DroboShare Drobo NAS mini-review

So we snagged a DroboShare to hook our lonesome, directly-attached Drobo into. At $200 for what's essentially a USB network adapter we had some pretty high expectations, but thankfully we've been pretty impressed so far. Setup simply entails upgrading your Drobo hardware and Dashboard software to the latest versions (v1.1), restarting the box, and then plugging into the DroboShare. That's it. Detection, configuration, everything else is entirely automatic. Within a few moments it auto-mounts as a shared network drive via SMB, regardless of what file system the Drobo itself is running, or whether you're running Windows or Mac. (For those running on Linux or other operating systems, the DS is still accessible over your network via standard SMB share just like any other server.)

Click on for more on network auto-mounting and a couple speed tests.

Gallery: DroboShare Drobo NAS mini-review

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The real magic happens when you leave or arrive at the network your Drobo's on, though. Unplug and, depending on the OS, the drive dismounts -- usually between 30-60 seconds. Plug back in and it's back up in under 20 seconds (usually). Sometimes it took a little longer when switching between wired and wireless networks on our LAN, but once we made a few manual connections things started working fine automatically. For what it's worth, to date this might be the best network share auto-mounting system we've seen -- it's certainly way ahead of Apple's weak showing of autoFS in Leopard.

Here are a few quick bits to chew on.

780MB file write to DroboShare:

• 802.11g - 9:20 (1.4MBps)
• Wired gigabit Ethernet - 2:10 (6MBps)
• (Read from DroboShare over gig Ethernet - 1:40 [8MBps])

Other:

• The DroboShare has a Y-cable for the power cord, so it doesn't need another brick. Lovely!
• The email alerts worked well and immediately. We tested an unexpected drive swap and immediately got an alert from the DroboShare to all the email addresses we specified. This feature alone might be worth the $200 for some.
• Should you dismount the drive by accident, the client will auto-mount it again for you every time. This process took about 16 seconds for us.
• Data Robotics has tested the DroboShare to with Time Machine over SMB with HFS+, and while it's "not recommended," it does, apparently, work.
• The drives do power down after a set period of inactivity -- unfortunately this period is neither openly documented (we hear it's about 15 minutes) nor configurable. If you like to keep yours spun up 24/7, you might have to complain and wait a while for an update.
  

Is a $700 barebones, networked, redundant drive enclosure worth it to you? Maybe, maybe not -- but for our money, a Drobo with DroboShare definitely takes the cake in its category. Despite the price and its shortcomings (like its reliance on SMB, and inability to do AFP, NFS, etc.) we still can't think of a better product on the market today.

[David L. @ Jan 14th 2008 9:09AM]

woah, not only the news is out, you guys have a mini-review already, thank you!

[Philip @ Jan 14th 2008 9:13AM]

Excellent I was looking at the Drobo this weekend and was thinking if only it was NAS.

[Denver_80203 @ Jan 14th 2008 9:28AM]

I've been teetering for months on a Drobo but, really wanted network support. Now they give it to us but, it's bottlenecked by USB cable. Do I tip??? ugh! All this does is make me teeter more.

[jagowar @ Jan 14th 2008 9:36AM]

agreed... ive been waiting for the nas version for a long time because i want it to function as a storage server for media center. usb just isnt fast enough when you are recording 2 HD feeds and reading one off the drive at the same time.

[Denver_80203 @ Jan 14th 2008 9:59AM]

Isn't it? Tivo3 has support for a USB drive so I have to wonder. Darn you Drobo, all you needed was an eSATA jack on the box and none of this would matter.

I'm torn

[mcg @ Jan 14th 2008 11:24AM]

Are you sure it is truly bottlenecked by USB? Seems to me that Gigabit Ethernet has lower practical throughput than a USB 2.0 connection.

[Denver_80203 @ Jan 14th 2008 11:37AM]

Actually... I'm not sure. I would imagine USB2 is slower than a GB network jack but.. I certainly could be wrong. The speed tests would help if they compared to a network copy.

I guess i could run my own tests but, not sure how my USB external compares.

Chalk me up to FUD

[mcg @ Jan 14th 2008 11:47AM]

Well, I don't know for sure either. I'm looking forward to more testing.

