Data Robotics DroboPro / Drobo Pro Diskless 8-bay Storage System
- Up to 8 disks of instant expansion
- Single or dual disk redundancy
- iSCSI (Gigabit Ethernet), FireWire 800 (400 compatible) and Hi-Speed USB 2.0
- Up to 16 x 16TB Smart Volumes
- BeyondRAID technology
Introducing DroboPro
The first business class storage array that manages itself. Engineered to be both simple and scalable, the revolutionary BeyondRAID technology incorporated into DroboPro frees businesses of making the difficult and confining choices commonly associated with storage management. Why trade simplicity for safety, or stability for expandability? DroboPro delivers both enterprise-level data safety and unprecedented expandability, featuring single and dual disk redundancy combined with instant capacity expansion. Once you experience DroboPro, you just might forget the differences between all eleven traditional RAID levels. If you do, don’t panic. You’re experiencing the peace of mind that comes with every Drobo® product.
Up to 8 Disks of Instant Expansion to 16TB and Beyond
Grow your storage in line with your data capacity needs with minimal effort. To add capacity, simply insert a new hard disk or replace your smallest disk with a larger one, even when all eight disk bays are full. Unlike traditional RAID systems, the BeyondRAID technology found in DroboPro enables you to mix n’ match disk brands, capacities and speeds. This allows continuous expansion as disk capacities grow. With DroboPro expansion is automatic, instantaneous and access to data is always maintained.
No Headache Dual Disk Redundancy
Enable the Dual Disk Redundancy option to protect against the simultaneous failure of up to two hard disks. It’s all done with a single click, without ever losing access to your data. Running out of space? You can even switch back to single disk redundancy with a click. For instance, unlike moving between RAID 5 and RAID 6, there’s no need to reformat or migrate data off of the array, potentially saving you hours or days.
Triple Interface Featuring iSCSI
Attach DroboPro directly to the server or workstation that requires storage or to a shared server or workstation on your network that can provide access to multiple clients. Interface options include:
- iSCSI (utilizes Gigabit Ethernet)
- FireWire 800
- Hi-Speed USB 2.0
iSCSI is a high performance protocol that has become extremely popular with businesses, but it can often be complex to manage. DroboPro changes that by introducing zero click iSCSI connection establishment for both Windows and OS X.
DroboPro and iSCSI
An iSCSI Primer
Although iSCSI (pronounced “i-scuzzy”) uses Ethernet, it is not intended to be a computer-to-computer networking protocol. Think of iSCSI as you would a higher performance FireWire. It directly connects storage arrays and hosts, but iSCSI just happens to use ubiquitous and high performance Ethernet for physical transport.
File-sharing protocols such as SMB and AFP are convenient for networking a storage device to many clients (i.e. to share a Microsoft Word document), but often do not have the efficiency or performance expected in business environments (i.e. to operate SQL Server). That’s why iSCSI was invented.
- iSCSI is High Performance
- Direct Attach Performance Anywhere
- Leverages Ethernet, Cuts Costs
- Windows and OS X Support
- Understanding iSCSI vs. NAS
There are important differences you should understand between iSCSI and network attached storage (NAS).
- iSCSI cannot be “turned off.” If you would like to share the files on DroboPro on your network with multiple computers, simply connect DroboPro to a server or workstation that has file sharing enabled through the host operating system.
- In most scenarios, for optimal performance you’ll want to directly attach DroboPro to your host as shown below.
- If you would like to attach multiple DroboPros to the same host, but that host only has a single free Ethernet port, you can connect the DroboPros via a switch as shown below.
- You can also attach one or more DroboPros to an Ethernet Switch connected to a network provided the DroboPros and the host are on the same subnet and unique static IP addresses are assigned through Drobo Dashboard.
- There are dozens and dozens of specific features that have been layered on top of the iSCSI protocol over the years. In other words, iSCSI can be a complex jungle, but you’ll find deploying iSCSI with DroboPro to be simple and straightforward. In fact, DroboPro and Drobo Dashboard introduce zero click iSCSI connection establishment.
The Virtues of Smart Volumes
Create new volumes in seconds and manage up to 16 x 16TB volumes over time with ease. The innovative and timesaving Smart Volume management technology integrated into DroboPro allows volumes to pull storage from the common pool of disks rather than a specific physical disk allocation. The labor of resizing and migrating volumes is replaced with the simplicity of intelligent engineering.
Simplify Your VMware Environment
Storage is an integral part of a successful virtualization strategy. DroboPro has been certified for use with VMware to eliminate risk from your storage decision and help accelerate deployment of your virtual server environment.
Rack Mount Ready, Desktop Quiet
DroboPro is equally at home in a rack mount environment as it is on your desktop. Dual smart fans automatically manage their speeds to optimize both cooling and operating noise. (DroboPro Rack Mount sold separately.)
BeyondRAID - Storage without limitations
BeyondRAID leverages the benefits of traditional RAID systems, while leaving many of the limitations behind. This next-generation of redundant storage technology brings together safety, reliability, expandability, efficiency and ease-of-use.
BeyondRAID fits in the same place of the software stack as traditional RAID between the file system and the driver. Hence, BeyondRAID can be adopted without any change in infrastructure, allowing you to maintain your current file system and operating system, while eliminating the friction costs typically associated with moving to a new technology platform.
BeyondRAID is RAID without Regrets
Data Robotics BeyondRAID solves these two critical issues, delivering flexibility without downtime. Built on an advanced storage virtualization platform, BeyondRAID chooses the correct RAID algorithm based on data protection needs at any given moment. Since the technology works at the block level, it can write blocks of data that alternate between data protection methodologies. If an IT manager needs to add storage capacity to a Drobo product, he or she can simply insert additional disk drives or replace the smallest disks—no need to change RAID levels, purchase a new storage array or go through the complex administration of pooling RAID groups. The BeyondRAID featured on DroboPro even allows IT managers to switch from single to dual disk redundancy with a single click, thereby ensuring enterprise-level dual parity data protection if required.
Additional Features
Green Means Go. DroboPro is equipped with a series of LEDs on its front-side that shows you all you need to know about how DroboPro is doing and how much free capacity you have. If you've ever successful navigated a traffic signal, you're a certified DroboPro expert. Also, DroboPro takes bare hard drives with no need for screws and screwdrivers, drive carriers or any other impediments to your storage needs.
DroboPro knows where each block of data is stored on each hard drive. This allows DroboPro to provide a capacity meter to let you know when it's running out of space and enables it to automatically protect data and recover from drive failures more quickly than traditional RAID.
Unlike inflexible traditional RAID solutions, DroboPro can utilize the capacity of different size hard drives. Using an intelligent mixture of industry-standard practices to protect your data, DroboPro offers significantly more storage capacity than other RAID solutions. It functions just as you would expect storage to work: add drives or replace smaller drives with larger ones, and get more space. No matter what combination of disks you use, DroboPro will almost always be as efficient, or more efficient than traditional RAID.
Hard drives get bigger and cheaper all the time. Save money - don't buy storage capacity until you need it. It's so easy to add drives to DroboPro, you can start with the fewest drives or minimum capacity you need today and just add or replace drives to increase capacity later. Now, you can take advantage of regular disk drive capacity improvements and pricing declines.
Add drives to DroboPro at any time. Mix 'n match capacities, brands or speeds. No downtime, data migration, or waiting to access new capacity. No need to buy an entirely new system when DroboPro is full.
As long as disk drive capacities continue to increase beyond the capacities you have purchased, you can upgrade DroboPro simply by replacing your smallest drives with larger ones.
