Firmware update 5N without Drobo Dashboard 2.7.1

Drobo - End of Sale Drobo 5N
1

I can NOT load new 5N firmware using Drobo Dashboard 2.7.1.

How can I load the latest 3.5.6 firmware?

That is the short version.

Now for the long version for people who are going argue with me.

A year ago when my Drobo 5N was new, I spent a couple months organizing LOTS of data. Then came the meltdown and everything on the disk was being wiped out. I contacted Support and they screwed me around for 6 weeks. Finally they relented…

I am going to pause here because the support was so stupid at the time. Why isn’t there a chkfsk on the drobo dashboard? So it may wipeout my system. It was corrupt anyway. I had to send them basically a release form to absolve them from liability to get a chkfsk program. Why? I can wipe out the entire system by resetting the drobo. This is part of the support failures that they’d better fix.

So 6 weeks after finding out there is a chkfsk and sending them all kinds of logs, screen shots, switching in and out of Read-Only mode, etc I get a special firmware with a check disk program. It immediately failed to check anything, I decided that I’d rather loose all my data than to deal with support for one more second and I hit the reset drobo button on the dashboard.

It has worked flawlessly since. provided I never want to change the firmware. I’m maxed out and I want to try the 3.5.6 update that maxes out at 64TB.

The Custom software is still on my Drobo. It communicates with Drobo dashboard. it shows that firmware version 0.0.0[8.255.213] is loaded. Both checking for updates and attempting to update manually fail. Manual tries instantly return as 0% updated and offers to open a trouble shooter. The only other clue is that the uptime indicator under Status shows “Waiting”.

How can I load the latest 3.5.6 firmware?
Can I roll back to an earlier version of Dashboard and get it to work?
Is there a folder on the drobo file system that I can drop the update into and get it to load?

Brad

2

Since you have a specialized software to interface with your Drobo, this should be a question for Drobo Support alone. Have you entered a support ticket?

3

You are probably correct, but the first experience with support was so bad… I wanted to consult other avenues first.

The first thing they did last time was to take several days to confirm I had a valid warranty. Which I don’t have now. So they’ll try to sell me more Drobo support to fix their problem… Arrrrgh!

4

I would hope they can at least assist you in getting back to a standard firmware/software package. They are working on improved customer support so it’s worth talking to them.

Back up your data first!

5

Hellobmanske,
I was able to find your support incident. I am looking up the firmware you were sent so we can determine next steps.

I will follow up with you.

Thank You.

DroboMod

6

Thank you for your patience. Please do the following:

  1. Shutdown the Drobo
  2. With Drobo completely powered off, remove the drives
  3. Download firmware 3.5.6 to your desktop
  4. Go to Drobo Dashboard >Tools Manual Update, follow the prompts to install including rebooting the empty Drobo. 

  5. Once the firmware image has been installed, shutdown the Drobo
  6. With Drobo powered OFF, insert the drives then power on Drobo.

If you continue to have issues would you email me at followup@drobo.com and reference: http://www.drobospace.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=145776

DroboMod

7

Thank you everyone for your patience. We have resolved the issue with the Drobo 5N firmware update to version 3.5.6. If you are still encountering an issue please email me directly at followup@drobo.com

Thank You
DoboMod