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

Sat May 18 11:22:41 PDT 2024

Almost correct...... LR MUST HAVE the catalog NOT on any form of LAN.  OK on USB external drives or anywhere inside the computer case.  Your images on 
the LAN are OK....just not the catalog.

The issue is keep the catalog from being mangled if two users are opening or rather, /*saving*/ to the catalog at the same time. ( Short version.  
Long version is too long and not more interesting.)

Your AT+T internet access is very fast.... Mine is limited ( choked down to ) 10-11 MBPS.  Not terribly useful for moving data between locations.  I 
keep my backup to everything in two locations, and would have liked to WAN the two together.  But one location that I have access to has a 10MBPS 
limit that I can not upgrade.  That limits the practical way to practically move 200GB files.  So I sneaker net them together using a home made SSD 
based 8TB Portable USB drive.  Not always in synch as I would prefer, but cheap.

On Tina's box, the plan is to use simple wired LAN.  Single Computer is a few feet from NAS.  She is not currently using any LAN features... she 
WIFI's or USB's everything.   Not a terribly weird nor rare setup for a home setup.

Going USB and non-LAN ( gong USB connected HDD array)  would have saved her only $500.  Less than 25% of the total expenditure and had many many 
compromises.

The Drobo boxes were the bees knees when they were introduced and mainly because they were USB connected to the computer.  Easier than the then 
current LAN installation.  But nowadays,, the advantage is mostly gone, there are big big HDD JBOD enclosures that can be purchased cheaper.

LAN is still faster......then any USB solution, at least in theory.

I will ask Tina if I can email the group with information on how the decisions were made to use this particular NAS as her solution.  That may help 
others in the future.... Bot not till after I get it all working....

We are currently at the stage that the NAS will be introduced to the computer for the first time.  LAN setup, initialization of the NAS, setting up 
folders, etc are the next stage.  It is the stage that requires the most focus for me.

For those that have read this far and are really interested, everyone will tell you adding a NAS on a LAN is easy. NOPE!  It is a really pretty 
arduous task, unless you are an IT trained person.  There is an immense amount of nonsensical jargon.   I am a EE, but my background is totally IC 
related,  No Software at all.  None of the computer stuff was there when I was in school.  It has taken me about 4 years to get this far, and on my 
systems, I now have about 90% of everything working really well, the other 10% was over expectation.

Frank Filippone
BMWRed735i at Gmail.com

On 5/18/2024 7:38 AM, Adam Bridge via LUG wrote:
> I have a memory that Lightroom doesn’t support NAS storage. I have no idea why that might be the case but I have a vivid memory that it’s the case.
>
> After my Drobo started to go off about six years ago I replaced it with a Promise Pegasus RAID that is still working quietly well. I’ve had to replace one drive.
>
> Since then I have used an OWC 4 drive box and populated with 4 drives to yield about 35 TB. I have a MacPro and have two internal very large single disks that I use as a local backup to the RAIDs. All of these are connected with Thunderbolt. And I have an OWC box with four very fast SSDs. I use SoftRAID to manage the disk arrays. I’m very pleased with the performance. I backup everything to the cloud using BackBlaze. I have 1Gig AT&T fiber so it makes good sense to me. I’ve never had to replace a whole drive using BackBlaze but it’s a terrific deal. And I backup my primary drive to an external drive with TimeMachine. My catalogs for both Capture One and Lightroom live on my Mac Pro’s internal SSD. I back those up additionally to the SSD RAID.
>
> I’ll be interested to know how you’re connecting the NAS to Tina’s box.
>
> Drobo was a good idea but it just didn’t perform well. It did make replacing drives incredibly easily when something went wrong.
>
> Adam Bridge
> Davis, CA
>
>> On May 16, 2024, at 12:12 PM, Frank Filippone via LUG<lug at leica-users.org>  wrote:
>>
>>
>> Yes, I am helping Tina with her file system.  She is replacing her Drobos with a Synology NAS.   I "am" her tech support person.
>>
>> Why?  Because Drobo is out of business.  Who cares?  SHE AND YOU SHOULD CARE!
>>
>> How old is your Drobo, in terms of development..... look at this chart....
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drobo
>>
>> It tells you when your Drobo model was first introduced to the marjket... assume it took at least 1 year to design... Your Drobo was designed in roughly 2010., or even earlier  That was the year Windows 7 was in vogue..... Windows 7.  That was when the various software was written to run the box and interface with Windows. Windows 7, not Windows 11.  Things have changed....
>>
>> /If you have a Drobo, it will eventually fail/.  Let me explain.... Windows is not a fixed immovable O/S.  It changes ( somewhat at the whim of Microsoft.).
>>
>> Drobo Software ( yes, it does run on software) is not and will not change to accommodate Windows changes. The company no longer exists.   The SW is frozen.  ( probably some amateur code writer will fix this, but if you are not willing to take this chance on code written by some 16 year old who lives on Pizza and Energy-Caffeine drinks being responsible for taking care of everything on your Dobo, read further....)..
>>
>> An analogy is for SW written for Windows 3.1 and using that SW on Windows 11....  Some of it just will not work.
>>
>> Your computer gets Windows updates all the time, and implements them.  sometime, either now or "tomorrow", some change in Windows will not allow your Drobo Software to perform as it did yesterday.  YOU WILL HAVE NO WARNING>>>>. It will be a brick.  It will not be reversible ( almost).  EVERYTHING on your Drobo will be permanently inaccessible.
>>
>> No you can not just remove the HDD from the Drobo and put them into something else and they will work..... THEY WILL NOT.
>>
>> Your data may be safely ON the Drobo, but unless you can get to it, ....... and eventually you will not be able to,,,,,,   you own a brick.
>>
>> It is time NOW to fix this situation you are in, before Windows and Drobo no longer work together.
>>
>> You do have choices.... replace the Drobo boxes with large external HDD boxes that work on USB.  They can be bought for a few hundred dollars.  Probably the lowest cost and fully equivalent to what you have now, but since the USB box is modern and built to work with WIndows, and uses no SW on your computer, it will last a LONG time.....
>>
>> Replace the Drobo with a LAN box... called NAS ( Network Attached Storage).  Same as above only it works on a network connection to your computer rather than USB.  There are a bunch of differences, but in essence, for very large file systems ( Tina has about 1 MILLION images), this solution will provide  faster response time for search and other functions.  But you must deal with the LAN issues.... Not so easy.... not terrible, but not easy.  They are more expensive.
>>
>> There you go.... if you use Drobo HDD enclosures, do something NOW.
>>
>> If you are running your BUSINESS on a Drobo, you are living a nightmare in the making... You want the IRS to permanently live in your office, demanding you get old records from your now dead computer because the Drobo is dead?  Want/NEED the email address of that 16 year old that lives on Pizza and Energy-Caffeine drinks?
>>
>> I want to point out that this is NOT a hardware issue.... the HDD and the box will probably work for a long time in the future,,,, it is an issue of incompatible software.
>>
>> But you will not be able to access it......
>>
>> If you have questions, you may email me directly and I will help you to make decisions and, to the extent I can, I will help you implement those decisions.
>>
>> No, I do not charge.
>>
>> Frank Filippone
>> BMWRed735i at Gmail.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> Seehttp://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug  for more information
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> Seehttp://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug  for more information