Drobo Storage system User manual

Introduction
Drobo, the world's first storage robot, is a fully automatic data storage system that provides the only effortless, safe and
expandable repository for all of your digital assets. Drobo connects easily to your PC via FireWire 800 or USB 2.0, and
appears like one large external drive to Windows, requiring no configuration for use. Drobo can also be easily shared over
a network using DroboShare. For more information about DroboShare, see Sharing Drobo Between Computers.
Many of the key features delivered to enhance your user experience include:
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Sharing Drobo Between Computers
Drobo connects directly to one computer at a time via the provided FireWire 800 or USB 2.0 cable. However, you may
have a need to share your Drobo across your network. This is easily done using DroboShare, a unique companion to
Drobo.
Using Drobo with DroboShare, computers will see Drobo in their list of network devices and allows for centralized storage
or easy file sharing between computers. This unique design allows Drobo to be either directly attached to your PC or
shared over the network depending on your needs.
Related Topics
The Ins and Outs of DroboShare
Connecting Drobo to Your PC or DroboShare
DroboShare Settings
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The Ins and Outs of Drobo
While Drobo does much of the work for you, there are still a few items that you will need to understand to take full
advantage of its rich feature set. Take some time to familiarize yourself with your Drobo.
Related Topics
Adding Hard Drives to Your Drobo
Connecting Drobo to Your PC or DroboShare
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The Ins and Outs of DroboShare
DroboShare is a simple, plug 'n play companion to Drobo. Take some time to familiarize yourself with how Drobo and
DroboShare connect.
Related Topics
Adding Hard Drives to Your Drobo
Connecting Drobo to Your PC or DroboShare
DroboShare Settings
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Adding Hard Drives to Your Drobo
When you add hard drives to your Drobo, each individual hard drive becomes part of a large pool of storage where data is
spread out across all of the hard drives in Drobo. As you add or replace hard drives to increase capacity, each new hard
drive becomes identified as part of the storage pool. Drobo will keep track of which hard drive is part of this pool of
storage.
Drobo has four data bays. Each one holds a single, 3.5" SATA hard drive. IDE, SCSI, and PATA hard drives are not
compatible and should not be used.
Before connecting Drobo to your PC, simply insert your hard drives into the empty data bays. You may use any capacity
3.5" SATA hard drive, from any manufacturer, having any rotation speed (5400 RPM, 7200 RPM, etc).
Tip: Start with at least two hard drives to provide data redundancy and protect against a single hard drive failure.
Tip: In the event that Drobo is almost full and all drives in Drobo are the same capacity, you will need to replace two
drives (one at a time) in order to increase the overall amount of protected capacity. Replacing just one drive will not
increase your overall protected capacity. Remember to replace one drive at a time and allow the data protection process
(blinking green and yellow) to complete before removing another drive.
Warning: When adding hard drives to Drobo, ALL pre-existing data on those drives will be erased.
To Add a Hard Drive:
1. While holding the hard drive flat (horizontal), orient it so its connector is at the bottom.
2. Point the connector-end away from you.
3. Slide the hard drive into the desired data bay, with the connector-end entering first, until the drive latch locks the
hard drive in place.
You are now ready to either connect Drobo to your PC or DroboShare.
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Connecting Drobo to your PC or DroboShare
After adding the hard drives, connect Drobo to your PC or DroboShare.
To Connect Drobo to Your PC:
1. You can either connect Drobo using FireWire 800 or USB 2.0:
a. FireWire 800: Connect one end of the supplied FireWire 800 cable to one of the FireWire 800 ports on the back
of your Drobo. Next, connect the other end to an available FireWire 800 port on your PC.
b. USB 2.0: Connect the square end of the supplied USB 2.0 cable to the USB 2.0 port on the back of your Drobo.
Next, connect the other end of the USB 2.0 cable to an available USB 2.0 port on your PC.
2. Plug the supplied AC power adaptor into the power port on the back of your Drobo.
3. Plug the power cord into a standard 110 volt power outlet.
4. Drobo does not have a power switch so this will start the power-up sequence. During this time, the data bay
indicators will turn red and all 10 blue lights will be displayed on the utilization meter.
5. As the hard drives come online, the data bay indicators will turn green.
You are now ready to format your drives.
To Connect Drobo to Your DroboShare:
1. Connect the provided Ethernet cable between DroboShare and your network router or switch.
2. Connect the square end of the short (~1 ft.) supplied USB 2.0 cable to the USB 2.0 port on the back of your
Drobo.
3. Connect the other end of that USB 2.0 cable to an available USB 2.0 port on your DroboShare.
4. Connect the two ends of the supplied Y-cable to Drobo and DroboShare.
5. Connect Drobo’s power supply to the single end of the Y-cable.
6. Plug the power cord into a standard 110 volt power outlet.
7. Drobo and DroboShare do not have a power switch so this will start the power-up sequence. During this time,
the data bay indicators will turn red and all 10 blue lights will be displayed on the utilization meter.
8. As the hard drives come online, the data bay indicators will turn green.
You are now ready to format your drives.
Tip: DroboShare requires an assigned IP address on your network in order to be recognized by Drobo Dashboard or
shared on your network. If it cannot obtain an IP address, it will be assigned the default 169.254.213.234 IP address.
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Formatting Drives Using Drobo Dashboard
Using virtualization technology, Drobo does not require you to format each and every drive added to Drobo. When you
add or upsize drives in Drobo after the initial formatting, you will get immediate access to any additional capacity. After
the initial format, you will not need to format added drives until an additional pool of storage is created and Drobo will walk
you through that process when the time comes.
If Drobo Dashboard is running, it will automatically show you the Drobo Format dialog box:
Note: If the Drobo Format dialog box does not appear, see Starting Drobo Dashboard found later in this help topic.
