Installing firmware 1.3.6

Forum History Drobo
1

The drobo website says that the latest firmware is 1.3.6 and the Key Highlight is “Fixed support for new 4K sector drives”…

My drobo says it is on Firmware 1.3.5 and it says there are no updates available.

I have a 4K sector drive arriving in the post…

I downloaded Firmware 1.3.6 but cannot find any way to install it. Can this be done? There’s not much point having a download if I can’t install it, so presumably there is a way.[hr]

It’s amazing how soon you can find the answer once you’ve asked for help. Hold down Ctrl while clicking “Check for updates…”.

I always did lack Ctrl.

2

Correction, my 4K sector drive just arrived, so now I have to install 1.3.6 firmware. The obligatory question at this point is: “Have you tried it?”. I’m actually more interested in positive responses, especially from people with 4K sector drives. I’m sure this forum would be aglow with reports if 1.3.6 failed in any significant way, but the actual 4K sector drives are probably scarce right now.

3

I think one other person on the forum has reported it working fine with 4k drives, but as you say, they are still pretty scarce!

4

It works fine in my Drobo v2. I currently have one drive that got 4k sectors and one that got the old 512 sectors.

5

The 1.3.6 update comes in V1 and V2 levels. I know that my Drobo is a V2, but how can I sure? I used to know that Santa Clause came down the chimney, after all.

I’m keen on techniques that don’t risk encountering the killer spiders that live round the back of my Drobo. I looked in the dashboard, but didn’t see any obvious signs.

6

If your Drobo has USB 2.0 and FW800 (but no other ports), then it’s a v2.

7

V1 = USB connection only.

V2= USB and FW connections.

8

LOL…what she said.

9

But I will not help with the spiders!! ewwwww

10

As long as the spiders have USB 2.0 or FW800 interfaces, you should be good to go. Otherwise, they might short out your Drobo.

11

OK, full speed ahead. 1.3.6 installed. I had 4 disks, 2x300Gb, 2x1Tb. I pulled out the first 300Gb. Recovery in progress, estimated 14 hours.

Can I add my new 1Tb drive at this point, or should I wait?

It says “Don’t pull any drive out”, but it doesn’t say whether I should, or should not ADD one at this juncture.

12

To avoid accidentally jarring a drive loose (and essentially removing it), I would wait. One thing at a time is the best way to avoid problems. :slight_smile:

13

I would definitely recommend waiting until the relayout process has completed.

I have seen too many customers accidentally unseat a drive when adding a new drive then reseating that unseated drive. That can cause many problems.

14

I’ll wait. But now I’m curious. The larger drobos have dual redundancy. Presumably I would be safer with one of those, because even if I dislodged one other drive, I’d still be safe.

I still have 4 hours of the recovery to go, and I can’t help thinking that it might have been faster with my new drive in. I still have the migration onto that to come! I just hope it fits. It’s a WD Green, and its a lot thicker than my other drives.

One really good thing came out of this episode. I now know that I can replace old/smaller/slower drives with fewer new/larger/faster drives without compromising my data recoverability. I was never sure what would happen if I pulled a drive, but didn’t replace it. It is a mathematical certainty that a drobo with fewer drives will suffer fewer drive failures, all else being equal, so I’m aiming to get my 2Tb space out of as few drives as possible. They use less power and make less noise as an added benefit.

15

correct, with dual recovery you could dislodge a second disk, but it would still lengthen your rebuild and you would be “at risk” if another drive were to fail, so that would kind of defeat the point of the dual disk redundancy

16

OK, for completeness: I waited. When I got up in the morning, after a while it finished and I added my new 1Tb drive. It found that I had excess space, so created an extra volume and is now in the process of formatting it. At least, I hope that’s what it is formatting, it doesn’t actually say. It would be a lot more comforting to see “Formatting Drobo Vol 2” rather than just “Format in Progress”. I keep looking nervously at my original volume…

17

yeah im sure its fine :wink:

18

So am I, after the event. But somehow, my chances of making a mistake seem to escalate when the consequences are too horrible to contemplate.

My stress levels peak at the mere thought of “formatting”, which I why I would have been happier if the message had said what it was formatting (hint).

19

Stress, Risk, and Complexity all scale proportionally! I’d support a feature request for that. If it said “Formatting newly added volume” that’d be comforting.

20

i’d say some of them scale exponentially :wink:

i’d go for “newly CREATED volume” since you didn’t manually add a volume, drobo made it for you automagically