I want to replace 2 of the drives with 6TB. Does the drobo instruction below apply to my situation or can i just swap one of the drives and then the other out?
With firmware revision 3.5.0, the Drobo 5D now supports 64TB volumes for newly created packs. Unfortunately packs created before 3.5.2 cannot have their volume size upgraded. As a result it will be necessary to copy the data off the Drobo, recreate the diskpack (i.e. reset the Drobo and drives from Dashboard), and copy the data back in order to migrate from a 16TB to 64TB volume.
It is only when you first create the volume, that’s why it says “for newly created packs”. So the only way to get 16TB or 32TB (whatever you set it up as when you first created it) to 64TB, is too 1) Move the data off. 2) Be sure and update to the latest firmware. 3) Destroy the volume and loose all the data by creating a new volume size of 64TB, 4) Then move the data back.
Then you can walk your way up to 64TB as you buy new HDs and it will expand appropriately.
Note, you can still add the 6TB drives to your existing setup but you will cap out eventually at the 16TB or 32TB that you had when you first set it up.
In short, even if you update to the latest firmware, there is no way to dynamically expand the volume to a larger size, even though the hard drive space would permit it. It’s disappointing but it’s just the limitations of the type of RAID system.
Hi,
Thanks a lot for the responses. I really do need one volume. I guess need to create a new pack. However, moving c 14tb of data off first is not without it’s challenges because it needs to go somehwere. I actually have 2 Drobo 5Ds, one of which is a clone of the other but i don’t want to take the chance of losing the backup. If I removed all 5 of the drives from the backup drobo unit and replaced them with new drives, if I had any problem would I be able to take the 5 old drives i removed and put them back into the Drobo unit so I wouldn’t lose the backup copy on those removed drives?
Yes. If you shut down the Drobo and remove all the drives together, as a set, then they will remain a complete Drobo set of drives. You can later insert the whole set into a (powered off) Drobo of the same model, and have all your data together again.
If you require a single volume, then create the largest possible volume size in Dashboard, to allow for future growth. Good luck!
Yes, you can do that. You can remove the whole group of disks, the disk pack, and put them aside and put in new hard drives and carry out the operation. That way you have zero risk of losing any data. The Drobos dont care about a disk pack, as long as it is from the same model. So you can put one disk pack into another 5D and it will boot up just fine. Just remember to keep the packs separate from each other and in order. If you mix up the drives from one pack to another you’ll have lots of problems.