I’ve just purchased a new DroboFS from Amazon for our small business, and will be using it to store our clients artwork. However, since plugging it into our network and assigning it an IP address, I’ve had constant issues.
For starters, the Drobo Dashboard can either find the device very quickly, find it within around 5 minutes, or simply not find it at all. Currently it’s just sitting on “looking for devices”. This is unacceptable, how can you manage a device if you the software can’t find it?
I also get random disconnections from the device. My share will just disappear from my desktop (Mac). Windows machines don’t seem to suffer from the same issue, but I haven’t investigated that issue much. The device is connected to a NetGear Prosafe 100/1000mbit switch to other devices on the network.
I’ve owned a Promise Smartstor NAS box before, and never had any issues with the software, or connection to the device itself. I expected big things from Drobo, and so far it’s been frustrating and annoying. Getting the FTP app to actually work has been another small nightmare, but I understand this is unsupported.
If anyone has some tips as to why Drobo Dashboard simply doesn’t work, please let me know. (also, yes, latest version, latest firmware).
The Drobo Dashboard software is notoriously unreliable. I would suggest to mount the share directly, using you OS’s internal mechanisms (e.g., Finder -> CMD+K).
In fact, once you start mounting the shares directly, the Dashboard becomes almost useless, since you can configure the FS to send you emails in case of need. My recommendation is to avoid it as much as you can, once the FS is configured.
It’s maddening. I can’t even get into the FS to find the serial number to submit a support ticket. I’ve restarted my PC, restarted the device, it just does not work.
For cases where the Drobo Dashboard does not “see” the DroboFS, I’ve found that rebooting fixes it. If you can’t reboot, you can try (on a Mac):
$ sudo launchctl stop com.datarobotics.ddserviced
$ sudo launchctl stop com.datarobotics.ddservice64d pause a few seconds
$ sudo launchctl start com.datarobotics.ddserviced
$ sudo launchctl start com.datarobotics.ddservice64d pause a few seconds
My experience is restarting the ddservice processes allows connecting to the DroboFS again (working with Tier 3 support on that issue now, BTW).
Unfortunately I’ve had to return the DroboFS to Amazon for a refund. My problems included:
-Drobo Dashboard was consistently unable to find the device.
-Windows machines would constantly be disconnected from the device.
-Deploying applications, in particular a FTP server proved to be far more difficult than I assumed.
I was in contact with Drobo Technical Support regarding these issues, but in the end the steps I was being asked to perform in order to solve the problem were too time consuming and I’ve decided to simply use another brand, probably a Synology DS series NAS. I understand Drobo Apps are unsupported.
I’m sure if I had gone for a DroboS/DroboPro and plugged it into our server and administered everything from there I wouldn’t have had any issues, but I felt the DroboFS should work as advertised.
Agree with previous post. Drobo FS promises a lot, delivers much less. Great Apps touted, yeah sure, speed, yeah sure. My next machine will not be a Drobo, that is for sure.
unfortunately, i have to agree as well. i cannot recommend the Drobo FS, nor Data Robotics. The software borders on terrible, performance is subpar, and updates are few and far between.
I agree the device is slow, but I recently had a positive experience with their support. They even had engineering provide a special firmware build to help me get my drobo fs up and running again. I made it through without data loss.
I have to agree my next NAS will not be made by DRI. In many ways it’s sad this forum is private, DRI has no incentive to improve while users complaints are hidden in here.