[Russ @ Jan 14th 2008 12:02PM]

Abosutely right jagobar. My drobo works fine when I'm streaming out SD, or just watching HD. The second I starting recording an HD feed and 1-2 SD feeds my drobo starts acting funny. All the streaming to my extenders start not only jumping, but because I also record all the streams to the drobo the recordings get f'd up as well.

[EMoShunz @ Jan 14th 2008 9:30AM]

i love this thing. when i have some spare cash i am buying one. the only thing i want is for them to make a fire/water proof one. there are boxes i've seen with usb passthroughs that would work with this, but then you loose many of the nice features of the drobo.

[SuperQ @ Jan 14th 2008 10:23AM]

8MB/sec? That's not even 100mbit speeds! Pathetic at best.. I'm really hoping something is wrong with your testing because the $200 cheaper ReadyNAS will do 30+MB/sec reads and 20+MB/sec writes.

[ark_v2 @ Jan 14th 2008 9:32AM]

It's way too expensive.

[Ynohtna @ Jan 14th 2008 9:57AM]

Hmm, this news could've been useful a couple weeks ago.... but with the speeds posted, I should be pretty happy with the Ready NAS unit I just purchased. (which was not considered cause of the cost?)

[Loban @ Jan 14th 2008 10:01AM]

Too expensive. I'll stick with my QNAP TS-109. For those of you interested in redundancy (and if you're looking at a drobo, you probably are), you'll want to look at the QNAP TS-209.

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=83

[Randy @ Jan 14th 2008 11:22AM]

Two bays!? Too small.

[Loban @ Jan 14th 2008 12:01PM]

Well, there's this too:

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=68

[Duncan @ Jan 14th 2008 10:02AM]

For less than that you could get a Synology CS-407 or similar: http://www.synology.com/enu/products/CS407e/index.php

Comes in at $599 and does a hell of a lot more for your money. Pity beacuse in some ways I really liked the Drobo when I first looked at it, but the overall price is crazy.

[am @ Jan 14th 2008 10:05AM]

now i love this thing, and i would definately buy one.
buy the speeds in this review just seem hella slow!

someone please tell me im reading it wrong.
i transfer MKV's via front row on my mac at around 40MB/S from my raid 0 qnap.

but if this things reading at 8MB/S i dont know if my media could stomach the slow speeds.

looks like an excellent product, keep up the great work.
maybe when it hits real gigabit speeds can i realistically consider it, as i agree, it appears to be the best thing out.

[Schut @ Jan 14th 2008 10:13AM]

What's with the OS9 lookin buttons?

[Joshua Ochs @ Jan 14th 2008 10:15AM]

This is extremely disappointing. As nice as the Drobo is and as interested as I might have been, this is something that should be BUILT-IN, not a $200 add-on to a $500 enclosure.

[lou @ Jan 14th 2008 10:53AM]

This sounds like a decent device, although a tad bit expensive. Whats most important to me is having a device that will allow a NTFS file system. I done with storing my data in custom formats.

[Randy @ Jan 14th 2008 11:27AM]

What does it matter what file system the thing uses internally? Unless you plan to yank the drives and install them in a PC/Server. But why would you want to do that?

[lou @ Jan 14th 2008 12:29PM]

Is much more convenient to pull drive and install it in a PC when copying data. I have about 100GB of music and photo, and it takes a long time to copy that data to the NAS.

Also, its nice to know that your data doesn't rely on the companies like Netgear's terrible driver support. Do a search on the "Netgear Sc101 opinion". You'll find tons of people that lost data because the device used the ZSans FS and there have been lots of issues with the driver updates from Netgear. Many of the people using this device lots all of their data.

[mike503 @ Jan 14th 2008 6:50PM]

afaik you can't pull the disks out and copy stuff and then put them back in. the drobo has it's own method of spreading the data over disks, it's not just 4 raw disks of NTFS or whatever you want somehow grouped together. so that idea is moot anyway.

[Seth @ Jan 14th 2008 11:24AM]

Why not just get a Linksys NSLU2 for $80?...you can customize it to your heart's content since it runs embedded linux:
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/

You can run great apps like iTunes servers and Bittorrent right on the NAS device.

