Drobo FS User manual

User Guide
www.datarobotics.com
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EN
Please check the following website for the most up to date
Drobo FS User Guide.
www.drobo.com/support
DE
Bitte sehen Sie auf der unten aufgeführte webseite nach für
die Drobo FS Gebrauchsanweisung in Ihrer Sprache.
www.drobo.com/support/intl
ES
Por favor consulte el siguiente sitio de web para localizar el
Drobo FS guia de usuario en su idioma.
www.drobo.com/support/intl
FR
Veuillez voir le site Web ci-dessous pour le manuel d’utilisateur
de Drobo FS dans votre langue.
www.drobo.com/support/intl
IT
Si prega di consultare il sito web sotto per la Drobo FS Guida
utente nella vostre lingua.
www.drobo.com/support/intl
日本語
次のウェブサイトで、Drobo FS ユーザーガイドの最新更新
最新更新日付をチェックしてください。
www.drobo.com/support/intl

I. Introduction........................................................................................1
II. Getting started ...................................................................................3
Three easy steps ........................................................................................ 3
Selecting hard drives.................................................................................. 3
Choosing capacity ................................................................................... 4
A note about drive capacity .................................................................... 4
Keeping your product up-to-date .............................................................. 4
Best Practices............................................................................................. 5
III. Drobo FS Setup...................................................................................6
Install Drobo Dashboard ............................................................................ 6
Inserting drives into Drobo FS.................................................................... 6
Connect Drobo FS to your network ........................................................... 7
Ethernet .................................................................................................. 7
Connect power........................................................................................... 7
Initialize your Drobo FS .............................................................................. 7
Drobo FS Lights .......................................................................................... 8
IV. Using Drobo Dashboard with your Drobo FS .....................................9
Drobo Dashboard basics ............................................................................ 9
The main page......................................................................................... 9
Advanced Controls: Data tab ................................................................ 10
Advanced Controls: Tools tab ............................................................... 11
Drobo FS Settings..................................................................................... 11
General Tab........................................................................................... 12
Network Tab.......................................................................................... 13
Admin Tab ............................................................................................. 14
Shares Tab............................................................................................. 15
Alerts Tab .............................................................................................. 16
Additional features .................................................................................. 16
DroboCopy ............................................................................................ 17
Keeping Drobo Dashboard up-to-date.................................................. 17
Saving power......................................................................................... 17

Accessing Files on your Drobo FS............................................................. 18
What to do when not using your Drobo FS.............................................. 20
V. Tips and Troubleshooting.................................................................21
VI. Index .................................................................................................26

1
Thank you for giving another Drobo® storage device a good home! We
at Data Robotics, Inc.™have been working since 2004 to make
protecting, storing and managing your digital content truly effortless.
The Drobo family of products provides effortless, safe and expandable
storage. There are many different ways to store and protect digital
content, but Drobo is the only fully automatic storage device that
performs many data management tasks without user effort. Here’s
what you can expect:
Drobo automatically configures itself for data protection so you
don’t have to.
When a drive fails, your data is still safe (and all drives do
eventually fail).
Drobo senses any corrupted data and ensures that you only
access non-corrupt data.
No downtime to add capacity. Just add a drive to an empty Data
Bay, or replace a smaller drive with a larger one regardless of
capacity, speed, or manufacturer.
After a drive is installed into an empty bay, the new drive
capacity is immediately available and protected.
Drobo can act as one large drive, making it easier to find what
you’ve stored on it.
Drobo’s Data Bay indicator lights tell you everything you need to
know!
Upgrading capacity is as simple as adding ink to a printer.
Mix ’n match any 3.5” (SATA) hard drives; no worrying about
matching make, model or capacity of Drobo’s existing drives.
Upgrade forever—just replace Drobo’s smallest drive with a
larger capacity drive. No data migration or reconfiguration is
required.

2
What does it mean to go BeyondRAID? Going beyond traditional RAID
means leaving choices between striping and mirroring, limitations on
expandability, drive sizing, and drive ordering behind. BeyondRAID™
technology is the next generation of storage that brings together safety,
reliability, expandability, efficiency and of course ease-of-use.
BeyondRAID can be adopted without any change in infrastructure,
allowing you to maintain your current file system and operating system–
eliminating the friction costs typically associated with moving to a new
technology platform.
Standard RAID levels are full of compromises. Do you want striping or
mirroring? A two-disk or four-disk RAID set? BeyondRAID is able to solve
these issues because it is built on an advanced virtualization platform. If
you already understand how RAID 0, 1, 5 or 6 operate(s), you
understand the fundamentals of BeyondRAID since BeyondRAID relies
on the same underlying algorithms.
Welcome to the world’s best storage experience.
Data Robotics, Inc. was formed in 2004 in California’s Silicon Valley with
a vision to take the pain out of storage management. Data Robotics, Inc.
developed the technology inside Drobo for people who “have to”
protect their valuable digital assets, but “hate to” – because it’s
complex and time consuming. For those people, we created Drobo, the
world’s first storage robot. It is a fully automated data storage system
that provides the only truly effortless, safe and expandable storage
solution. Unlike outdated technologies that emerged twenty plus years
ago and the frustrating products on the market today, Drobo is an
industry-changing product line that combines the advanced concepts of
storage virtualization and cybernetics, to take the pain out of storage
management.

