Title sounds like a movie. Sorry. Currently, I use my DroboPro via iscsi with a 2010 Mac Desktop. Wondering about compatibility in the future. Has anyone connected a Macbook Pro to a Drobo Pro via iscsi using a Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter? Thanks.
iSCSI should be agnostic about what NIC you use.
If the Thunderbolt->Ethernet adapter is a proper implementation, there will be no problem. If it’s a flawed implementation of Ethernet, then you will likely have many problems besides just iSCSI.
I’ve had enough bad experiences with shonky hardware adapters that I avoid them if at all possible. I understand that the latest Mac laptops lack Ethernet, so there isn’t any choice.
I’m still holding out for a Thunderbolt version of the Drobo Pro and hopefully an upgrade path to it with our current disk packs. The Drobo Pro is the only Drobo unit without an upgrade path - if they plan on abandoning us altogether then I might as well look into other vendors when I’m due for an upgrade in a year or two.
Given their new nomenclature, I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see an “8D” and “8N” sometime this year. But i have no particular info on the matter - it just makes sense to do.
Since they dropped support for consumer-grade drives in the DroboPro (and their other >5-bay products), I don’t see the value.
We might see a replacement for the B800i and B800fs, though.
They’ve sent mixed messages about this. On the website storage compatibility matrix when the DroboPro was still listed, it said to only use Enterprise grade drives, not even Reds.
But on two separate occasions when talking to customer service, they’ve told me the Red drives are fine in a DroboPro.
If and when they release an 8D/8N, they need to work with Western Digital to qualify the Red drives.
Actually, it’s WD that doesn’t officially recommend the Red drives in anything >5 bays for some reason. The Drobo won’t discriminate against Reds though, and it is a lot better than having a Pro full of Greens.
As for the Thunderbolt > Ethernet adapters, support has indicated that it is supported and works just like any regular NIC.
[quote=“goodcow, post:6, topic:58299”]
They’ve sent mixed messages about this. On the website storage compatibility matrix when the DroboPro was still listed, it said to only use Enterprise grade drives, not even Reds.
But on two separate occasions when talking to customer service, they’ve told me the Red drives are fine in a DroboPro.[/quote]
That’s good to know. On the other hand, they originally officially recommended Green drives in the DroboPro.
I’ve worked in technical support, and I know that “scope of support” is the fallback position when a ticket becomes too much trouble.
When I lost 6 drives in 2 weeks last year (including every RMA replacement), Drobo Support replied
I reminded them that most of the failed drives were in fact WD RE drives, and pushed for action. The case was resolved 2 weeks later when my 2-week-old DroboPro completely failed and was replaced under warranty.
I agree that the Reds sound better than Greens in a DroboPro, but they won’t market a configuration that they can’t support. Drobo support needs a lot of improvement to deal with non-RAID drives in an 8-bay.
Thanks for all the info. Nice to know the DroboPro should work on a new Macbook Pro Retina via the thunderbolt ethernet adapter. So it seems the DroboPro will remain usable in the future because of the thunderbolt-ethernet adapter and/or the thunderbolt-firewire adapter.
Ultimately, I’m just trying to decide whether to keep feeding the DroboPro with new drives (red, green, enterprise) or move on to another solution.
Is there are reason you’re avoiding an iSCSI connection?
Not avoiding iSCSI, just considering options for the future. For example, if upcoming Mac Pro desktops no longer have firewire and I purchase a Drobo 5n, I just want to make certain I can still use the DroboPro via thunderbolt. Also, if I decide to just use a MacBook Pro Retina trying to determine how easily I will be able to access the DroboPro.
A little bit off topic (and my first post here) so please bare with me.
We have had a DroboPro for about 2 years now. The first 6 months that we had the device (directly connected to a 2008r2 server) we had several issues with it. It turned out, that it was the drives. The drives we had in it were actually WD Green drives. We would have frequent blue screens on our file server, and I had finally narrowed it down to being the drobo. We had only put 4 drives in it at this time, I started replacing them 1 at a time with WD Black drives (still not enterprise class I know) and since there, the device has worked flawless, even though these are not “Enterprise” class HDs.
As far as the future of this product goes, or an upgrade path, who knows. I know the device itself is considered EoL, which sucks since we have only had it 2 years.
Yesterday I actually ordered a Drobo B800FS, to serve a different purpose on our network. Hopefully using the same WD Black drives will work fine in it. I would imagine they would have failed a long time ago in our DroboPro if they were going to as we done a lot of backups with it over the past 18 months since I put those drives in, and its not had any issues what so ever.
welcome tomahawk here 
docchris had a drobopro for a while, im not sure what was used inside it, but yes it’s always bad to hear when products go end of life etc. lots of us think along the lines of “if it aint broke dont fix it”
if you dont wish to switch hw just yet, then you might be able to buy a much cheaper 2nd hand drobopro, to at least have some peace of mind in terms of a hardware backup in case the h/w seizes up in the future.