[rothgar @ Jan 14th 2008 11:25AM]

DLNA support? I want a NAS (and drobo is my #1 pick right now) but if it doesn't stream to my PS3 it will quickly be taken off the list.

[Loban @ Jan 14th 2008 11:27AM]

There are so many better alternatives for home server / NAS devices than an overprice Drobo. I'm not sure what market they're targeting.

[freakscene @ Jan 14th 2008 12:39PM]

The "ooh it's so shiny!" crowd, I believe. It is a nice piece of kit, and a good choice for a local backup unit, but being a NAS is totally outside its design goal.

[Loban @ Jan 14th 2008 3:04PM]

Personally I prefer a QNAP or Synology Server / NAS.

[tj @ Jan 14th 2008 11:32AM]

What about the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+

[sea @ Jan 14th 2008 11:41AM]

Its got 4 bays, not 2. The main advantage of this over just about any other home NAS is hot-swap drives, and live expansion. Look around for other RAID configs that offer this; they're either much more expensive, or require substantial tech knowledge to use. This is plug-n-play.

Faster _would_ be nice, but its not the focus of drobo; data protection and ease of use are.

[theevaluator @ Jan 14th 2008 12:16PM]

"Despite the price and its shortcomings (like its reliance on SMB, and inability to do AFP, NFS, etc.) we still can't think of a better product on the market today."

you can't? i can think of like, 10 probably. at speeds this slow, this barely qualifies as a real NAS, not to mention that its clearly bottlenecked through a USB interface, and apparently does not offer a web interface for configuration of shares, ftp, user security, media streaming, etc....

statements like this really make we wonder if this is a payed endorsement, or simple technical ignorance or lack of due diligence.

go read PC mag or Tom's hardware and you'll find dozens of SOHO NAS solutions, including major brands like the netgear/infrant readynas, dlink dns-320, and lesser known brands like buffalo and qsnap and synology, that all cost the same or less, and blow this thing out of the water in terms of features and performance. even the new windows home server boxes are probably better choices for anyone researching a less technical NAS solution.

engadget, i expected better from you...

[Anastas Semenov @ Jan 14th 2008 12:20PM]

Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ is far more configurable and supports AFP, NFS, SMB, FTP, HTTP (incl. WebDav) and completely configurable.. That's why Netgear bought Infrant.. Because it a freaking cool product.

[mindflayer @ Jan 14th 2008 12:29PM]

I think people are missing the point of the device. It's not RAID or JBOD on the network. It's JBOD with intelligence - different drives offered as one pool. That's the beauty.

Now, about that price....

[theevaluator @ Jan 14th 2008 12:46PM]

i fully understand the concepts of the stand-alone device, i didn't write the review or the marketing material that adds the "NAS" concept to the description.

it doesn't matter how great the volume management and hot-swap is, if you're talking about mounting the thing on the network with this goofy adapter, it becomes a joke compared to real NAS devices in terms of price, feature, and function.

i don't want to repeat myself, but i guess i will. it apparently offers no support for multiple protocols (AFP, CIFS, FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SSH), no advanced security configuration or web interface of any kind, no media streaming, wireless capability, print server, automated backup utility or disk imaging, gigabit ethernet, jumbo frame support, automated download/torrent capability, etc, etc...

these are all features available on a 500 dollar bare bones nas today, that blow this thing out of the water in terms of performance. if you're less technical, get a windows home server and just use add-on's to get the additional features i described. the hp media smart goes for about 500 bucks with a 500 gig drive.

[pixel @ Jan 14th 2008 2:21PM]

The Drobo is not a media streaming NAS. It is a data security NAS for the average joe. The benefits of the Drobo are in the volume management. No RAID NAS or DAS, has the volume management of the Drobo with the ease of use. We use ours as backup devices solely, but I have done 2K film flipbooks off my beta Droboshare. Only think close is the ReadyNAS, but that is a different market than what Data Robotiics is going for. Do you expect the average non-geek to configure a RAID-X setup, configure the sharing protocol, security. etc. With the Drobo and Drobo share you slap whatever mix and match SATA drives in plug it in, format and done.

