Drobo running super slow. Is this normal?

Forum History Drobo
1

Hey All I just got a drobo, and am pretty disappointed with the speed results. I am using X Bench on a 2 x 3 Ghz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro. Connecting via Firewire 800 that came with the drobo. Running the latest firmware and drobo dashboard. There are 4 x 2TB Hitachi Desktar drives in the drobo, with 55% free space. Is this normal for a Drobo?

Here are the results…

Results 23.66
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L30)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacPro1,1
Drive Type TRUSTED Mass Storage
Disk Test 23.66
Sequential 19.85
Uncached Write 26.48 16.26 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 28.59 16.17 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 9.69 2.83 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 39.19 19.70 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 29.28
Uncached Write 23.03 2.44 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 24.67 7.90 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 45.15 0.32 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 32.80 6.09 MB/sec [256K blocks]

2

The knowledge base suggests that you don’t use xbench as a comparison. Instead just try to copy a whole bunch of data and use activity monitor to check read and write speed.

3

ok. Will try that. However it took 8 minutes to copy a 4.3 GB dmg file. Which means it’s slower than an old DVD burner right now.

4

We use AJA Kona Test.

http://www.aja.com/support/kona/kona-3-3x.php

AJA Kona System Test Version 6.0.1

Test: Sweep File Sizes
Video frame size: DVCProHD 1080i60]
Make sure “Disable file system cache” is checked

5

Yes drobo is long and short slow as you like. Most anything will be quicker.

6

I’ve had a 2nd gen Drobo for just over 6 months and am seeing much lower speeds. I haven’t run any diagnostics, but I’ve never seen it go above 3MB/s in practice. It’s sometimes slower than downloading from the internet. I’ve tried USB and FW800 and seen no difference.

I’m running Windows Server 2008 R2 but have had the Drobo connected to Win7 (x86 and x64) and OSX systems as well. I have 3x1TB WD Green drives, and a Seagate 640GB in the Drobo.

Is there something wrong with my unit? It took several hours to copy 30GB from the Drobo to the local drive this weekend, and is driving me crazy.

7

yeah that does sound like a support case - you may find one of your drives is misbehaving, but not quite enough for drobo to flag it as bad.