Note: For instructions about using the Windows Disk Management Utility to format your drives, see Formatting Drives
Using Windows Disk Management Utility.
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1. From the Drobo Format dialog box, click Yes to view the Drobo Format Options dialog box.
2. From the Format Options dialog box you will be presented with different format options depending on whether
your Drobo is directly attached to your PC or attached to your local network via DroboShare.
Do one of the following and then click Next:
If you plan to connect Drobo to a PC running any supported Windows operating system,
including older operating systems such as Windows XP or earlier, and DroboShare, select
NTFS (Legacy).
Note: In order to support older versions of Windows, the volume size will be limited.
If you plan to connect Drobo to a PC running more recent Windows operating systems such
as Vista or Server 2003 and DroboShare, select NTFS.
If you plan to connect Drobo to Macs and DroboShare, select HFS+.
Note: This option is only displayed if you are formatting via DroboShare.
If you plan to connect Drobo to Linux machines or DroboShare, select EXT3.
Note: This option is only displayed if you are formatting via DroboShare.
If you plan to connect Drobo to computers with different operating systems (Mac, Windows,
Linux), select FAT32.
Note: FAT32 is an older file system technology that is generally less protective of your data than
modern (journaled) files systems such as NTFS. It also has some performance and file size
limitations.
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3. By default, Drobo will format itself as a 2TB volume regardless of the capacities of the drives inserted into
Drobo. This property allows Drobo to easily expand, without forcing complex Windows management and
configuration.
The Volume Size Selection tool allows you to modify the volume size based on what is available depending on
your operating system. There are some tradeoffs to consider when selecting a volume size. As you drag the
slider across the different volume size options, the text below will detail these tradeoffs. Make your selection
and click Next.
Note: You may notice that some volume size selections are grayed out. Some operating systems cannot
support greater than 2TB volumes. Depending on what operating system you inform Drobo you are using, it will
provide you with the available volume sizes to select from.
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4. Depending on your volume selection and the total raw capacity of the drives in Drobo, you will be presented
with the opportunity to select a name and drive letter for your volume(s). When done, click Next.
5. You will be asked to confirm your selections. Click Format to begin formatting.
Warning: The Format command erases ALL data on all hard drives and is not reversible.
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6. A progress bar will be shown during the formatting process.
7. You will receive a confirmation dialog when formatting is complete, click OK and Drobo is ready for use.
Tip: When you add or upsize drives to Drobo after initial formatting, you will get immediate access to any additional
capacity. Once formatted, Drobo will handle formatting any new hard drives that you may add to it until the actual
capacity is greater than the volume size. When this occurs, an additional pool of storage is created with an equal size to
the previous volume. When this new pool of storage is created, Drobo will guide you through the process of formatting
this new volume. Be sure to only format the newly created volume to ensure your existing data is retained.
Tip: Use the Drobo Dashboard Format button when you wish to erase all data the drives in Drobo. This should only be
used when you are confident you want to erase all data on the drives in Drobo.
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Formatting Drives Using Windows Disk
Management Utility
Using virtualization technology, Drobo does not require you to format each and every drive added to Drobo. After the
initial format, when you add new hard drives, or upsize existing drives with larger ones, Drobo will automatically format the
new drives for you until the actual capacity is greater than the volume size. When this occurs an additional pool of
storage is created. When this new pool is created, Drobo will guide you through the process of formatting this new
volume. Only the added drives will be formatted, not the existing drives already in Drobo.
1. Right click on My Computer, and then select Manage to display the Computer Management Window.
2. Click Disk Management. On the right-side of the console, the formatted and unformatted disks are displayed.
Drobo should appear at the bottom of the console with the following characteristics: Unknown, 2048 GB, and
Not Initialized.
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3. Right-click on the disk described in Step 2. Select Initialize Disk.
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4. Windows automatically launches the Initialize Disk Wizard. Click OK.
5. Drobo is now initialized and appears in the Computer Management Console. The disk status has changed from
Unknown to Basic and from Not Initialized to Online, but the disk space will still appear as Unallocated.
6. Identify the disk described as 2048 GB Unallocated. This is a critical step so you don’t accidentally format
the wrong disk!
7. Next, you'll format the disk. Right-click in the area where it says Unallocated to open a popup menu and select
New Partition.
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8. The New Partition Wizard will launch. Click Next.
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9. The Select Partition Type Options is displayed. The Primary partition is pre-selected; extended partitions are
not supported. Click Next to continue.
10. The Specify Partition Size Window is displayed. Select the size for the partition and click Next.
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11. The Assign Drive Letter or Path Window appears. Select the drive letter you want assigned to this partition in
Drobo. Windows automatically displays the next available drive letter (in this example, with one partition, it is E).
Click Next.
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12. The Format Partition Window will appear. Use the following settings to format each partition:
NTFS as the File System type (the default setting).
Note: If you choose to format your drives as a FAT32 file system, then for optimal performance, Data Robotics
recommends you use Drobo Dashboard to format your drives. For instructions, see Formatting Drives using the
Drobo Dashboard located earlier in this help topic. Extended and multiple partitions are not supported at this
time.
Default as the Allocation unit size.
Enter the volume label of your choice. For example, you could name it Drobo.
Be sure to select the check box by Perform a quick format to complete the format.
Tip: If you don't select a quick format, the format operation could take as long as a few hours to complete.
Click Next.
13. The final window of the wizard appears. Click Finish to start formatting the drive.
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14. Windows automatically displays the Computer Management Console while the formatting is in progress.
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15. Disk formatting will vary depending on the speed of your system and if you had selected Perform a Quick
Format in a previous step. When the formatting is complete, Windows displays the drive as Healthy in the
Computer Management Console.
16. Drobo is formatted and ready to use.
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