Where can I get Drobo-like features without using Drobo?

[Armornone]

Where can I get Drobo-like features without using Drobo?

In other words, where can I get something that I can used mismatched drives an the auto expandability without purchasing a drobo( $200 for a NIC option is absurd)

Thanks.

 

[robertk]

hi

I've been asking myself the very same question for a while - especially with poor reported stability and performance of droboshare - see the review in link [1] below for example

I could not find any hardware based solution until recently but QNAP TS-239 Pro does claim Online RAID Capacity Expansion - a bit more involved and less flexible but should be way more stable than drobo - see [4] and [5] below

another option would be software based approach using lvm - see [2] and [3] below - unsure why the RAID-1 constraint or about the performance, though

[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2EVZAZQB4XEW3/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2EVZAZQB4XEW3
[2] http://infinitas.homelinux.com/useful/linux/lvm/
[3] http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=964394
[4] http://www.qnap.com/pro_features_RLM.asp
[5] http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=118

r.

 

[thiggins]

Windows Home Server based products let you expand storage as needed.

NETGEAR's ReadyNASes with XRAID and XRAID2 have always provided easy capacity expansion and data redundancy.

 

[Osamede]

Get a multi-drive unit and put Ubuntu server on it.

 

[vskatusa]

Check out unRAID from Lime Technologies - Google it

 

[corndog]

Get a multi-drive unit and put Ubuntu server on it.

Yep - did that in the past with an 8 drive server. Four Promise TX2 Dual SATA cards, each with two drives on it. Worked really well until one drive died, and there was no way to tell which drive it was, so I could replace it. (The order in which your BIOS sees your drives isn't necessarily the same order in which Linux sees them or assigns them device nodes) You really do get extra benefits with the NASes out there these days. Like knowing where your problems are.

 

[Kel]

Windows Home Server based products let you expand storage as needed.

NETGEAR's ReadyNASes with XRAID and XRAID2 have always provided easy capacity expansion and data redundancy.

Regarding readynas xraid - I always understood you can expand your capacity by adding an extra drive but if you have 3 750GB drives and add a 4th drive at 1TB capacity it will only expand to using 750gb of the new 1 TB drive.

 

[HappyBison]

As another option (if you may be looking at a custom build NAS), you may want to check OS with ZFS support (OpenSolaris/FreeNAS) or JBOD with concatenation (less reliability).

 

[corndog]

A word of caution, before relying on ZFS for your important data, sign up in the ZFS forums on Sun's website and do some reading. In particular, search for "data loss". Read some of the real-world experiences that people are having when their ZFS systems die. And carefully read the Sun engineers' responses.

Then you can make an informed decision whether ZFS is truly ready to trust with your stuff yet.

... just a suggestion....

 

[HappyBison]

A word of caution, before relying on ZFS for your important data, sign up in the ZFS forums on Sun's website and do some reading. In particular, search for "data loss". Read some of the real-world experiences that people are having when their ZFS systems die. And carefully read the Sun engineers' responses.

Then you can make an informed decision whether ZFS is truly ready to trust with your stuff yet.

... just a suggestion....

Agreed.
You have to do the same thing with ANY piece of software or hardware if you are new into that (ZFS is not an exception here).

 

[Muckydevil]

Where can I get Drobo-like features without using Drobo?

In other words, where can I get something that I can used mismatched drives an the auto expandability without purchasing a drobo( $200 for a NIC option is absurd)

Thanks.

Hi guys this is exactly what I was after in a forum thread!! I’ve been sat on the fence for a while now about using a Drobo I love the idea of “Beyond Raid” technology just am a bit disappointed with the connectivity issues. For example I’m currently using a Thecus N5200 with is great as I can use ISCSI, SMB and AFP to connect to it and it will even power down at certain times of the day, but upgrading the RAID is a nightmare as you have to change all the disks at once!!!
I can see if I go down the Drobo route I would need an Elite with ISCSI connection from windows (still use media centre for main TV playback and for the kiddie to learn the OS he has to use at school) and a separate box using ISCSI (as the media centre on is not on all the time) to act as an interface for OS X and media sharing such as SONOS.

Is there anyone here who came up with such a solution?