[Loban @ Jan 14th 2008 3:07PM]

And yet, it costs way too much for the "average joe". No product at this price range with it's limited features will appeal to anyone as far as I can see.

[theevaluator @ Jan 14th 2008 6:39PM]

":Do you expect the average non-geek to configure a RAID-X setup, configure the sharing protocol, security. etc. With the Drobo and Drobo share you slap whatever mix and match SATA drives in plug it in, format and done."

yeah, and once again, i get it, I've used the product myself- but you can do exactly the same thing with a windows home server, which supports mix and match drives of any size and type, and has a gigabit ethernet port, and streams media, and has a backup utility, etc, etc...and guess what? you can get one with a drive for 200 bucks cheaper than this goofy contraption with a USB dock. and its pretty easy to set up for the non-technical user, no raid config, etc.

so as myself and numerous other posters have pointed out- what are these guys doing? they've priced themselves completely out of the market. even if they cut the price in half they'd still face pretty tough competition.

[DataGuy @ Jan 14th 2008 8:17PM]

@Loban: They're not going for the average Joe. Their bread and butter customers are "small business owners, creative professionals, graphic designers, photographers, video editors, and educators..." In other words, folks who tend to be big on ease of use and willing to pay boutique prices for reliable storage without knowing what's under the hood. Probably not coincidentally, DRI says that more than half their customer base uses Macs.

@theevaluator: I agree that it's pricey and goofy, but comparing WHS and Droboshare is like comparing a family sedan to a sports car. WHS has more utility, mass appeal, and value for the money. But the Drobo's disk redundancy is way better than WHS' folder replication, for example. In the end, it makes little sense to confuse things by implying that WHS offers everything and more than Drobo at a $200 cheaper price point.

Let's face it, if everyone had their way, they would get the features of a ReadyNAS NV+, with the data protection of Drobo, with the ease-of-use of WHS or Time Machine, with the industrial design of Apple ... at the price of a Western Digital MyBook Pro. :)

[m.laan @ Jan 15th 2008 3:23AM]

sick! but i'm in it for 700 before drives? come on what do i look like the king of england?

[Todd @ Jan 16th 2008 12:22AM]

The "niche" that drobo has is the expandability. I can put a 300, 500, 160, and 120gb drives in it and it will automatically resize itself so it's redundant. Pop a drive out, it readjusts, swap a small drive for a bigger drive, it readjusts. I have been watching this for a while now waiting for either ethernet (built in) or eSATA. $200 for the drobo share does seem really expensive to me. And $500 for the actual device is right at the crest of that hill where it's too much but then again you always have a redundant storage solution that can constantly expand. Sure the ReadyNAS has more features, but since netgear acquired them the prices are really expensive.

The droboshare part is definitely geared towards the people that just want it to work and not have to do anything. But yeah, until there's some new interface on the drobo itself I'll still keep dreaming.

What's next? a "drobo sata" that takes the usb and converts it to eSATA? *sigh*

[Luccio @ Jan 19th 2008 5:52PM]

There is also the new QNAP TS-409 (Pro version or not) :
http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=86
http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=85 (Pro version).

Between Drobo, QNAP TS-409 or Netgear ReadyNV+... QNAP !

[OrezzerO @ Feb 1st 2008 5:56AM]

Give me encryption or give me death.

I've been looking for a natively encrypted NAS device and have yet to find one.

This one is no exception. Their method of providing data protection on the block level instead of drive level is refreshing; and presenting a 2TB filesystem (required?) to make expansions easy on the filesystem regardless of actual usable storage is a nice feature as well... even if it is incompatible with some encryption s/w and secure deletion s/w. This ting reminds me of a mini 3par with "chunklets, thin provisioning, etc."

Since it is not possible to encrypt the 2TB filesystem presented from this thing is it really that hard to provide encryption within the device itself?

Same question for QNAP, ReadyNAS, etc...

What gives?

[bill @ Feb 6th 2008 7:30AM]

Hey check out the new 5 bay nas from Synology
www.synology.com
faster , more storage and hot swap
New GUI controller software in Beta too