3
Drobo FS is designed to share data over a network. This eliminates the
problems of physically moving your storage device between computers
and having to take into account different file system formats in order to
share your data.
To set your Drobo FS up, you will need to do the following:
1. Install Drobo Dashboard –After installation, launch Drobo
Dashboard and leave it running while you complete the setup.
2. Insert drives –Use any 3.5” SATA drives. Start with at least two
drives to protect your valuable data. If you plan to use Dual Disk
Redundancy, start with at least three drives. All data on the
drives will be erased.
3. Connect cables –Connect the Drobo FS to your network and
then connect power.
Drobo Dashboard will automatically discover your Drobo FS. It will take
a few minutes for your Drobo FS to finish its initial setup. After the
Drobo FS is ready, you can create new shares, add users, and change
other settings.
You will find more details on the setup in the “Drobo FS Setup” section
on page 6.
Drobo devices are unlike typical storage devices. They make it extremely
easy to increase storage capacity in the future by simply inserting
additional drives or replacing smaller drives with larger ones. This
means you can buy the storage you need today and then easily expand
later. You can save hundreds of dollars over time.
Drobo storage devices don’t care what manufacturer, capacity or speed
of hard drive you install. They accept all standard 3.5-inch internal SATA
hard drives. SSD, SCSI and older IDE or ATA-type drives will not work.
Warning! Please note that when adding hard drives to your Drobo storage
device, any pre-existing data on those drives will be erased.

4
The number and capacity of drives determine how much usable
protected storage Drobo FS provides. Take the guesswork out by using
our Capacity Calculator at www.drobo.com/calculator, a web-based tool
which determines the actual usable protected capacity, based on any
combination of drives. To calculate the approximate capacity yourself,
omit the largest drive and then add-up the capacity of the remaining
drives. If you plan to use dual disk redundancy, omit the largest two
drives. For example (largest drives are crossed out):
# Drives
Drive Capacities
Usable Protected Capacity
3
250GB + 250GB + 250GB
=
500GB
4
250GB + 250GB + 250GB + 500GB
=
750GB
4
750GB + 250GB + 250GB + 500GB
=
1000GB
# Drives
Drive Capacities
Usable Protected Capacity
4
250GB + 250GB + 250GB + 500GB
=
500GB
5
750GB + 500GB + 500GB + 500GB + 250GB
=
1250GB
5
750GB + 1000GB + 500GB + 500GB + 500GB
=
1500GB
Some years ago, computer manufacturers and hard drive manufacturers
started using different systems for measuring capacity. The net result is
that not all of a drive’s rated capacity is available to your computer. For
example, a 750GB drive will have approximately 700GB worth of
capacity. This discrepancy has nothing to do with Drobo storage devices.
During your initial setup, Drobo Dashboard asks if you want to check for
updates automatically. We highly recommend you select the “Yes”
option to assure optimal performance of your Drobo FS. This feature
enables you to keep both Drobo Dashboard and your product’s
firmware current. Subsequently, you will receive a notice when a newer
version is available. You can check for the most current versions at
www.drobo.com/support/updates.

5
There are a number of things you can do to protect your valuable data.
Using a Drobo storage product is obviously a major step. However,
there are additional actions you can take to provide even greater safety
for your data. To learn more about this important topic, please visit our
Best Practices site at www.drobo.com/support/best_practices.

6
If you have not already installed Drobo Dashboard, insert the Drobo
Resource CD that came with your Drobo FS into your computer. (Make
sure it is connected to your network.) You can also download Drobo
Dashboard at: www.drobo.com/support/updates. From the on-screen
menu, select “Install.” After Drobo Dashboard is installed, it will start
automatically. Drobo Dashboard assigns “Drobo-FS” as the default name
for your Drobo FS and automatically formats the volume when it first
discovers your Drobo FS. To change the name of your Drobo FS, see
page 13.
Once you’ve chosen the number and capacities of drives to install, all
you have to do is remove the face plate of your Drobo FS by simply
pulling it off and then sliding the drives into the Data Bays. It doesn’t
matter which drive goes into which Data Bay. You should note that any
pre-existing data on the drives will be erased. Be sure not to touch any
exposed hard drive circuit boards after unpacking.
First orient the drive connectors so that they are pointed towards the
Drobo FS and are at the bottom of the drive (as shown). Open the Drive
Lock by pressing it towards the left and slide the drive into the Data Bay
until you feel the connector “mate” at the rear of the Drobo FS. If the
connectors seat properly, the Drive Lock will snap behind the drive,
securing it into place.
Tip: Insert the drive with top silver plate facing up (circuit board down).

