a big problem.  You are doing them no
> > favors.  They will fail.  Are YOU going to bail them out?
> >
> > (At this point, I calmed down)
> >
> > I assume Peter, Brian, John, Richard and maybe others did the DIY NAS box
> > because they have the skill set and could save money and have all
> technical
> > options open to them. They achieved their individual goals. They KNEW
> WHAT
> > THEY WERE DOING.
> >
> > BUT.... As I said, the bulk (50-75% or more) of the cost of a NAS is in
> > the HDD, not the box itself.  What Peter, et al,  has done is both cheap
> > and
> > good, but Mr. Average Photographer with a bunch of images saved on Drobo
> > drives just is not going to be able toget this kind of solution running.
> > He
> > does not have the skill set. (Yes, I am making a judgement call..... )
> >
> > This user just does not have the specialized techie smarts to do this, or
> > Richard's or Brian's etc, solution.  No less maintain that with upgrades
> to
> > the OS or other software over time .... DIY NAS really is a dead end...
> > FOR THAT SKILL LEVEL.
> >
> >   It is similar to telling a user to go buy his CPU, RAM, other
> components
> > and design the PCB and wire up your own computer..... It can be done,
> there
> > is info on the WEB to do it, you would save money...WHO WOULD DO THAT?
> >
> > ( Blood pressure again restored to normal)
> >
> > Savings at most is the complete cost of the NAS box, a savings of
> $250-500
> > or so.  About the price of a Leica camera Battery.
> >
> > The downside is that you miss an Windows upgrade, something changes in
> > your non Windows OS that runs your DIY NAS, and your box again becomes a
> > brick.  Don't to it.
> >
> > For those with the skill set, good for you.  For the rest of us,
> >
> > Use external USB HDDs or
> >
> > Spend the money, buy the finished NAS box.  The rest I can help you do.
> >
> > You do have the skills for this solution.....
> >
> > But get rid of the Drobo..... before it is too late.
> >
> >
> > Frank Filippone
> > BMWRed735i at Gmail.com
> >
> > On 5/17/2024 8:22 AM, Peter Dzwig wrote:
> > > Another, and cheaper option, which I implemented some time ago was to
> > build a RAID10-based NAS image server (it could store anything but I just
> > keep
> > > images there) using a Rapberry Pi and terabyte thumb drives physically
> > connected  via a fast switch and using my local fast Wifi LAN.
> > >
> > > Instructions are online in several places.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Peter
> > >
> > > On 17/05/2024 00:24, 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.
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> Leica Users Group.
> > >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Leica Users Group.
> > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information

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