Crash when attempting to mount Drobo gen3

[Yannzola]

Crash when attempting to mount Drobo gen3 USB 3.0
on RT-AC56U using anyfirmware post- 374.43_2 (Merlin build)
The drive is a Drobo 3rd gen. NTFS formatted to 16TB
Using 374.43_2 mounts without issue (both USB 3.0 or 2.0 ports). Anything past that (firmware-wise) causes the entire router to freeze and eventually crash (both USB 3.o or 2.0 ports ).

Please let me know what I can do to help. System log stops responding pretty early when the crash occurs...

 

[huotg01]

Crash when attempting to mount Drobo gen3 USB 3.0
on RT-AC56U using anyfirmware post- 374.43_2 (Merlin build)
The drive is a Drobo 3rd gen. NTFS formatted to 16TB
Using 374.43_2 mounts without issue (both USB 3.0 or 2.0 ports). Anything past that (firmware-wise) causes the entire router to freeze and eventually crash (both USB 3.o or 2.0 ports ).

Please let me know what I can do to help. System log stops responding pretty early when the crash occurs...

16TB? Maybe this can give a clue: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=154981&postcount=5

 

[Yannzola]

Thanks for the tip huotg01,
Unfortunately, changing the cluster size isn't possible (AFAIK) with Drobo drives. It's all black magic inside those boxes.

It seems once mounted, the drive runs okay using later firmware...(so far... fingers crossed) so I guess my workaround is to install a 374 build whenever I need to re-mount, then update to the latest afterwards.

 

[john9527]

Just as an FYI....Asus lists the maximum partition size as 4TB....up to 8 partitions

http://event.asus.com/2009/networks/disksupport/

 

[huotg01]

Thanks for the tip huotg01,
Unfortunately, changing the cluster size isn't possible (AFAIK) with Drobo drives. It's all black magic inside those boxes.

It seems once mounted, the drive runs okay using later firmware...(so far... fingers crossed) so I guess my workaround is to install a 374 build whenever I need to re-mount, then update to the latest afterwards.

The problem is probably caused by a healthy check made before mounting this (huge) disk. There is not enough memory (256Mb) to complete the operation. "Just for fun", you could install a smaller disk, or a flash disk, on the other usb port and create a swap space (either partition or file, file being easier to implement) on it. That done, try again your Drobo...

 

[huotg01]

...and you could also look at this fork: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18914

 

[Yannzola]

Just as an FYI....Asus lists the maximum partition size as 4TB....up to 8 partitions

http://event.asus.com/2009/networks/disksupport/

The sad thing is it worked just fine pre-374.43.2....

 

[Yannzola]

The problem is probably caused by a healthy check made before mounting this (huge) disk. There is not enough memory (256Mb) to complete the operation. "Just for fun", you could install a smaller disk, or a flash disk, on the other usb port and create a swap space (either partition or file, file being easier to implement) on it. That done, try again your Drobo...

Ooh! How does one go about creating a Swap disk? Sounds promising

 

[john9527]

Ooh! How does one go about creating a Swap disk? Sounds promising

Scroll down a bit in this post and you'll find instructions on setting up a swap file (edit the directory as needed).....

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=52894&postcount=1

 

[Rankdropper84]

Why can't you just run it as its own separate computer off one of the Ethernet ports? I'm just curious why you have it plugged into the USB ports. Keep in mind I don't know much about drobos.

 

[Yannzola]

...and you could also look at this fork: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18914

Being lazy.... I've just gone ahead and installed the latest version of this fork. No issues. The 16TB Drobo mounts like a charm. Much easier than setting up a swap disk ;-)
Thanks for the help!

 

[Yannzola]

Why can't you just run it as its own separate computer off one of the Ethernet ports? I'm just curious why you have it plugged into the USB ports. Keep in mind I don't know much about drobos.

I'm using it like a NAS, and this particular Drobo only has USB 3 interconnects (no direct ethernet)... also it actually runs MUCH BETTER (when it mounts that is) directly from the ASUS than from my Windows 7 box. It used to freeze up all the time. Not sure why...

 

[Rankdropper84]

I'm using it like a NAS, and this particular Drobo only has USB 3 interconnects (no direct ethernet)... also it actually runs MUCH BETTER (when it mounts that is) directly from the ASUS than from my Windows 7 box. It used to freeze up all the time. Not sure why...

FWIW I have just noticed recently that if I am say background transferring a large file or even many small files, that my FTP and samba servers will not mount. I have also noticed that when I am having the issue that it always seem to correlate to my media server scanning one of my massive 5TB external drives, which in turn causes the system to use nearly 100% of its CPU and ram. Once the media server is done scanning the CPU usage on my 68U goes back to normal along with ram usage which is when i have no problems.