7
Your Drobo FS connects to a network using an Ethernet port. Use the
Ethernet connection on the back of the Drobo FS to connect to a router
or switch. Use the Ethernet cable included with the original Drobo FS.
Note: Drobo FS supports a gigabit (1000 Mbit/s) connection. It will auto-
negotiate the highest connection speed available to the router or switch. You
will not get optimal performance if you are using a slower connection (10/100
Mbit/s).
Once you have connected Drobo FS to your network, the next step is to
connect it to an AC power source. Simply connect the power cord to the
back of the Drobo FS and to your power source. Then press the toggle
power button on the back of the unit to turn your Drobo FS on.
Note: As with all electronic equipment, we recommend connecting your
Drobo FS to a surge protector or uninterruptible power supply (UPS), designed
for electronics.
Your Drobo FS is set to automatically obtain an IP address (DHCP) on
your network. When you connect Drobo FS to the network, Drobo
Dashboard will automatically discover it. After Drobo Dashboard
discovers your Drobo FS, you can set a static IP address if desired. If you
don’t have DCHP and need to use a static IP address, you should directly
connect the Drobo FS to your computer’s Ethernet connection for the
initial setup. See the section, “Tips and Troubleshooting” on page 21 for
further information on direct-connect and setting the IP address of your
Drobo FS.

8
After you do the initial setup of your Drobo FS, you can then set up
shares, users, etc. Drobo Dashboard will prompt you for share names,
usernames, etc. Please see page 15 for further information on managing
shares.
One of the many benefits of your Drobo FS is a series of lights that tell
you everything you need to know, without your having to launch any
application software on your computer. Remember, Drobo FS is
designed to actively monitor and protect your data at all times.
Drobo FS will automatically take any necessary actions and display them
using the following lights:
Drive Lights
Green: No action is required. All drives are healthy.
Solid Yellow: Add a drive or replace the current drive with a
larger drive soon. Drobo FS is running out of disk space.
Blinking Yellow and Green: Do not remove these drives or
power down. Drobo FS is working to protect your data.
Solid Red: Add a drive or replace the current drive with a
larger drive immediately. Drobo FS is critically low on space.
Blinking Red: Replace this drive immediately. This drive has
failed and needs to be replaced.
Power Light
Green: The power is on and Drobo FS is ready.
Yellow: Drobo FS is in standby mode.
Red: Drobo FS has overheated. Disconnect the data cable
and then the power cable. Let it cool down for at least 30
minutes and then restart.
Activity Light
Blinking Green: Data is actively being transferred between
your computer and Drobo FS.
Capacity Gauge
Blue: Displays the percentage of your Drobo FS that is full, in
10% increments.

9
Drobo Dashboard is used to set up, configure, and interact with your
Drobo FS.
Drobo Dashboard is the recommended companion application that
keeps you informed of the status of your Drobo FS and allows you to
customize Drobo FS to best fit your storage needs.
Note: To install Drobo Dashboard, you will need to have administrative rights
on your computer.
Open Drobo Dashboard and you will see the main page. This page gives
you a quick overview of the status and storage usage your Drobo FS. If
you have more than one Drobo device, you can switch between Drobos
by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top of the window.
The pie chart shows you how much storage space is being used and how
much free space remains. By placing your mouse over the pie chart, you
will see a summary of the health of your Drobo FS. If you have set up an
administrative username and password, this screen allows you to log
into your Drobo FS in order to manage the device. (The first time Drobo
Dashboard launches, you will see a message telling you that the
administrative username and password have not been set up yet.)

10
Though it is not necessary, for security purposes, we advise you to set
up an administrative username and password in order to manage your
Drobo FS.
Are you curious about how your disks are being used? Click “How is my
storage being used?” The capacity breakdown bar will appear showing
you how your Drobo FS is using storage.
Available for data: Total protected space on Drobo FS that is
available to store data
Reserved for expansion: Unusable capacity reserved for future
use when one hard drive is larger than the others. This space
will become available when you add a larger capacity hard drive
or replace a smaller drive with a larger one.
Used for protection: Storage capacity that is used to protect
your data against a drive failure
Overhead: Capacity used by Drobo FS for management
You can explore different hard drive combinations using the Capacity
Calculator web tool at www.drobo.com/calculator.
The Data tab in Advanced Controls gives you in-depth details on the
status of your Drobo FS. You should go to this screen if Drobo FS is in

11
the process of protecting your data (blinking green and yellow lights)
and you would like to know when it will finish. The progress is shown in
the “Data Protection” section.
The Tools tab gives you access to controls that allow you to customize
your Drobo FS. In this window you can change settings specific to your
Drobo FS and, if necessary, reset your Drobo FS (erasing all data on the
drives). Additionally, this page displays useful information about your
Drobo FS, including the serial number and the installed versions of
firmware and Drobo Dashboard. It also provides an easy way to check
for updates of Drobo Dashboard and your unit’s firmware. See page 17
for further details.
By clicking the “Settings” button on the Tools page, you can adjust a
host of settings to suit your individual needs for your Drobo FS. You can
manage the shares on your Drobo FS, set a login and password for the
administration of your device and set up email alerts. Also, this is where
you can enable dual disk redundancy, set the time period for disk drive
spin down and dim the indicator lights.